Sunday, March 8, 2009

I'm Kinda Getting Into This

As you may know from reading this space before, I'm not a big baseball guy. Sure, I like the Red Sox, but other than them I'm not watching much baseball if I can find another way to amuse myself. But, I have to admit, I'm finding the World Baseball Classic to be an enjoyable experience so far.

With baseball no longer an Olympic sport (thank God they added crucial things like team table tennis instead), baseball needed something to fill the international gap, because nothing brings in viewers like a chance to root against an entire nation at once. Thus three years ago the World Baseball Classic was born. The timing of it is a little off, because it takes place when Major League teams are in spring training and thus, the best players in the tournament aren't in shape yet. But, it's fun to see these teams made up of, essentially, nothing but All-Stars.

This weekend there was a ton of basketball on, yet I found myself repeatedly going back and watching baseball. In March, no less. Guess Bud Selig finally had a good idea.

-I constantly find myself defending football players as smarter than a lot of people think they are. There are a lot of subtle nuances of the game that I don't think the general public gives football players credit for understanding. Really, some football players are really bright. That point just gets harder to justify when you hear guys like Terrell Owens. He was asked about leaving the Dallas Cowboys and signing with Buffalo, so he said "I'm leaving America's Team to sign with North America's team." (sigh) Who wants to tell him Dallas is in North America?

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