Once Again WBSC Does Not Act in The Interest of Baseball

As we all know, the WBSC is supposed to act in the interest of baseball. We also know, that the world baseball governing body doesn do that. Two days ago, the WBSC added another chapter to not acting in the best interest of our beloved sport.

A few years ago, WBSC chairman Fraccarri allowed national teams to hire foreign players, as long as there was some kind of root towards the mother country. As a result, a team like Greece played with no, I repeat NO Greek born player on its roster during the 2021 European Championship. Many other countries also lured players from abroad to play for their national team. With this policy, Riccardo Fraccari claims to make the sport of baseball more poplular. But tell me, how this makes the game more popular when local players, who would have a shot at the national team without these imports, quit playing the game?

The next chapter in screwing our beautiful game was the cutting of the number of innings during international tournaments. So far, it hasn’t been implemented, but the intention was to start without after the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Cutting the number of innings would make baseball more interesting for the International Olympic Committee to accept it as an Olympic sport again. Baseball as an Olympic sport, Is this all what Fraccari cares about? As long as the best players in the world (read MLB players) will not participate, Olympic baseball will be stillborn.

And then the final chapter…

The other day, GameTime Sport announced a deal with the WBSC regarding a new streaming platform that would offer baseball fans all over the world the best quality of baseball.

“Baseball and softball are played around the world all year round, and new and loyal fans of our sport want to watch our game year-round as well,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “That’s why the WBSC is launching a newly upgraded and powerful OTT platform, which will showcase the WBSC World Cup’s live and on-demand content, starting with the upcoming U-12 Baseball World Cup that opens at the end of the month. With this powerful platform, it will always be GameTime for baseball and softball fans around the world.”

📺🔝 The World Baseball Softball Confederation (@WBSC) is launching a new and improved GameTime OTT platform.

⚾️🥎 Baseball and Softball World Cups + much more Baseball and Softball from around the world!

🔗 Take a look here: https://t.co/9Dk00gDpdb pic.twitter.com/VQXVTTg93e
— GameTime Sport (@GameTime_Sport) July 21, 2022

But the “best” is yet to come…

The new GameTime platform is being launched in partnership with Wiistream, with the aim to create a highly user-friendly site to access and navigate.

“Working with the WBSC means we’re delivering content to over two million people on a regular basis,” Wiistream Chief Operating Officer David Johnson said. “Our technology stack scales smoothly to allow fans and followers to watch live baseball or softball anywhere, anytime. Crucially, Wiistream’s version of Gametime.sport allows competitive pricing for all live content.”

Users can register an account with Gametime.sport, then browse to find the event they want to watch. All events will be pay per view, per event or fans can also purchase tournament bundles.

So the WBSC has also found a way to screw fans. Sure there will always be fans that are willing to pay any amount to watch a baseball game. But how does this make the game more popular? Has Riccardo Fraccari really lost his mind? If he wants to attract fans, this streaming platform should be free. Does Fraccari really think that people who don’t know the game of baseball will pay just to see how it is played? On the contrary. It will turn them away from the game. In this way, baseball will not attract new fans on a global scale.

Just like Rob Manfred, Riccardo Fraccari is killing the game. The only difference is that Manfred is acting in the interest of MLB owners. Fraccari is (supposed to be) acting in the interest of baseball.