World Baseball Classic ignored by local media
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By Ronnie from Hobart, 12 Mar 2009 The Crowd is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- baseball, World Baseball Classic
There has been a lot of press coverage is recent days about Australia beating South Africa and thereby retaining its ranking as the number one Test cricket nation.
This is an honor coveted by ten nations only, two of which are sadly sliding by varying degrees toward either partial or complete systematic failure of the state: Zimbabwe and Pakistan.
At the same time as the Australian Test cricket team’s success, there has been another bat and ball competition in which Australia not only competed but also made heads turn.
It’s the World Baseball Classic.
The event is held every four years – the first being in 2006 – and is contested by 16 nations, two of which are, strangely enough, Australia and South Africa.
Both nations did in fact participate in the 2007 Baseball World Cup, with Australia making it to the quarters. The Classic is generally seen to have an edge over the World Cup thanks to it’s inclusion of professional players.
Coverage of the event by Australia’s media has been pretty shabby to say the least and, as with the 2007 Baseball World Cup, Australia’s participation alone should have been reason enough to generate a decent level of interest amongst the nation’s media and populace.
It’s a somewhat logical outcome to expect given the tendency of Australians to not only immerse themselves in many facets of American culture, but to also seek the recognition and adulation that comes with participating in global sports tournaments.
In this year’s classic, Australia belted Mexico and pushed Cuba – a power of world baseball – to it’s limit; a splendid effort given baseball’s peripheral existence in this country.
Still, Australia, specifically Melbourne, can at least boast of holding the record for the largest ever attendance at a baseball game.
Perhaps more than anything, the contrasting emphasis placed on the World Baseball Classic and the South Africa Vs Australia Test series yet again focuses attention on just one of many fault lines that dissect world sport. Fault lines that are largely due to historical and cultural developments that shape nations over time.
Baseball is a big deal in the US, as well across parts of its immediate sphere of influence (such as Latin America) and it’s zones of occupation (such as Japan and Korea).
And cricket is, of course, a big deal in a number of Britain’s former colonial possessions.
Each sport is seemingly a non-event in one anothers realm to the point where each suffers from what appears to be media blackout.
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Joe O'Sullivan said | March 12th 2009 @ 7:34am | Report comment
Ronnie
I’m a big baseball fan and have been able to watch the WBC on ESPN. Australia take on Mexico today and hopefully can repeat Mondy’s win.
Calexico said | March 12th 2009 @ 8:21am | Report comment
Nice to see someone else is watching Ronnie. The first game against Mexico was most pleasing – what an awesome hitting effort! Completely agree that the media here has all but ignored the event – which is a great pity ’cause the Aussies are doing us all proud (and the US commentators have been full of praise).
sam a said | March 12th 2009 @ 9:17am | Report comment
You sound surprised that baseball doesn’t get a lot of airtime on Australian TV. Why? Has it ever got much airtime on free-to-air. Not to take anything away from the game, which I quite enjoy watching, but it isn’t a sport with a huge following in this country, besides a few pockets of diehards.
“Each sport is seemingly a non-event in one anothers realm to the point where each suffers from what appears to be media blackout.”
Exactly right, and so it should be. I woudn’t expect to see cricket on US television, or on TV in its ‘sphere of ingluence’, so why would anyone expect Australian TV to show baseball? I don’t quite understand the gist of this article.
sam a said | March 12th 2009 @ 9:20am | Report comment
And of course, ingluence = influence. Damn these large fingers of mine.
drewster said | March 12th 2009 @ 10:03am | Report comment
You would think with Australia being a land of “sports nuts” that this event could get some free to air, air time or at least updates. Prior to pay TV, Channel 9 used to have the MLB and would broadcast games and all division series including the “World Series”. Alas big Kerry has passed away and Rupert has taken over so now we have to pay for the privilege.
Thank god for the internet.
netrug said | March 12th 2009 @ 12:04pm | Report comment
I too watched the Australia-Mexico game and it was great. Have been watching the other games on Fox as well.
I have always enjoyed baseball ever since I used to go to Camperdown Oval to see Petersham play. It was mailnly cricketers then who played off season when baseball was played in the winter.
Orio;e Park at Auburn is another venue that I would go to see Claxton Shield matches. It is good to see the Shield revived but for some reason it does not get on TV. I think baseball died here when first of all, it switched to a summer game then the national league folded. It is about time the importance of the Claxton Shield was revived.
I ws lucky enough to be in North America when the Toronto Blue Jays won back to back World Series in 1992 and 1993. In 1992, I was in Toronto and saw thousands march down Yonge sreeet the night they clinched the series, the decider played in Atlanta. In 1993, I was in Mexico to see the Blue Jays beat the Phillies. The Mexicans sent their own commentators and TV crews to cover the series. They mixed vision with US vision. So, although the commentary was in Spanish, the vision was a mixture of Spanish and English. What was apparent in both series was the passion displayed for the game in Canada, USA and Mexico.
In 1992, it was the first time that a team outside the USA was in the final. So typically, the Yanks got it wrong, wrong Canadian anthem, then when got it right focussed on the Dominican players in the Jays who did not know the words. To end it all, the Marines paraded around the ground with the Canadian flag upside down. The Canadian media went beserk. In the end “daddy” George Bush had to go on TV ansapologise to the Canadians.
After having said that, it is about time that baseball got the coverage here that it deserves and the Australian players full credit for their matches.
Let’s gat the Claxton Shield back on its pedestal again where it deserves to be.
Ronnie from Hobart said | March 23rd 2009 @ 7:11pm | Report comment
Ah well, Sam a, a little mixing and sampling of codes never hurt anybody.
Suddenly there’s some action on this front with DirecTV announcing it will be broadcasting cricket into the US and A. I think (and hope) Twenty20 will probably appeal to Americans. Can’t say the same about tests and ODIs though.
Check it … http://www.azcentral.com/community/gilbert/articles/2009/03/18/20090318gr-manny0318-ON.html
This slogger has only 2 wishes – 1. CA gets serious about Twenty20 by scheduling more internationals over the summer — 2. We could get baseball on free to air here.
Folks – it’s Japan vs. South Korea for the Classic final. Then it ‘s the IPL – or is that EPL or SAPL????
Joe O'Sullivan said | March 23rd 2009 @ 9:17pm | Report comment
Must admit I was glad to see Japan beat USA but know want Korea to win the final.
Ronnie from Hobart said | March 24th 2009 @ 8:04am | Report comment
Yeah, Joe. I hope one day the yanks will get over their fixation with the “World” Series and realise there are other nations beyond their shores that play the sport and are worthy of respect.
Drewster touches on an interesting point with Channel 9 previously broadcasting MLB. Despite the loads of sport coverage on FTA, it’s just more of the same stuff that is often recycled and replayed. Broadcasters have tended to consolidate their product offering in the last decade or so – eg. 9 ditching baseball and continuing with cricket.
Many people simply cannot afford TV and so are stuck on a diet of traditional winter and summer sports, with little variety beyond these. A ‘poor man’s’ diet, so to speak. Pay TV penetration rates being what they are, that’s about 70% (correct me if I’m wrong) of the Oz population.
Netrug – let’s hope ONE eventually puts more domestic content on – such as the Claxton Shield, A-League and whatever other deserving candidates there might be.
FORTUNATELY, a quick look at ONE (C10 sports) reveals they have added to C10′s sports menu **MLB**, NFL, NBA.
Joe O'Sullivan said | March 24th 2009 @ 8:45pm | Report comment
Ronnie
Do you know when 10s pay TV channel kicks off?