Apparently unmoved by some of the most electric baseball in the world, sportswriter Chris Ruddick is the proud recipient of today’s “EWC Provincial Jackass of the Day Award” for his astoundingly stupid column entitled “Is the WBC over yet?“.
While the rest of the world was glued to quite possibly one of the greatest baseball games ever played, watching the ascension of Asian baseball unfold before their eyes, Provincial Jackass sat and groused that it wasn’t MLB season yet.
Ruddick’s essential premise is because the USA didn’t win and Derek Jeter shouldn’t have been starting at shortstop, that the tourney wasn’t fun for him to watch, ergo the whole WBC was basically a waste of time. He also whines that it’s hard to find the games broadcast, and berates David Wright for stating that his game winner against Puerto Rico was the biggest hit of his career (because the Mets choked down the stretch in ‘08).
So wait, Chris, if the U.S. plays lackluster ball, then you don’t care about the tourney, but if they play well and are proud to represent their country, they’re at fault because they didn’t save it for their pro clubs? The irony being it’s because of attitudes like Ruddick’s that the USA isn’t fielding the most competitive teams it can, leading to the lackluster play that bores him so much.
Ruddick’s closing line: “can we get the real season underway now” really shows his true colors–even though I’m sure he won’t have a problem cheering for a lot of these same boring, irrelevant international stars when they’re playing in MLB lineups in the future.
I could go on, but all I’ll say is this: If you didn’t get chills from the Netherlands upset victory over the Dominican (Ruddick poo-pooed it because of poor attendance), and weren’t on the edge of your seat watching Darvish’s electric stuff against Korea in an extra inning final, you know jack sh*t about the game of baseball and have no business writing about it. Period.
There, now I feel better.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Mar 24, 2009 at 10:34 pm
My girlfriend and I both know next to nothing about Baseball but were transfixed by the last couple innings of that game… that guy’s nuts.
2 Ted // Mar 25, 2009 at 1:39 am
I’ve found a lot of that same contradictory sentiment in criticism of the WBC:
i.e. “The WBC is stupid because more players aren’t playing in it.”
It’s all grasping at straws to me, trying to claim that the WBC detracts from something, when all it does is add to the baseball atmosphere.
3 CJ // Mar 25, 2009 at 3:17 am
I think “Chris Ruddick” is really just a fake name for Jay Marriotti. That windbag has been bashing on the WBC since it started. I guess he needed something else besides steroids to rant on.
Too many Americans can’t stomach international competitions where a US victory isn’t all but guaranteed. Watch how little attention NBC pays to the hockey portion of the next Olympics. It’s the only part of the winter games I’ll watch, but since the US is clearly behind Canada, Russia, et al, they’ll give it minimal coverage, probably dumped into the wee hours on CNBC or something.
All that said, the WBC was great. The Japan-Korea final was the highlight.
Next time, though, to appease the whiners (mostly MLB owners/GMs/managers, ignore the Ruddick-types), have the tournament sked condensed. Play the first two rounds in 3 days each, drop the silly “seeding” game, have one day to travel to the second round, finish that in 3 days, one day to travel to the semifinals/final site, and finish those in 2 days. Also, have the national teams train for 2 weeks in late February like they would a regular spring training (don’t do this silliness where players report to their MLB teams, then hop over to the national camp for a couple days). This way you start the WBC in early March and finish it before St. Patrick’s Day. That removes it from the overwhelming glare of the NCAA Tournament and keeps ESPN from bumping it in favor of NIT games, too.
Of course that’s just my opinion. I’ll have to wait until 2013 to see if they come close to doing it that way.
4 Bruce B // Mar 25, 2009 at 10:34 am
Rudduck sounds like Jayson Stark, who was whining last week because not all the big stars were playing in exhibition games. Wow, baseball is a really HARD game to write about when you don’t have the stars around to fawn over, isn’t it?
I’m with CJ on condensing the WBC next time around. Here’s my idea, for what it’s worth:
Revert to a round-robin format for the first round, with three doubleheaders in each of four venues, followed by one-game quarterfinals between the top two teams in each pool. That’s four days.
Then take a travel day off so the four pool winners can get to the semifinal/final site, followed by one doubleheader for the semis on one day, the final the next day. That’s 31 games in seven days.
Kill the All-Star Game for 2013, but stretch the three-day All-Star Break in July two days each way for a full seven days for the WBC (starting on a Monday so only one weekday series and one weekend series are lost to the MLB schedule).
It’s a tight schedule, but it could be done, if the non-MLB leagues would be willing to coordinate their schedules around it. Cuba was willing to suspend their season for the entire month of March for the WBC…would 10-14 days kill the Asian or European leagues?
This is a great tournament. It can be better.
5 brendan // Mar 25, 2009 at 1:17 pm
what chris ruddick says though has been pretty much what all the american media has been saying this wbc…whats the media coverage like in asia and europe?
6 Jackson // Mar 25, 2009 at 1:19 pm
The Asian media digs it of course, not sure about Europe….
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