What is the story about?
One more day and we get actual(ish) games. Absent that, I’ve been really glad to have the Winter Olympics to pass the time. It hasn’t been a great year for Canada, although a gold medal in men’s hockey on Sunday morning would do a lot to improve the feeling.
That got me thinking about the coming Summer Olympics in LA in 2028. Canada will have our shot to qualify next month at the World Baseball Classic. It’ll be a tough road, as we need to come first or second among teams from the Americas (excluding the USA, who get an auto-bid as the hosts).
Rob Manfred has at least expressed curiosity about MLB players attending, which would be interesting. The tournament only takes a week, from July 13 to 19, so extending the All Star break by a few days would be enough to make it work.
It’s kind of a weird format, though, that makes it a little hard to get excited for. Six teams make the field. They each play two preliminary games, with the two best records getting byes to the semifinals. The other four teams play “quarterfinal” games to fill out the semis. The elimination rounds are single games. What that all means is that teams play 3-5 times each, with the first two only sort of mattering. And single elimination games aren’t really a fit for baseball, although the WBC manages to be fun anyway for the most part.
My feeling is that baseball just isn’t really an Olympic sport. The IOC seems to largely agree, given that LA will be just the second time in the last five games that it makes the cut. What do you think? Will you be excited for Olympic baseball to come back, and would you want MLB players to go?
That got me thinking about the coming Summer Olympics in LA in 2028. Canada will have our shot to qualify next month at the World Baseball Classic. It’ll be a tough road, as we need to come first or second among teams from the Americas (excluding the USA, who get an auto-bid as the hosts).
Rob Manfred has at least expressed curiosity about MLB players attending, which would be interesting. The tournament only takes a week, from July 13 to 19, so extending the All Star break by a few days would be enough to make it work.
It’s kind of a weird format, though, that makes it a little hard to get excited for. Six teams make the field. They each play two preliminary games, with the two best records getting byes to the semifinals. The other four teams play “quarterfinal” games to fill out the semis. The elimination rounds are single games. What that all means is that teams play 3-5 times each, with the first two only sort of mattering. And single elimination games aren’t really a fit for baseball, although the WBC manages to be fun anyway for the most part.
My feeling is that baseball just isn’t really an Olympic sport. The IOC seems to largely agree, given that LA will be just the second time in the last five games that it makes the cut. What do you think? Will you be excited for Olympic baseball to come back, and would you want MLB players to go?
