March 17, 2023 By: Mark Knudson

Want a real “Mid-Summer Classic?” Move the WBC to July

End the World Baseball Classic because a star player got hurt celebrating? Wrong. It’s actually time to grow what should become the real “Mid-Summer Classic.”

Okay, the World Baseball Classic will never be as big a spectacle as soccer’s World Cup, but put in the right setting, the WBC could continue to flourish and help grow the game in those parts of the world where they can’t use their hands while playing their favorite sport.

Here’s a radical idea: They should play the two-week long WBC in July. It would be amazing.

“Selfishly, as somebody who loves this event, who loves international baseball, I hope that would be a consideration,” said WBC broadcaster Tyler Maun, who called Pool A games in Taiwan during the first week of the WBC. “I think the players, honestly, would be up for that. I don’t know if ownership would be.”

Ownership would be concerned with two things, both revolving around the almighty dollar. First, could they potentially lose a star (high priced) player to injury – like the Mets did with star closer Edwin Diaz, who tore a tendon in his knee while celebrating a win for his native Puerto Rico – and second, would this have a negative impact on the all-important bottom line during that season?

There are very smart people running big time sports leagues these days. You can be pretty sure they could figure out how to make moving the WBC to the middle of the season a profitable venture for the baseball owners.

The National Hockey League has already proven that you can shut down your regular season for two weeks in the middle of the year and still play a full slate of games, still have a full playoff season and crown a true and deserving champion (something baseball didn’t do in 2020, btw.) The NHL had it’s players participate in the Winter Olympics in five straight Olympics from 1998-2014. After not being part of the 2018 games, they would have returned in 2022 had it not been for Covid-related scheduling issues.

The NHL is prepared to return it’s players for the 2026 Olympics. That’s not something you do if it costs you money.

There’s risk of course. Injuries happen all the time – including spring training games – and increasing the number of games played means more chances for guys to get hurt. Players who are passionately representing their country will go full blast, and perhaps even push themselves further than they should in a short tournament that means everything to their home country. Then of course there’s the (remote) risk of getting injured while celebrating a little too much.

But the tradeoff is the increased exposure and promotional opportunities that can grow the sport by leaps and bounds. And if that’s what could happen for baseball by moving the event into the middle of the regular season, then it’s more than worth it.

Baseball could very easily shorten spring training by 10 days. No one would fuss about that, and open up earlier regular season game dates. The MLB All-Star break is already almost a week long too, so there are already those open dates. Add in a couple of special Sunday doubleheaders – Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, for example – and you could easily make up those 12-14 games most teams would play during a two-week span.

And the fans would LOVE it.

“The interest generated (this year) has been off the map,” added Maun. “The enthusiasm from fans around the globe, and especially here in the US…fans have gone bananas for it.”

And that’s in March, before baseball is really in full swing.

For decades, Major League Baseball was the last outfit to accept change. Rule changes – very prevalent (maybe too much so?) now – were once taboo. Just remember how long it took MLB to implement the use of video replay. When change did become acceptable, we got realignment, wild card playoff teams and expanded postseasons. The WBC was also part of that wave of change, and it’s one of the best things MLB has ever done. When it’s time for the already locked in 2026 WBC (barring another pandemic) we could have a real mid-summer classic.