World Baseball Classic to be played March '06

[cracker jack]

Originally posted by SFSteveG
I don't think Bud would want to give up the All-Star hype. Especially after making id decide WS home field advantage. Plus, the whole event would probably take almost 2 weeks at the least.

I think I read one of the things they're considering is extending the all star break and inserted the tourny into that slot.

[Clay Dreslough]

March seems like a pretty dumb time to have it.

Why not November? So if folks get hurt they can heal for 4 months.

You can play all the games in warm stadiums, like CA, FL, TX, Mexico, the Dominican, South America, etc.

Clay

[anaveragecow]

how are they selecting the teams. Is it going to be like they selected the USA Basketball team or will it be fan vote?

[SFSteveG]

Originally posted by Clay Dreslough
March seems like a pretty dumb time to have it.

Why not November? So if folks get hurt they can heal for 4 months.

You can play all the games in warm stadiums, like CA, FL, TX, Mexico, the Dominican, South America, etc.

Clay

That's just about the best idea I've heard. The only issue might be that pitchers will be tired and players on contending teams will get no rest and some will get a whole month.

[SFSteveG]

Originally posted by anaveragecow
how are they selecting the teams. Is it going to be like they selected the USA Basketball team or will it be fan vote?

I'd imagine either the league or the country would put together a comission and send invites.

[anaveragecow]

what I want to know is which countries get home field advantage. Are they going to have a way of determing that? And are all the games played in one place or around the world?

[SFSteveG]

Originally posted by anaveragecow
what I want to know is which countries get home field advantage. Are they going to have a way of determing that? And are all the games played in one place or around the world?

What I'd liek to see is either consecutive days where you play the other team or a double-header where you each get home field advantage.

I'd imagine they'd be played in some of the parks in the south and west and maybe Mexico/Caribean

[robinhoodnik]

The only truly fair way would be to give home field by lottery the first time out. They would hopefully be bright enough to play like the soccer world cup (a few different stadiums in each country) to spread it around a bit. Football stadiums would probably have to be used for the crowd capacity. Could you imagine trying to shoehorn all of those people into Fenway or Wrigley?

[SFSteveG]

1. Fenway and Wrigley are too far north to be viable in March.

2. I'd imagine that parks ised woulf probably be relatively new such as those in California and also possibly include some Caribbean/Mexican stadiums. Maybe the smaller stadiums in these regions for the lower fan drawing games.

[robinhoodnik]

I know that Fenway and Wrigley are too cold, just illustrating a point about size. They would probably have to use at least 60 to 70,000 seat stadiums for some games. I pray that they don't use any domes. I hate domes/convertibles. I understand that some regions have to have them, but I'd rather not see 'em used unless there was a drastic weather problem.

[robinhoodnik]

Also are they going to be DH or no DH?. How about roster size?

[SFSteveG]

Originally posted by robinhoodnik
Also are they going to be DH or no DH?. How about roster size?

I'd imagine it would be very similar to olympic baseball but I can't find any of the rules for it so I'm kindo of lost. Does anybody else know?

[robinhoodnik]

Which team do you think Manny Ramirez would be on? He's now an American citizen but with the strange rules could he end up on another team? Asking 'cause Jason Simontacci played olympic ball for Italy because his ancestors were from there (Grandparents I think?).

[SFSteveG]

Originally posted by robinhoodnik
Which team do you think Manny Ramirez would be on? He's now an American citizen but with the strange rules could he end up on another team? Asking 'cause Jason Simontacci played olympic ball for Italy because his ancestors were from there (Grandparents I think?).

In the Olympics you can play for your resident country or an ancestral country. I'd think he'd play for the DR but it's his call as far as I'm concerned.

[robinhoodnik]

Cool then I can play for England, Ireland, Scotland, or ewwwwww France. (i know; U.K. is Scotland too.)