His reasoning: Players get caught up in the magic of the WBC when they get a chance to play in it—or even watch it. So those who play can’t wait to play again. And many who watch think, “I’d like to be a part of that.” And if the next edition were two years away, “maybe there’d be slightly more anticipation,” he said, “because it’s still relatively fresh.”
But by the time the next one rolls around, if it’s a four-year wait, all that passion, all that momentum, has faded away, Rollins theorized. So getting the best players to play becomes a harder sell than it would be if the next WBC was just over the horizon.
“Four years, especially in this sport, where you play every day, is a long time,” he said. “So you’ve got guys who are 28 [and didn’t play]. But now they’d know they’d get another shot when they’re 30, instead of when they’re 32. Big difference. When you’ve got four years of baseball in between, a lot can go on. Four years is a long time.
“Wasn’t it (Bryce) Harper who said he definitely wants to play in the one in ‘17?” Rollins went on. “If there was one in ‘15, then he could have that first real big-league spring training (this year) and get that out of the way. Now the next year, he knows he’s on the team. He waits a year. And then the following year, he’d be able to play in it.”
Rollins knows there are players around him who will never buy in to the WBC. But all he can tell them is: They don’t know what they’re missing.
“When you see it, when you feel the environment, man, it’s something else,” he said. “Every game is an elimination game. There are no series. It’s like Jimmy V said in that (30 for 30 film): It’s survive and advance.
Repoz
Posted: March 21, 2013 at 05:25 AM |
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1. John Northey Posted: March 21, 2013 at 06:16 AM (#4393344)I suspect a lot of players would enjoy it every 2 years as spring is very dull otherwise for them. I suspect a lot of teams would prefer every 10 years :P
Hockey seems to manage a World Championship every year, though the every-four-years Olympic event is the money tournament. The various regional tournaments and qualifications keep soccer players playing internationally pretty much every year. The Euros don't mean as much as the World Cup, but they certainly mean quite a bit.
I do see Rollins's point, it's probably easier to feel connected to an event like the WBC when you know you'll be back again soon (or even next year!). I suppose there are logistics that make that difficult, but it's nice to see some top players excited about the WBC.
That's the ancient Greek cycle, a four-year Olympiad, and when it comes to the reasons for that, it's as mysterious as a lot of other classical ritual. It's vaguely like the Roman "lustrum," a five-year period punctuated by ritual observances. Both seem natural enough for solemnities that would be less imposing if conducted annually or biennially, but like a lot of "natural"-seeming things, they're really fairly arbitrary.
Clearly, someone juiced between 25 and 29.
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