00:00Putting a bow on the World Baseball Classic, as I mentioned earlier in the show.
00:04Fox is reporting that the ratings for the WBC are higher than the NBA Finals.
00:09And this is for a basic game in March.
00:13So that tells you that the commissioner of Major League Baseball is taking a cue here and saying,
00:17hey, look, maybe we can add some more fuel to this fire that we got going on here,
00:23maybe with a potential mid-season tournament.
00:25But as Joe alluded to earlier in the show, that would probably eliminate the All-Star game,
00:28I would guess, you know, that's a big moneymaker for those cities, by the way,
00:33and those teams in particular.
00:34You build a new stadium, Tom, you know that.
00:36You get an All-Star game eventually.
00:37It's big money for them.
00:38I don't know.
00:38Could they pull this off?
00:40You know, I think they would do it along the lines of what the NHL did,
00:43where it's like one year it's the World Baseball Classic,
00:46then next year it's the All-Star game,
00:47so the teams in those cities, to your point, can still be getting those.
00:51But it really comes down to just the involvement of the players.
00:53Because mid-season, as we get to July, presumably when it would be,
00:57you're going to need to have an extended break,
00:59that's when the teams are in the playoff hunt.
01:01And now we're saying, okay, pitchers didn't want to pitch in March,
01:03but now we're saying, okay, now we need you to pitch,
01:06and do these pitchers want to have multiple games
01:08where they're throwing 100-plus pitches?
01:10Because they'd be fully stretched out in July.
01:11Do they want to add another 18, 25 innings onto their workload
01:15when their team's in a wild-card race at the most important time?
01:19So we don't have involvement from pitchers and players in March.
01:22We may still not have it in July when the teams actually need them.
Comments