Wanted: Olympic ringers
I hate agreeing with the IOC on… well, just about anything. But they’re right that without major leaguers, Olympic baseball is second-rate. If the 2016 games are awarded to Chicago or Tokyo (the two front-runners), and baseball and softball are reconsidered, MLB needs to swallow its pride and try the NHL model for a year. (Especially if a Chicago Olympiad would force two teams into a nearly three-week roadtrip anyway.)
Mark Byron offers some suggestions on how to accomplish this: ditch the All-Star Game, push the end of the season back three days, and move spring training up a week. He extends further by suggesting a World Tour of sorts for the first week of the regular season to both market MLB and avoid weather issues for northern teams.
The major logistical issue is travel time. Teams that have played season-opening two-game sets in Japan have generally played them a week ahead — this year, the Opening Series between the Red Sox and A’s took place on March 25-26, with the teams playing exhibitions with Japanese teams in the four days prior, and the teams didn’t resume regular-season play in the US until April 2. Would MLB teams be willing to start spring training by 21 February (earlier for pitchers and catchers), fly to Asia or even Australia on just over 3 weeks’ practice (~14 March), tour a day or two and play a couple exhibition/jet-lag adjustment games, then play a week straight of games and fly home for another 3-4 days of time zone readjustment? I have to wonder.
The other challenge is financial, of course: three home games per team times 35,000 seats is a lot of money, and canning the All-Star Game cuts off a substantial sponsor perk and advertising magnet. One would have to hope broadcast rights and merchandising revenue for the touring games would match up.
It’s an idea, though, and we need good ones to make this happen. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck with just the World Baseball Classic (another import from hockey — hello, Canada Cup/World Cup).
23 August 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: baseball