Ben Badler tweets picture of China-Brazil game March 4th. Says about 70 people were at the game. https://twitter.com/BenBadler/status/308848834082115584

Mixed emotions tend to surface when the World Baseball Classic comes around. It means an earlier start to spring training and an early glance at some competitive baseball. But the excitement that surrounds other national competitions, lacks at the WBC.

Various national radio sports shows I listened to throughout the week mentioned the WBC only to crack jokes. The only media people genuinely interested are baseball writers.

Ken Rosenthal recently wrote about the benefits the WBC brings to baseball. World exposure being the key to this tournament, the WBC has so far accomplished that goal. A 15,000 seat stadium being built in the Netherlands will be the top baseball facility in Europe.  Baseball now has 11 different TV partners in China. Australia has re-launched the Australia Baseball League. 20 academies are in the works, giving Brazilians another option if they can’t do a pedalada,

But it makes sense the WBC doesn’t get any attention. The United States gets to see the best of the best play baseball for seven months. Why would they pay any attention to a glorified All-Star game. If Italy played Australia at Petco Park tomorrow, how many locals would go? If Mexico played Italy tomorrow, it would only be a slightly higher attendance. USA versus Mexico at Petco Park would be the only game that would attract more than 20,000 people.

If the founders of the sport can’t find an interest, why would anyone else?

One of the problems lies with too many elite American players declining invitations to play in the tournament. The WBC is asking the likes of Mark Teixeira and Ryan Braun to leave their spring training routine and employers, to play a few pick-up games representing the United States. It is a very honorable thing to do but honor does not pay the bills and if people do not go out to the games, what is the point. (Teixeira strained his forearm during light batting practice and is out of the WBC)

Hockey, rugby, cricket and basketball have a lower defection rate when participating in world competitions than baseball. The same injury concerns exist for these athletes making it even more frustrating because hockey and rugby players compete in direct contact sports.

This is not a fair comparison but FIFA’s World Cup is so popular because FIFA makes sure people know it is a big deal; the biggest deal in soccer. In a sport that requires more chemistry than baseball, these national soccer teams train sporadically and gain much of their cohesiveness over the course of exhibition games. Games played during the World Cup tend to not match the stage they are being played on.

But people still pack the stadiums! Why? To be able to say, “I went to Qatar 2022.” Yes Qatar will host the tournament and yes the majority of the games will sell out. Qatar has never qualified to participate in the World Cup yet the tournament will unite the nation and for one month its citizens will be soccer’s biggest fans.

And there is the trigger. FIFA’s World Cup is as much about the games as it is about the atmosphere the host nation provides. It gets the casual sports fan to say, “U-S-A! U-S-A!”

Baseball can do the same thing. The sport does not have to be the global super power soccer is. Bud Selig and Co. need to provide an experience for the fans. An atmosphere in host’s cities, making sure that everyone in each host city knows what is going on and will choose to go to a WBC event over their routine amusement.

Moving the date of the tournament would be a start.

Matt Wieters, the Baltimore Orioles young catcher, told the Baltimore Sun, “I’d love to be able to play for my country, but at the same time, you have responsibilities to your team and responsibilities, for me, to the pitching staff—to be able to get to know them and go through spring training with them.”

Hosting the tournament in November would have less players declining invitations due to the reason Wieters expressed. It would also keep the WBC from competing with March Madness, and hockey’s and basketball’s playoff pushes. It would still leave them jousting with football for ratings but it would be an easier battle due to less games being played throughout the week.

The World Baseball Classic is young and irrelevant enough to endure drastic changes. Those changes need to come very soon. Baseball in the Olympics has disappeared. If the WBC cannot shift its way into relevancy, baseball will fail to blossom outside of the Caribbean.

In this column, I will analyze that player’s statistics against the Friars and try to offer some insight into how not to let that player beat our beloved team.

The Padres leave home after a six-game homestand that saw them push their Major League worst record (19-38) farther down last place with series losses to divisional rivals Arizona Diamondacks and San Francisco Giants. Now, the Padres will look to test their fortune in the beer capital of the world, Milwaukee.

 When the Padres play the Milwaukee Brewers, National League MVP Ryan Braun in particular always seems to catch the Padres playing like they had a little too much to drink.

