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Thread: In Defense of the WBC

  1. #31
    Pitter Patter TRF's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    Yet they play a game in the UK every year.

    As for world travel and a world league... I say pipe dream
    1 game. it's a novelty. They are trying to get a toehold in the one European country that speaks the same language we do.

    As for pipe dream... so was integration and west coast teams at one point. Think MLB seriously thought about San Francisco in 1902? Or black players?

    It's simple progress. The thing about progress is you almost never notice it until you look back. The great ones like Walter O'Malley look forward to see it and seize it.

    There will be some rich guy that wants an MLB team in Mexico or maybe another Canadian team. Maybe both at once and MLB expands to 32 teams. It will happen because MLB never refuses more money.
    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.


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  3. #32
    Titanic Struggles Caveat Emperor's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    As for world travel and a world league... I say pipe dream
    I won't say never, but it'll take a radical technological leap (beyond anything I see happening in my lifetime) for it to be possible.
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  4. #33
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by TRF View Post
    1 game. it's a novelty. They are trying to get a toehold in the one European country that speaks the same language we do.

    As for pipe dream... so was integration and west coast teams at one point. Think MLB seriously thought about San Francisco in 1902? Or black players?

    It's simple progress. The thing about progress is you almost never notice it until you look back. The great ones like Walter O'Malley look forward to see it and seize it.

    There will be some rich guy that wants an MLB team in Mexico or maybe another Canadian team. Maybe both at once and MLB expands to 32 teams. It will happen because MLB never refuses more money.
    You actually want to compare 1902 California to California in 1957?


    You realize how much travel in the USA costs these days?

    You realize the stress it has on the game and now we are talking about crossing time zones?? Or are backtracking and talking Mexico (gated community country, soccer is king and baseball a blip) or a team in Vancouver?

    Words are easy, actions incur a cost across players and teams.

    Like I said I see it not happening anytime soon

  5. #34
    Sprinkles are for winners dougdirt's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by Caveat Emperor View Post
    I won't say never, but it'll take a radical technological leap (beyond anything I see happening in my lifetime) for it to be possible.
    What I would like to see, in the future of course, is something where say the MLB World Series winner, the Japanese League winner and the Korean League winners play some sort of true "World Series". I think that is something that we may see one day instead of a true "world league".

  6. #35
    Pitter Patter TRF's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by westofyou View Post
    You actually want to compare 1902 California to California in 1957?


    You realize how much travel in the USA costs these days?

    You realize the stress it has on the game and now we are talking about crossing time zones?? Or are backtracking and talking Mexico (gated community country, soccer is king and baseball a blip) or a team in Vancouver?

    Words are easy, actions incur a cost across players and teams.

    Like I said I see it not happening anytime soon
    I didn't say soon. I said within 60 years. We'll see a MLB team in Mexico City within 60 years.

    My first computer cost about $4000 in 1994. It was a state of the art machine back then, with all of 4 MB of RAM. a DX2 66 Mhz processor. what is $4000 in today's money? And that machine isn't worth $10 now. Who is to say that in an age where people, albeit for millions of dollars, get to travel to the ISS that we won't see sub orbital travel that spans the Pacific in 3 hours or less?

    Yes, travel is expensive, but it may not always be expensive.

    You say pipe dream. I say a global economy says otherwise. 40 years ago no one thought of baseball academies in Africa. Now we have some. To say pipe dream is to equate it with never, and never is a big damn word.
    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.

  7. #36
    Pitter Patter TRF's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Here is what i see. Maybe 100 years down the road.

    A true world league of baseball. With Divisions in each continent. Maybe just Asia to start, but eventually Europe, Africa and South America. Perhaps Australia plays in the Asia Division. At first no inter-region play until Playoffs. As woy said, perhaps the travel will not be advanced enough. (We are talking 100 years though, and flight has come a helluva long way in the last 100).

    Most if not all ballparks will have retractable roofs for play during inclement weather.

    A shorter regular season.. say 145 games due to expanded playoffs. Regional playoffs followed by inter-regional. then a World Series.

    It took baseball until 1958 to play it's first home game on the west coast because travel times were prohibitive. That will not always be the case.
    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.

  8. #37
    Titanic Struggles Caveat Emperor's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by TRF View Post
    40 years ago no one thought of baseball academies in Africa. Now we have some. To say pipe dream is to equate it with never, and never is a big damn word.
    The entire theory depends on us finding a new way to move people from place to place.

    Amusingly, 40 years ago, we were relying on the exact same technology (jet engine) for travel as we do today, and there's absolutely nothing on the horizon poised to replace it.

