MLB announced… a few hours ago that 177 players have already committed to play in the WBC next March. The U.S. roster includes the following names:
Barry Bonds
Roger Clemens
Ken Griffey, Jr.
Eric Chavez
Brad Lidge
Dontrelle Willis
Adam Dunn
Derek Jeter
A-Rod has the opportunity to play for the U.S. or Puerto Rico, and Mike Piazza may be able to play for Italy. The Dominican roster includes Pedro and Pujols, and Ichiro was personally invited by Japanese manager Sadaharu Oh.
Also, the U.S. manager will be former Blue Jays skipper Buck Martinez, and U.S. Olympic manager Davey Johnson will be the bench coach.
Canada has invited Larry Walker to play, but he’s leaning towards not playing. Eric Gagne wants to play, but the Dodgers are opposed and Rich Harden doesn’t want to endanger his non-throwing shoulder.
Fortunately, it seems Jason Bay will definitely play for Canada; a Bay power explosion will be out best shot at beating the better teams. Canada’s generally overmatched, but it’s the nature of baseball that one guy having a good night can win a game for you.
I really don’t understand why teams seem to be allowed to pressure players into not participating. It would be remarkably unfair for Team Canad to be denied Eric Gagne, by far our best reliever, because a US-based team doesn’t want him to play. MLB should either fish or cut bait here; either don’t have a World Baseball Classic, or have it and tell the teams to shut their yaps. Players opting not to play for fear of reinjuring something, a la Rich Harden, are a different matter; I can understand his position.
The WBC is a GREAT idea; look at how the NHL supports international tourneys, and they get a lot of attention and good press for their premier athletes for doing it.
Well, the CBC report I saw said that Gagne wants to play, but the Dodgers are concerned about his elbow. Technically, MLB has said that teams cannot prevent players from playing, so it comes down to if they can convince him not to.
I’m amazed that Bonds wants to play. Thank you, Bobby Bonilla.
Canada has a definite shot to get out of pool play, if they can get by Mexico. They’re gonna be young and thin, but anything can happen.
I just about peed myself when I read this today. I couldn’t be more thrilled about this, especially since I’m going to be able to go to at least two of the venues (Anaheim and San Diego).
What’s killing me is that there doesn’t seem to be any information anywhere about how much tickets are going to cost. I can see where they could be very reasonable, but I can also imagine them being extraordinarily expensive.
If anyone has any info about that, I would GREATLY appreciate it. Feel free to speculate as well.
They’re going to go on sale at the official WBC site this weekend. No word on how much, but since they’re apparently not going to sell individual game tickets, I’d imagine they’ll be a hefty amount.
I would love to be in San Diego next March, but the final is 2 days after Spring Break ends.
Bumping this because Japan just released their roster. Ichiro, Tadahito Iguchi and Akinori Otsuka are the headliners, but Hideki Matsui hasn’t ruled out playing.
He was born in the United States. His parents were Dominican, they moved him to the D.R. when he was four. Four years later he moved to Miami and spent the rest of his life in the United States.
Considering he was born here, is a U.S. citizen, has lived here all but four years of his life, I’d consider it a stretch for him to play for the D.R. I don’t even know why he would be considered for the P.R. team since, from what I know, he has no ties to Puerto Rico.