Ryan Braun with an RBI single Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-US PRESSWIRE

The last time the Padres played the Brew Crew, Braun slugged three home runs in consecutive at-bats and added a triple. That was all in pitcher friendly Petco Park. If Braun terrorized the Padres at Petco, imagine the destruction he will cause at Miller Park, where he holds a career .308 batting average with 92 home runs and 287 RBI

Ryan Braun is a beast. There is no doubt about that. But he is beatable. The way I recommend to beat him is to mix up pitches and make him chase pitches outside the strike zone. Basically, make him get himself out. When doing this, however, Padres pitchers must be careful not to leak a pitch over the plate or miss with location because if that happens, Braun will continue to be a Padre Killer. Just hope that Braun won’t leave the Padres with a hangover.

“Hey! What’s up man? We did it!” he yelled.

I had no idea what this guy was talking about, but he was definitely talking to me. He reached his arm into the air to start out the first part of what I could only assume would be a hard hi-five. This guy was serious about something and he decided to include me in it. His hand came down quicker than I could get mine up. Mainly because I was scanning his person trying to see if something could tip me off to his excitement rather than worrying about this hi-five scenario. Nonetheless, our hands met somewhere near my waist, which forced the hi-five to become more like a secret handshake that neither of us knew. But, our hands were touching. To make matters worse, I didn’t know if I knew him well enough for a half hug and with our hands where they were we were in prime position to complete said half hug. Within a split second I decided against it, and it was clearly the right decision as it quickly become apparent I did not know this guy.

A second of silence passes, which in these instances seems like a literal minute.

“We won, man!” he yelled again.

I finally realize that this guy is completely covered in Padres gear. Shirt, hat, sweatshirt tied around his waist; he’s a fan and he’s happy. So, why is he talking to me?

“Yea man, we did win!” I reply.

He motions at my shirt fully realizing I needed a prompt and says, “Our first series of the year! We beat the Brewers!”

As I looked down to notice the Padres t-shirt I was wearing things began to make sense. I calmed a little and joined in on the celebration, “Did we win today? I was supposed to go to the game but couldn’t go.” This was a true statement on both accounts. I sadly didn’t know if we had won and I was supposed to go that day.

“Yea dude! We blanked ‘em five to nothin’!” he replied.

“Awesome!” I said, offering a much better hi-five than the previous one I had completed. “That’s great. And it only took us a month!” I finished with a soft laugh and he blankly stared at me as if I had just said his mother and I had briefly dated. He looked me up and down real quick and then retorted with, “Come on, man.”

“What do you mean?” I replied.

“They won today. They won a series. Can’t we just celebrate that?” He said somberly.

I wanted to get into it. I wanted to explain to this guy about how even though we had a won a series we were losing the season. Explain to him the ridiculous contracts for underperforming players. Tell him all about how our ownership situation is so messed up we might as well just sell the team Mark Grant for $50! I wanted to see how deep this guy’s happiness went. I wanted to break him. I wanted him to feel like I feel. A fan so upset with what his team and team’s management is doing this season that the only thing that could possibly break my depression is a no-hitter or cycle but THE MERE FACT THAT I JUST SAID THOSE THINGS CURSES THEIR CHANCES OF ACTUALLY HAPPENING SO THEY WON’T!

I didn’t say any of that. I just said, “Yea. We totally can.” We clinked beers and talked about Ryan Braun being on steroids.

We shook hands and wished our boys to a better season, then he walked back to his friends as I turned back to mine. He left about ten minutes later and we didn’t find a moment to say goodbye. Just a nod from across the room to signify we were both on the same boat just not on the same page.

Being a fan. (Charles LeClaire-USPRESSWIRE)

It’s hard being somewhat tortured fans in a somewhat tortured sports city and not really being able to talk about it. That’s kind of half the fun. We get consistently screwed, but we get to talk about it and complain about it and blog about it. We deserve that right and when it’s taken away from you even for a second, you get sad. Every fan can be a fan in their own way and that is every fan’s right. We pay a large portion of the salary for the teams we root for. Complete optimism is fine. Total apathy is acceptable and utter despair is also allowed. However, when these different groups of fans come together you can either expect a lot of fireworks or just a lot of awkward laughs and blank stares.

I got the latter. Hi-five Padres fans, we won a series.