    So like I said -- I'll never say never, but I'll comfortably say "Never in my lifetime" (I'm 31).
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  9. #38
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Technology is a funny thing. it doesn't move sometimes until someone says." we need it to move." Microsoft was a great example of this in the first decade of the 21st Century.

    Now they have the impetus to move. Something will change in propulsion, and that something will make the globe a bit smaller.
    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.

  10. #39
    Titanic Struggles Caveat Emperor's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by TRF View Post
    Technology is a funny thing. it doesn't move sometimes until someone says." we need it to move." Microsoft was a great example of this in the first decade of the 21st Century.

    Now they have the impetus to move. Something will change in propulsion, and that something will make the globe a bit smaller.
    I'd bet every dollar I own against it happening in my lifetime. I can go through all the reasons (lack of commitment to R&D, the rise of the internet contributing to the declining need for travel, rising energy costs, lack of openness to nuclear power for environmental concerns, etc.) but it would turn the thread political and we've already lost one thread here today.
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  11. #40
    Pitter Patter TRF's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    CE, yes there are a ton of factors against it, just like there were factors against teams moving west. There were factors against two teams in Canada. Or having *gasp* people of color playing in the major leagues. Each factor was overcome with likely a single bottom line. Will owners make more?

    I believe the answer is yes. There will be baby steps, like i said, I believe Mexico City will be among the first expansion teams, maybe P.R.

    Maybe in 10 years... Cuba. ok maybe 20.

    There are international markets that are close... somewhat. Say government attitudes in Venezuela change... another market.

    It isn't an overnight thing, but baseball's popularity has grown a great deal over the last 20 years worldwide.
    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.

  12. #41
    Are we not men? Yachtzee's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by TRF View Post
    CE, yes there are a ton of factors against it, just like there were factors against teams moving west. There were factors against two teams in Canada. Or having *gasp* people of color playing in the major leagues. Each factor was overcome with likely a single bottom line. Will owners make more?

    I believe the answer is yes. There will be baby steps, like i said, I believe Mexico City will be among the first expansion teams, maybe P.R.

    Maybe in 10 years... Cuba. ok maybe 20.

    There are international markets that are close... somewhat. Say government attitudes in Venezuela change... another market.

    It isn't an overnight thing, but baseball's popularity has grown a great deal over the last 20 years worldwide.
    I don't see MLB expansion extending beyond North America. What I see as more likely is the merger of foreign leagues into a super league competing with MLB. Besides the logistical problems with time zones and travel, I think a big problem with expansion overseas is MLB's restrictive ownership rules. For example, Japan has the Nippon Ham Fighters, owned by a food processing company. Could you ever imagine MLB approving Hormel buying the Twins and calling them the Hormel Spam Twins? I don't think so. Asia, which has it's own baseball history, is better off trying to create a major league through merger and expansion of existing leagues rather than having MLB-style baseball fettered by the prejudices of American traditionalists. It's not too hard to imagine if they got rid of roster restrictions on foreign-born players.
    Wear gaudy colors, or avoid display. Lay a million eggs or give birth to one. The fittest shall survive, yet the unfit may live. Be like your ancestors or be different. We must repeat!

  13. #42
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Welp bad news already. Chris Perez started talking about the WBC and automatically got hurt. I bet Indians fans are livid.
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  14. #43
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Quote Originally Posted by Yachtzee View Post
    I don't see MLB expansion extending beyond North America. What I see as more likely is the merger of foreign leagues into a super league competing with MLB. Besides the logistical problems with time zones and travel, I think a big problem with expansion overseas is MLB's restrictive ownership rules. For example, Japan has the Nippon Ham Fighters, owned by a food processing company. Could you ever imagine MLB approving Hormel buying the Twins and calling them the Hormel Spam Twins? I don't think so. Asia, which has it's own baseball history, is better off trying to create a major league through merger and expansion of existing leagues rather than having MLB-style baseball fettered by the prejudices of American traditionalists. It's not too hard to imagine if they got rid of roster restrictions on foreign-born players.
    I could see that. I could also see a model of "super leagues" filled with national teams in Soccer and Basketball (and Baseball eventually too) where the top players play for their national team predominantly and instead of occassional qualifiers and friendly's against other nations, the national squads play in a league of sorts with various qualifications to the World Championship tournaments.
    Quote Originally Posted by BuckeyeRed27 View Post
    Honest I can't say it any better than Hoosier Red did in his post, he sums it up basically perfectly.

  15. #44
    Pitter Patter TRF's Avatar
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Dubito Ergo Cogito Ergo Sum.

  16. #45
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    Re: In Defense of the WBC

    Is anyone else watching? Brazil leading Japan 3-2 in the 6th!
    "Reality tells us there are no guarantees. Except that some day Jon Lester will be on that list of 100-game winners." - Peter Gammons


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