The winners of first round play — eight countries — wouldn’t compete again until mid-July 2013 as part of “Elite 8 World Baseball Classic Week.” Under this scenario, all professional leagues with countries participating in the “Elite 8,” such as Japan, Korea and MLB (U.S.), would stop their season for only one week so the countries could participate in a double-elimination tournament to determine the 2013 WBC champion.

The benefits of this scenario are multiple. For starters, on the international sports stage and particularly in the U.S. in July, there are few other major competing events, and therefore it would garner most of the worldwide sports attention, or at least that of the eight participating countries. Also, the baseball world would stop everything else it is doing for one week every four years for this signature event.

The other benefit is that all participants would be in prime playing form, having been playing competitively for months. Lastly, a double-elimination format could take place over a week, therefore not drastically disturbing the regular season schedule of MLB and professional leagues in Japan, Korea or elsewhere. And it could be held at one or two ballparks close to one another. Additionally, with only one round taking place during spring training in March 2013, MLB players — as well as their bosses — would breathe easier knowing the risk of injury during WBC play in March would be reduced with only one round of play.

Downsides to July? Some players would use the week to rest, or would they? Baseball players are kingpins of routine. Chances are greater the best players will play for their country in July because of it. Why lose a week of timing on my swing where I can keep swinging? Why miss a week to 10 days of my throwing routine when I can keep pitching? Still other players would participate — if MLB smartly promotes the game as its July “Super Bowl” — because they won’t want to be left out of the biggest professional spectacle of the sport, outside the MLB World Series.

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Other downsides? The schedule of MLB, Japan, Korea and other pro league seasons in WBC years might have to be expanded, and some fans of each league will complain that one week of their season “on hold” is too much. MLB would likely have to cancel its annual All-Star Game during WBC years, which means, uh, oh, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig will have to find a new way to “award” home-field advantage for that season’s World Series (here’s a smart suggestion, Bud: the team with the best MLB regular season record in 2013 gets home field).

TIME TO MAKE IT HAPPEN
Ask yourself this: what has fundamentally changed since the inaugural WBC in 2006? Is baseball more popular abroad as a whole? Answer: no. In individual countries? Answer: Well, yes, perhaps, but only in those countries that have actually participated in the WBC.

So with more countries given the chance to participate, it would seem to me the growth of the game would therefore increase in more places. And the only way for the game to realistically grow big time across the globe is for more players and more countries to be included, and for the sport to “think big” in marketing and promoting the 2013 WBC event. Nothing would put the grand old game on a larger pedestal than a week of the sports world’s attention in the middle of July, trust me.

Joe Connor is a freelance writer who has visited more than 30 baseball countries on six continents. He’s the author of “A Fan’s Guide To The World Baseball Classic,” which is available for purchase exclusively at his Web sites: www.modernerabaseball.com and www.mrsportstravel.com.

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