World Baseball Classic: Not the World Cup, but It Sure Feels Like It

(Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

My favorite sporting event is the FIFA World Cup.

Like the Olympics, the World Cup is truly a global event, bringing together nations that perhaps would never connect in a meaningful way but for the fact that they both love the sport of soccer and happened to play against each other in this grand event (recent examples include South Korea playing against Togo, or Mexico playing Iran in the 2006 World Cup).

Events like the World Cup offer a wonderful opportunity to discover new players, new teams, observe different playing styles, learn about distinct game philosophies, varied and often novel approaches and methodologies to the same fascinating game. Beyond the sport itself, it’s an opportunity learn about the countries being represented.

For example, the Ivory Coast’s participation in the 2006 World Cup encouraged me to learn about that country. I learned that the nation is a former French colony located in West Africa and that the government prefers to use its official French name at all times, Côte d’Ivoire.

I knew absolutely nothing about this nation before and would probably have never learned anything about it had it not qualified to play in the World Cup.

This brings me to the second edition of the World Baseball Classic, the new Major League Baseball competition.

Despite its shortcomings, the WBC serves as a terrific window for American fans to learn about the sport beyond our borders. Watching the World Baseball Classic makes Americans realize that we are not the only nation that loves the sport of baseball and can play it at the highest level. The WBC demonstrated once more that—surprisingly and disappointingly—we may no longer have the best baseball in the world.

Beyond the impact of the event in the United States, the WBC is certainly succeeding in growing the sport of baseball throughout the planet. MLB reports that the inaugural 2006 tournament was broadcast by 48 media outlets in 10 languages to 205 countries and territories around the world. News media members representing 25 different nations attended the 39 games. I would not be surprised to learn that this year's edition will surpass those already impressive numbers.

Sixteen nations passionately lived the event, play by play and pitch by pitch. The event also succeeded in sending the message that baseball is a global sport, and certainly no longer just an American and Japanese sport.

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