World Baseball Classic 2017: A big step in the right direction

The World Baseball Classic may have been saved by a series of epic games in this year’s tournament.

Entering its 2017 edition, the World Baseball Classic was struggling to find its way. The quadrennial tournament, which was meant to fill the void left after the Olympics dropped the sport, could have gone away with few noticing. Major League Baseball needed a series of games filled with iconic moments, intrigue, and national pride. A deep run by the United States certainly wouldn’t have hurt, either.

Mission accomplished on all fronts.

Every attendance and television-rating record were smashed by the 2017 WBC. According to MLB, global attendance topped 1 million, including nearly 52,000 at the final. Attendance was up 23 percent from 2013. A combined 3.1 million Americans watched the title game between Team USA and Team Puerto Rico on Wednesday night. That’s not even accounting for the televisions tuned in all over the world.

The Spanish simulcast of the game drew 761,000 viewers, a record for a Spanish broadcast of a baseball game in the USA. In Japan, the opening-round games were the highest-rated programming in the entire country. The very same thing could possibly be true in the Dominican Republic.

This World Baseball Classic had it all. Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles emerged as Captain America, taking the mantle from David Wright. Jones played like a man possessed the entire tournament, delivering a walk-off hit in Team USA’s first game, making an incredible catch to rob Manny Machado at a crucial moment against the Dominican Republic, and driving in the game-winning run against Japan in the semis. Team Israel and Team Netherlands were the fun underdog stories of the tournament, both giving Japan a run for their money. Javy Baez was his own human highlight reel for the Puerto Rican side. Marcus Stroman, the WBC MVP, was electric in the final.

Still, there is so much room for growth for the World Baseball Classic. MLB got exactly what it needed this year to take the tournament off life support — namely a victory for Team USA. There still isn’t much crossover appeal to the average American sports fan. It took close to 100 years and a giant marketing push from ESPN to make most Americans care about the World Cup. MLB is notoriously bad at marketing its stars and events, so it’s no surprise that only the most hardcore baseball fans are seriously invested in the WBC.

There’s still also the problem of selling the event to the best American players. Team USA has the most depth to pick from, but the MVPs and Cy Youngs from both leagues did not play in the tournament. New York Mets ace Noah Syndergaard expressed some strong anti-WBC views, and winning the World Series is still viewed as more important to American baseball fans.

Syndergaard was right when he said that World Series rings get you in the Hall of Fame, not WBC titles. Shortstop Brandon Crawford said the title game’s atmosphere was close to a playoff game. Close, but not quite.

Ian Kinsler also sniped at Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic over their shows of emotion on the field. Yadier Molina sniped back at Adam Jones and Team USA over his own perceived slights. Rivalries like these, not quite on par with the international feuds highlighted at the World Cup, will only help make the WBC more intriguing. Make no mistake, the juices will be flowing in four years when these teams see each other again.

No word yet on how Kinsler addressed Stroman’s nifty little shimmy during the title game.

Everything Major League Baseball needed to happen in this World Baseball Classic actually came to fruition. There will always be bellyaching abut the format of the tournament or the rules, and there are necessary tweaks that need to be made. There’s no perfect time to play a tournament like this, but before the regular season is the best option, all things considered.

The play was crisp and exciting even with players still rounding into shape. In future editions of the Classic, players from Team USA will likely gear up even earlier to make sure they can defend their title.

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Just appreciate the WBC for what it is — a chance to see high-stakes baseball in March. If, every four years we get to see the best players take part in full games instead of hitting the links after three innings, do we really have anything to complain about? In the grand scheme of things, the World Baseball Classic is still in its infancy. There will be kinks to work out over the next 80 years before the WBC will have been played as many times as the World Cup.

This year was a big step in the right direction, and will serve as major proof of concept for the WBC going forward.