Baseball is back

America’s past time made a dramatic reappearance over the last month after being dormant for a time. I’m not talking about the end of the World Series in October and the ensuing offseason. I’m talking about a more wholistic view of the sport itself.

The World Baseball Classic involved teams from all over the world including, Israel, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Italy, Great Britain, Czech Republic, Australia and many others. The iteration of baseball brings out the fandom in many worldwide fans. The enthusiasm and joyful nature of fans in attendance jumped off the screen on the TV broadcasts. Players were excited to win games as every win meant so much to the team’s chances to move on.

The excitement and acutal fun was something that baseball has been lacking in recent years.

Here’s some numbers: in 1978, the world series recorded 44 million viewers for the most watched World Series of all time. Last year’s World Series welcomed 11.7 million viewers for the secondleast watched World Series since viewing numbers started being recorded in 1973.

The popularity of the sport is dying. However, Monday’s Japan-Mexico semifinal game recorded 2.5 million viewers. Spread that out over six games (like a World Series might) and you’d have the largest viewing audience since the 2017 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros.

Tuesday night’s Japan-USA WBC final was some of the best baseball a person can witness. Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado are all some of the best players of this generation. They faced off against a Japan team that has a player in Shohei Ohtani that hasn’t been seen since Babe Ruth. Japan battled to a 3-2 victory with Ohtani striking out his Los Angeles Angels teammate, Trout, for the final out of the game. Ohtani also went 1-for-3 at the plate with a walk as well.

To see all-star caliber players performing at their peak while representing their country is something that has reignited the baseball world. There has been a lot of discussion about whether players should play in the World Baseball Classic instead of playing in MLB spring training games and gearing up for the MLB season. I can’t think of any other way to get better at what you do, than to do it in high pressure situations. The guys who played put on a show for fans watching and in doing so, they have prepared themselves for the grind that is the MLB season.

Speeding

Through

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ife