Your New World Champions!

As a Pirates fan first, I must admit that my surrogate team has always been the Phillies when the Pirates aren’t in contention...which is basically every year.

I pull for my Pirates until it’s clear they’re destined for sixth place in their division, which is about mid-May, while keeping an eye on the Phils to see if they can give me a reason to be moderately happy.

Sadly though, as proud as I was to see them be crowned World Champs, they’ve been dethroned before playing a single game as defending champs.

Tonight, Japan claimed that title (again).

From the conception of having a World Baseball Classic, I thought it was a marvelous idea. In my naivety, I assumed we’d dominate it; we have had the past 100+ world champions of baseball after all.

Oh, but that was before the rest of the World got to participate, that’s right.

Funny how much easier it is to be World Champions when nobody else is invited.

There’s been much chatter about why we aren’t winning, namely the timing of the classic. We have come up with all kinds of excuses. Somewhere between the industrial revolution and the 21st century we’ve gone from “getting it done” to “making excuses."

I’ll play along though, for fun.

So the timing of the WBC isn’t good for us. If not now, then when?

I’ve heard the All-Star break would be more convenient for us, but how long of a break are we talking about here?

Two weeks?

Three weeks?

What if we get eliminated in the first round? What will I watch in the middle of summer?

I got it!

How about we have the World Baseball Classic right after the faux World Series?

Imagine that, the World Series (of America) followed by the World Series.