March- it’s a month known for its college basketball, or is it? Now it can be wasted on a whole new gimmick, the World Baseball Classic. The World Baseball Classic, or WBC for short, is an international baseball tournament where different countries compete to earn the honor of being called the greatest baseball country in the world. 16 countries are taking part in this tournament, including the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Players from all around the world will join their respective countries to compete and the teams will play in a round-robin style tournament to determine the winner. It will be held from March 3 (today) through March 20, and will be held again in 2009 and every four following years. This tournament may seem like a great idea, but there are some flaws to the logic. First of all, each country needs players, which can sometimes be a problem. Many Major League Baseball players, like Barry Bonds, have decided not to participate for different reasons. “It’s hard to get excited for a tournament that won’t even have some of the best players in the world playing,” junior M.J. Kang said. “It’s kind of like reading a book that has a beginning and an ending, but no middle.” Without some of the big Major League talents, this will be nothing more than a minor league all-star game, which is not very exciting for the fans, unless they like watching minor league baseball; in that case, it will be pretty fun. “I don’t see why we need more baseball anyways, it already takes up most of summer and fall,” Kang added. “And now it’s trying to take away our spring, what’s up with that?” This is very true. For years and years, March has been known for the NCAA Men’s (and women’s, I guess) Basketball tournament with its heart-stopping games and wonderful atmosphere. The WBC has just let out most of the helium in the March goodness balloon. This balloon, which was once on the verge of popping, can barely stay afloat in a gentle breeze. In other words, the World Baseball Classic has destroyed the month of March and replaced it with a much less interesting month (let’s call it Starch). In conclusion, yes, the World Baseball Classic does exist and, yes, whatev. All it has really done so far is ruin a month that was once full of pride (even though the month of March has barely started, it has already been tarnished) and give people another reason not to watch baseball. And how can it be called a World Baseball Classic when it is a completely new idea?