The first week of the 2023 World Baseball Classic have featured some unforgettable moments.
There were some great comebacks in Pool Play in Asia, where fan interest was extraordinary. For one game, nearly 42 percent of TV sets in use in Japan were tuned in to a Team Japan-Team China game.
In Miami, there was a terrific atmosphere in a game between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, the kind usually associated with winter ball.
And the mere presence of Team Mexico in Phoenix resulted in unprecedented ticket sales and interest.
That's good news for Major League Baseball, which views the WBC -- on hiatus because of COVID and other factors since 2017 -- as a platform from which it can grow the game internationally.
In the U.S., fan interest is still slight, thanks to the time of year. At a time when sports fans are readying for March Madness and monitoring playoff races in the NHL and NBA, attracting interest to international baseball exhibitions that take part before the regular MLB season gets underway is an uphill battle.
Still, the Team USA roster is full of big-name stars, from Mike Trout to Mookie Betts to Pete Alonso, a signal that even if fans aren't taking the tournament seriously, the players, finally, are.
But Sunday night revealed a giant problem with the whole idea of the tournament.
Team USA trailed Team Mexico 4-1 in the fourth inning, and USA's Brady Singer was struggling the mound, with Mexico's Joey Meneses due. Meneses had already homered and singled in his previous two at-bats, and Singer was on the ropes. It seemed certain that Team USA manager Mark DeRosa would make a pitching change.
Instead, DeRosa stayed with Singer, who promptly allowed a three-run blast to Meneses, putting the game effectively out of reach at 7-1. Not only did DeRosa not make a move -- he didn't even have anyone warming up.
The curious strategy has nothing to do with DeRosa's inexperience as a manager and everything to do with some of the silly rules surrounding the WBC. Though he might have wanted to make a pitching change, DeRosa's hands were figuratively tied by some of the rules and regulations.
To begin, many MLB teams don't want their best pitchers taking part in the tournament in the first place. So while the roster is full of studs like Trout and Betts and Alonso, Kyle Scwarber, and Nolan Arenado, the pitching staff is decidedly average; a mix of past-their-prime veterans (Adam Wainwright, Lance Lynn) and mid-to-back-of-the-rotation starters (Nick Martinez, Kyle Freeland, Singer).
Secondly, rules extensively govern pitching usage. Pitchers can only be used on consecutive days if they've thrown fewer than 30 pitches in the first game. And relievers can't finish one inning and then come back out for another.
Finally, there's the unstated promise to teams that their starters will get enough work while on loan to the tournament, so as to not be unprepared for the start of the regular season when they return to their respective clubs. In the previous game, DeRosa had a pulled starter throw some additional pitches in the bullpen in Game 1, but for whatever reason, didn't do the same with Singer in Game 2.
To summarize: WBC promises to not use pitchers too often or too little, but instead, just the right amount. It sounds like less international competition and more like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.
All of which conspired to limit DeRosa's options Sunday night, and all of which limit how seriously fans can take the entire event. On one hand, MLB is all-in on the WBC as a marketing device. But on the other, MLB teams live in fear that their Opening Day starter is going to return to camp complaining of a stiff elbow or a sore shoulder.
Teams must win three times in Pool Play to advance, meaning two losses in the span of four games can eliminate a country. Team USA won its first game vs. Great Britain, but in falling behind several runs by the fourth inning had DeRosa all but waving a white flag and writing off the game as a loss.
An unavoidable issue with the tournament is one of timing. There simply is not good time of year to stage such an event. MLB isn't about to put its season on hold for a couple of weeks in the middle of the year, and holding the games after the World Series, some time in November, is bound to scare off players from non-playoff teams who have been idle for five weeks. And, of course, there's the matter of TV, since November would pit these games against both the NFL and college football.
So March it is, which isn't perfect, but is probably the best solution.
But the main problem isn't about when the games get played, but how. And this weekend was one more painful reminder that, no matter how much MLB wants these games to be taken seriously, that remains impossible given the current restrictions in place.