Jerry Manuel's boss Tony Bernazard big fan of WBC; Brad Lidge cites its harm to him--Bill Madden

• The WBC is a bunch of advertising slogans whose reality is banned by Selig's Banana Republic 'gag rule:'

(Bill Madden): "It is Selig's contention...the WBC is a vehicle to "grow the game globally." But since when did baseball need to grow in popularity in Latin America or Japan? No, like everything else baseball does, this is all about money. Merchandizing money. So how many caps and T-shirts does baseball have to sell in China, Italy and the Netherlands to make this mission worth its while?

• At the same time, Selig is turning a blind eye to the fact that the WBC is compromising the integrity of the real season. When Jerry Manuel opened spring training camp, the Mets' manager talked about putting an emphasis on instilling in his players all the elements and intricacies of playing baseball the right way - elements he obviously felt have been absent with this group the past couple of years. But what was the point with most of his regulars gone all spring?

Then Manuel watched with consternation as his new closer, Francisco Rodriguez,

• who hasn't had a single regular-season save of more than three outs in two years,

• was brought in twice in a row with two outs in the eighth to get a save in the WBC.

"I never knew he could do that," Manuel said with more than a hint of sarcasm.

• I'm sure Manuel would like to say a whole lot more, especially after learning that Wright, his best player, thought he had broken a toe fouling a ball off it but played in severe pain anyway for the full nine innings Wednesday in a meaningless U.S. loss to Venezuela.

But Manuel knows his bosses, particularly VP of player development

• Tony Bernazard, who was among the first proponents of the WBC concept when he was an exec in the Players' Association,

are those supporting it the most....

• Phillies closer Brad Lidge, one of a great majority of elite major leaguers who chose to put their teams and the real season over participating in the WBC,

• was more emphatic.

Citing the shoulder injury suffered by Lindstrom, Lidge, who pitched for the U.S. team in the 2006 WBC, said:

• "The timing of (the WBC) is really bad. Like Lindstrom, there's no reason he should be throwing 98 miles per hour right now. He should be throwing 91-92 and trying to find his command."

Lidge added that to compensate for a lack of arm strength in the 2006 WBC,

• he altered his mechanics, which manifested itself in the regular season

• when his ERA ballooned from 2.29 in '05 to 5.28.

On the other hand, you have Orioles manager Dave Trembley watching helplessly as his ace starter Jeremy Guthrie is going stagnant in the WBC because of a lack of work. Guthrie has pitched only nine innings all spring, 32/3 of them in WBC competition in which he was raked for 14 hits and 10 runs.

• On Thursday, the O's begged for Guthrie to come back to camp rather than stay with the U.S. team....

• "We want him pitching for us in a regular rotation," Trembley pleaded, "but I don't know how."...

Selig and the rest of the MLB poobahs have tried to sell this WBC as a "true" World Series, even though so many of the game's best players aren't in it and these international rules make a mockery of the real season that has been forced to take a backseat....

• The WBC may have seemed like a noble idea to Selig & Co., but there's
• no good time to play it and,

• as I'm sure Manuel, Francona, Leyland and Trembley among other managers would all attest -

• if they were allowed to -

it has served to undermine the season that really matters." from NY Daily News column, "World Baseball Classic Turning into a Real Pain for some Major League Teams" 3/22/09

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