Hall of Fame pitcher John Smoltz believes he has a way to make the World Baseball Classic even better.
Smoltz appeared on “The Dan Patrick Show” on Tuesday and was asked how MLB could up the ante with the international baseball tournament.
“I think you make it bigger when you do it in the middle of the season and shut it down for a week,” Smoltz opined. “I’ve been saying that for years. I think it’s the perfect spot to showcase the international talent, you would have everybody wearing that uniform, they’d be in midseason form, there would be no restrictions, you truly get to see the Goliath against the Goliath without them coming out and throwing a million arms.”
This year’s World Baseball Classic has been incredibly successful for the sport, with Tuesday’s championship, won 3-2 by Venezuela over Team USA, expected to shatter viewership records.
While Smoltz acknowledged it likely wouldn’t ever happen, he pointed to the success of the Four Nations Face-Off the NHL put on in 2025 instead of an All-Star Game.
“This tournament has accomplished its goals,” Smoltz said about the WBC. “Team Italy, baseball’s gonna be thought of differently there. You’ve got other countries that are bringing baseball to the forefront when other sports were really kinda marquee and king. That has worked. Is it the perfect timing? No.”
He said he passed along his idea to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and said he would be OK with the idea of doing a World vs. USA format to replace the MLB All-Star Game.
“If you shut the game down for a week and give everybody the break they need, you could do so many things to promote within that week and own that week,” Smoltz said.
While Smoltz’s ideas are interesting, it would be a tough sell for MLB to hold the event in the middle of a season.
And while the eight-time All-Star made a fair point in the tough job Team USA manager Mark DeRosa has, having to run decisions by players’ MLB managers first, that likely wouldn’t go away during some sort of in-season international tournament.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
