Talkin' WBC

By Tyler Savage

The World Baseball Classic is just around the corner. I'm not against this event, here are my ideas to spice up the event:

1. Two teams from the US: the pros, and a college all-star team. Let's face it...the college teams are more cut out for this type of tournament. The pros take until June to get warmed up, the college kids have been practicing for months now. Also, think of the possibilities, what if the pro team had to play the college kids--would there be anything more worth using a personal day for? I don't think you can get more personal than that.

2. Opening round games need to be played in "authentic" ball fields:
I'd love to see a game from the Dominicans where it is played on a ratty old field where fans are on old wooden bleachers or banana boxes. The infield looks like gravel, and the baseballs are a fine shade of brown. All the players need to hit with the same bat (which may be made from a tree branch) and the left fielder may not play with a glove.

3. No night games.

4. Who gets to bat first? Simple, the two team captains come out with one bat, the team that bats first is the team whose captain's hand is on top of the bat's handle after alternating their hands from the bottom of the bat to the top.

5. Home plate is an actual pudding jar (if you know this reference I will be shocked).

6. Mandatory chatter from all players (who are miked up and can be heard on TV). Who wouldn't love to hear Tommy Lasorda in a dug out screaming: "Let's hear some Chatter out there!!" The down side to this...no one would want to hear A-Rod chatter, that would sound stranger than Joe Mauer's milk ads from the '06 campaign.

7. Rule change: if an MLB player gets injured, their team gets to choose a player from the Country of Cuba's National Team. The injured player will then become property of the Country of Cuba.

8. No players can go out to play until all of their homework is complete, and they have finished their dinner.

9. If you hit a homerun, you get the homerun.

10. No umps, teams regulate themselves. Thus creating arguments, rule changing, and someone going home-crying before the game is over-while yelling that they are coming back with their older brothers to get even.