Why does the World Baseball Classic seem so unimportant?

So there’s this World Baseball Classic tournament going on now. Until I saw clips of the brawl that broke out between Canada and Mexico the other night, I hadn’t seen so much as one single pitch of it. And I’m at a loss for why that is. I love baseball, and yet a competition of players from around the world holds no interest to me at all.

This is supposed to be baseball’s answer to the World Cup. That much is clear. And it’s also designed to spread the game to a global audience. That’s also a noble goal. American culture is a hot commodity around the world, and baseball is a central piece of that. So, I should be all for anything that helps to make the game more visible.

And yet I’m not. With apologies to anyone who is following the World Baseball Classic, I can’t see the point. Or maybe I can see the point, but I don’t believe in it. Whatever it is, I’d like to just get the whole thing over with before Anthony Rizzo hurts himself playing for the Italian team.

Thanks for the effort baseball powers that be, but please wake me up on April 1 instead.