Imagining a new version of the World Baseball Classic

Wearing a blue Venezuela jersey, Jose Altuve raised his arms skyward to celebrate his country reaching the championship game of the World Baseball Classic for the first time.One other pertinent detail: Altuve was in the stands at Miami’s LoanDepot Park, not on the field.The company insuring the contracts of the tournament’s participants refused to cover his deal.Altuve wasn’t an isolated case, as insurance problems kept several prominent players out of the WBC.Other players were prevented from playing by their Major League Baseball clubs.

Many of the players who were cleared by their teams, primarily pitchers, basically had their usage dictated by them.As it was, tournament rules kept the pitchers on restrictive pitch counts.These mechanisms threatened to delegitimize the WBC, and to some degree, they did.

But once again, the cynicism over the two-week event was ultimately overwhelmed by the passion it evoked in certain segments of the sport’s fan base.Perhaps this was the best-case scenario for MLB, which operates the tournament.Without the various safeguards protecting the financial interests of its franchises, team owners would never have released any players.

The obstacles that prevent the WBC from being baseball’s equivalent of the FIFA World Cup were an existential necessity.California's top news, sports and entertainment delivered to your inbox every day.

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Never miss a story Then again …What if there were no insurance requirements? What if MLB teams had no say over who could play or how their players could be used?If a compromised on-field product can elicit as much emotion as this WBC did, how much more festive would a no-holds-barred version of the tournament be? How much bigger could the WBC be, and what would that mean for a sport that remains stuck behind football and basketball in cultural rel...