Dream Team or Nightmare?

By David Marasco

In between replays of Kerri Strug, a gold-medal game for baseball was played in this past Olympics. Despite baseball's position in America with Mom and Apple Pie, the US team did not vie for the championship. Instead, one of America's last "Enemy Nations" faced off against one of her greatest economics rivals. Almost immediately, the cry went out in America for a Dream Team to bring home the gold.

Jingoism aside, this is an issue that needs to be examined. In the true spirit of the Olympics, the people who run the show threatened to drop baseball as a medal sport unless the ruling bodies of baseball agreed to allow professionals to participate in the next Summer games. Now it looks like professionals will play in the next set of Games. While it may be tempting to send a team consisting of Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and other monster ballplayers, it is just a bad idea.

The first obvious problem is the timing of the event. The NBA can send its stars to the games because their playoffs are done when the Olympics start. For baseball, the Games occur smack in the middle of the Major League season. There is a quick solution that can be posited. Declare baseball a Winter sport. While it would then interfere with all of the various Winter Leagues, the TV networks would love it. Baseball could be played when most American fans are postulating wild trades instead of watching games. It would give a real boost to the television ratings, as a USA Dream Team vs. Cuba contest is certainly more exciting to the US viewing audience than 4 Swedes in a bobsled. While this seems appealing, one must remember the key ingredient (besides money) to any Winter Olympics - snow. That's right, the Winter Games need to be somewhere cold. And as a Chicago resident, I can tell you that sub-freezing baseball leaves a lot to be desired. The only solution here is to play the games inside of a dome. Well, they already use aluminum bats, so this might be the next logical step. But somehow The Boys of Winter playing with their metal bats on plastic grass just doesn't cut it.

If baseball is placed as a Summer event, then there are two ways of playing this hand. The first involves a break in the action. Be like hockey and have an Olympic break once every four years. On the surface this might work, but how will it be implemented? One way of doing it would be to push the season's opening and closing dates on the calendar. But this could give a November World Series. And once again, as a Chicago resident, I can tell you that March baseball just isn't pleasant. If the owners don't play with the calendar, then they can simply cancel two weeks of the season. This will never happen. There's no way the owners will give up two weeks of revenue. The players will need to get paid, but without the money from the fans in the seats the owners will balk at this. Besides, taking a dozen games out of the season will be a killer. Mark McGwire making a run at Maris will generate far more domestic interest than some Olympic baseball games, and if a dozen games are chopped out of the season then record chasing can't happen. Finally, the games can be made up by having double-headers. But neither the owners nor the Players Union would support that. There is no way that baseball could put in a break for the Olympics.

The second option would be to just send the stars. But there is a problem with this too. It isn't as simple as putting Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey Jr. on an airplane. Of the major baseball powers, only Japan and Cuba wouldn't draw most of their teams from the Majors. Take the Dodgers for example. Mike Piazza would be drafted by Team USA. Raul Mondesi would play for the Dominican Republic. You can kiss that International Rotation good-bye. The Dodgers would be reduced to scrubs. With the high Latin American participation in baseball, most teams would lose between two and four players. Rosters would be decimated. Teams that are aggressive with their international scouting would be punished for their wisdom. This is not a solution either.

There doesn't seem to be a workable answer to this problem. We cannot allow professionals into the Olympics without wrecking Major League Baseball once every four years. On the other hand, we have seen an important point being made. Outside of Japan and Cuba, almost every country in the world sends its best talent to America (and yes, Canada) for our entertainment. Let's just forget the Olympics, sit back, and watch the best baseball in the world.