World Baseball Classic Gets in the Way

So I guess Canada has some baseball to root for, but there don’t look like many people at the game in Toronto. By Oaktree b at en.wikipedia, from Wikimedia Commons

Two weeks ago Erick Aybar was scratched from the Angels Spring Training roster. The reason: He’s needed as the starting 2nd baseman for the Dominican Republic, for the World Baseball Classic.

What is the World Baseball Classic?

According to the International Olympic Committee, baseball is only a sport followed in the Americas, Canada and Asia. Though that is much of the world, Europeans choose not to see it that way. They consider irrelevant socialite experiences like Badminton and Fencing, worth a whole lot more of our time.

Baseball is a game of patience, persistence, clarity, mental toughness and preparation. And while one could argue Erick Aybar is doing just that sort of thing playing in the WBC — a world affair smaller than College Basketball’s somewhat unwatched conference tournaments — I argue otherwise.

Last year, Aybar barely hit .200 through April, May and most of June. This year’s Angels are reliant on his speed and switch hitting versatility at the top of the order, to ignite things for Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo.

Had we the 2016 Olympics to look forward to, Major League ball players could focus their attentions solely on the grueling 162-game task that awaits them. Instead we’re left wondering whether or not our franchise faces might land themselves on the Disabled List in March. And all for what? A cheap Olympic-like knock off played on ESPN2?