March 28, 2024

Column: Baseball missed mark on WBC

I am a baseball fan. I’m not a baseball junkie, but I follow the game, mostly through fantasy sports land.

My fandom for the game usually starts when the NCAA Basketball Tournament ends.

I start to lurk more into baseball when the local instate hoops programs’ seasons end. The Iowa women are the only instate Division I program still playing. The Hawks host Colorado in a third WNIT game Thursday.

I wish I could get more into the World Baseball Classic. It seems like a ton of fun. The only problem is I can’t see it.

If you don’t have MLB Network, neither can you.

To me, baseball missed the mark on this tournament. When every game is seen on a network that a lot of America doesn’t have, it’s a problem.

The game of baseball deserves to have some attention. It deserves to get its new season off to a good start. But most of us can’t watch the WBC.

The Americans won the WBC for the first time Wednesday night. That was a big upset to most. Their best finish before this year was fourth and that came in 2009.

Japan won the first two 16-team tournaments but lost to the United States in Tuesday’s semifinals. The Dominican Republic won the most recent tournament.

The championship game Wednesday was aired on ESPN2. But it wasn’t broadcasted in English.

I care about the WBC. I want to care more. I think moving forward, baseball has to find a way to put some of that tournament on a network most of us can get.

Moving to college basketball, some local instate news hit social media last night.

Drake University nearly hired current South Dakota coach Craig Smith as its next men’s basketball coach. However, it appears USD came back with a big offer to keep him, and Smith may have had a change of heart.

Drake has struggled in the PR department lately. The athletic director is not a popular person right now, and Sandy Hatfield-Clubb may have swung and missed on one of her top choices.

Now, it appears to be down to either Furman coach Nico Medved or current interim coach Jeff Rutter. North Dakota head coach Brian Jones, who played at Northern Iowa and was an assistant coach at Iowa, also reportedly interviewed for the position.

The way this has gone down, it would be a big upset if Rutter gets the job. He’s qualified, really wants the job and cares deeply for Drake, but if he was the guy Drake wanted, they already would have hired him.

In Drake Relays news, an announcement was made by first-year Director Blake Boldon that an extra section has been added to the high school 400-meter hurdles event.

That means 16 athletes will qualify for the event this year, which is double the number of qualifiers in previous seasons.

Also, Boldon announced the high school girls 3,000 and boys 3,200 have been moved to Thursday night’s distance carnival on April 27.

The Capital Square Vault, one of the highlights of the 2016 Relays, will be returning in 2017, according to Boldon.

The event, staged in the atrium of Capital Square in downtown Des Moines, is slated for April 26 at 5:45 p.m.

Announcements about the Drake Relays means we are that much closer to the spring season officially getting underway.

Buckle up. The spring season is always fast and furious.

Contact Troy Hyde
at thyde@newtondailynews.com