The World Baseball Classic; the Globalization of a (formerly) American Sport

Major League Baseball’s Spring Training is underway, and as teams get ready in Florida and Arizona for the grueling 162 games regular-season schedule, many Major Leaguers are abroad, representing their countries in the World Baseball Classic.  The 2013 WBC is the third of these tournaments – held every 3 or 4 years (2006, 2009, and 2013) and is being hosted by stadiums in Japan, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, and the United States.  When baseball was withdrawn from the Summer Olympics, the WBC emerged so that baseball players had an opportunity to represent their countries in an international competition.  Japan won the previous two competitions and though there are players from leagues throughout the world, about half the ballplayers in the WBC have played at some level, in America’s MLB.  This, perhaps, is why it’s so surprising that the WBC is not only unpopular in America, but considered an unnecessary distraction for the players who compete in the tournament.  The popularity of the Olympic games and the patriotism it inspires, barely exists with the WBC.

            The first Olympics of the modern era were held in April of 1896 in Athens, Greece.  Fourteen countries competed in a variety of athletic endeavors including swimming, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, tennis, weightlifting, and wresting; all events that are still held in the Summer Olympics of today.  All together, 241 athletes competed in 43 events that spanned 9 sports.  The winning man (no women were allowed to compete) of each event was given a silver medal, an olive branch, and a diploma.  Second place received a copper medal.  The United States were awarded first place in 14 events – leading all countries, an indicator, perhaps, of the domination within the international sporting community that the U.S. would go on to claim over the next hundred years or so. 

Today, the Olympics look very different.  This past year, London hosted the Games of the XXX Olympiad, which featured nearly 11,000 athletes from 203 National Olympic Committees – giving 11 more national members than the United Nations.  There were 302 events held that spanned 26 sports including Women’s Boxing, an Olympic first, which meant that women competed in all the same sports that the men competed in.  Most relevant to the focus of this paper, the 2012 Olympics were watched by half the world’s population.  While an alarming indicator of how technology has facilitated the spread of global sport, this is not an altogether new development.   “According to research commissioned by the governing International Olympic Committee (IOC), the 2004 Olympics in Athens were watched, at least in part, by 3.9 billion of the world’s population, producing a cumulative global audience of around 40 billion for the 17 day event (Giulianotti and Robertson 108).

            The unpopularity of the World Baseball Classic, in America, is perhaps most surprising because baseball is inherently American.  For a long time baseball was considered ‘The American Pastime” and though it’s been surpassed in popularity by American Football (and NASCAR, depending on who you ask), it remains a billion dollar industry.  The money involved in Major League Baseball, might actually be the reason teams are reticent to let their players compete in the WBC, as they see it as an unnecessary injury risk.  The following is from this article on why Major League Baseball continues to support the WBC, even if individual teams do not:

The good news is that despite the criticism in the United States, Major League Baseball seems determined to keep the WBC going. In a press conference before the United States vs. Mexico matchup, Bud Selig alluded to the fact that the goal of the WBC is to promote baseball in undeveloped baseball regions, like Europe and South America, and that support in the United States was arbitrary. He was quoted as saying, “The goal here is to internationalize the sport, this is what we’re trying to do.  In my judgment if we do it right, you won’t recognize the sport in a decade.” A decade might be an ambitious time frame, but the impact the WBC  has already had on baseball in countries such as the Netherlands and Italy, who are now bringing actual competitive teams to the fold, is undeniable.  Also in 2011 and 2012, Major League Baseball saw the debuts of Alex Liddi and Yan Gomes, the first Italian born and Brazilian born players to make it to the big leagues respectively.”

As American Sports scramble to increase their presence internationally, we’ll see more and more of this time of tournament.  The question is, will the globalization of American sports reduce their popularity domestically?