IMPROVING THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC IN 2013

While I was enjoying the recently-concluded World Baseball Classic, I noticed a few things along the way that might improve the tournament while raising its profile and prestige. Here, in short, is what I would do if I were the King of Baseball (God forbid):

Condense the WBC into a one-week tournament. One of the problems fans, players and execs alike had with the WBC in its current form is that it just takes too damned long to play the thing. I propose that instead of spreading it out over nearly three weeks, the WBC be condensed into a seven-day event that begins on a Monday and ends the following Sunday.

This can be done by first junking the double-elimination format used this time around (which led to far too many meaningless games, even some between good teams) and reverting to the round-robin format used in the first WBC. This way, initial pool play can be done in a three-day period.

I would then add one more game on the fourth day between the top two teams in each pool to determine who moves on to the semifinals. This, in effect, eliminates the second round we've had in both WBCs, which I've always found extraneous. So what we have now are four pools playing a total of 28 games in a four-day period...a pretty tight schedule, but very doable.

At that point, you create a travel day to allow each pool winner to go to the site of the semifinals and finals, which would be held Saturday and Sunday, respectively. It should be said here that I would eliminate the Tokyo pool, not because people there won't support it (they will, but only if Japan is one of the teams on the field...check the attendance figures), but because it makes more logistic sense to keep all the games in the Western Hemisphere.

Place two pools in the Eastern time zone and the other two in the Pacific time zone, and schedule games to allow for the best TV scheduling in which there are always two games being played simultaneously in a 12-hour block the first three days of pool play (two pools on MLB Network, two pools on ESPN2), and I would go one step further and make sure that all WBC play is held in ballparks with domes or retractable roofs. With 31 games scheduled over a seven-day period, you can't afford to risk rainouts.

Finally, I would schedule the WBC to occur in mid-July, replacing the MLB All-Star Game for one year. This can be done by taking the standard three-day All-Star Break and adding two days in front of it and two more days after it ends. Make sure WBC Week begins on a Monday so MLB and other leagues lose only one weekday and one weekend series each.

So in the end, here's a Readers Digest verison of what my dream WBC Week would look like in 2013 (based largely on how teams finished this year, although I'd replace South Africa with Germany):

FIRST ROUND (Pool Play)
Monday, July 15-Thursday July 18
POOL A (Miami): Japan, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Panama
POOL B (Toronto) Venzeuela, Netherlands, China, Canada
POOL C (Phoenix) USA, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan
POOL D (Seattle) South Korea, Puerto Rico, Italy, Germany

QUARTERFINAL GAMES TO BE HELD THURSDAY BETWEEN TOP 2 TEAMS IN POOLS

SEMIFINAL/FINAL ROUND
Saturday, July 20-Sunday, July 21
(Minute Maid Park, Houston)

It ain't perfect, but I think it would be an improvement. You take away the argument that players are out of shape, you don't take away three weeks of spring training from many players, and the interruption during a season is pretty minimal. What's a seven-day midseason break for the biggest baseball tournament in the world? No doubt a lot of players NOT in the WBC would love a one-week vacation.

Anyway, this is just one man's opinion. Take it for what it's worth.