I don’t mind the concept.

Organize the world’s baseball talent along national lines and have yourselves a soccer World Cup-style tournament. See who comes out at the end.

Turns out, it’s just not really workable and certainly not very compelling.

The issues with the WBC? Well, gee, let us enumerate the primary ones.

1. Too many of the planet’s top players aren’t playing. Not much “classic” about that. Unlike the soccer World Cup or most any other sports world championships. Where everyone who is anyone is there. You could assemble the talent from the United States and the Dominican Republic that is not playing, for a variety of reasons (most of them falling under the “I can’t be bothered” heading), and have a good shot at winning the whole shebang with those no-shows.

2. Baseball is not remotely global, as the International Olympic Committee realized when it booted baseball and softball from the Olympics. To get 16 teams into the Classic, organizers dragooned massively marginal ballplaying countries such as Australia, The Netherlands, Italy and China into the competition.  Panama doesn’t have enough talent to be in this thing, really, and neither does Taiwan (Chinese Taipei).

3. The competition is badly timed. During the spring, before most anyone is quite ready. Pitchers, for sure, are worried about competing at a time of year when they are just getting their arms in shape on the eve of long seasons. Early/mid-March is not a time when anyone is at a peak, unless perhaps you get a random team (from the Dominican, maybe Puerto Rico) that had scads of guys playing Winter ball.

I’m not sure when this ought to be staged. Which is perhaps telling. It wouldn’t really work in the fall, because it would be too cold and players too worn down. Not in the middle of the summer, because none of the serious leagues (well, the Major Leagues, Japan and Korea, I suppose) would not be eager to break up their season. Maybe right now is as good as any time, but there is no good time.

4. Club competition is so much more important than national competition, in this sport. Far more than in any other sport. Baseball went more than a century without international competition, and for most of that time it was calling MLB’s championship the “World Series” — and it might as well have been, considering that most of the best players were in MLB.

I know from covering one of the first WBC games ever played, at Phoenix two years ago (USA vs. Canada), that the people who actually get into “national” uniforms get something of a buzz off it. It’s getting them there that is the hard part. This isn’t at all like soccer, where nearly everyone plays. Where the 1-2 guys who opt out make news.

5. Baseball, probably more than any sport, isn’t about one nine-inning game. Lesser teams can win one game too often. Even the World Series is a best of seven. The WBC, for purposes of condensing the schedule, is a couple of four-team double-elimination events, followed by a knockout four-team event … and that’s just not enough.

So, no, I can’t say I’m really watching this.  I am not going to suggest they give up the whole concept, not as long as it is financially viable. I’m just saying it hasn’t quite caught on, and I’m not sure it ever will — as long as its played without scads of stars and in March, and as long as individual club success is noted and remembered far longer than national team success.