It's time for winter baseball in America

Major League Baseball should consider the idea of expanding into a year-round schedule, even the winter months.

A few weeks ago, I suggested that Major League Baseball be played in the winter. I was being a little humorous when I mentioned the Mets and Yankees playing in Yankee Stadium on Christmas eve and Santa Claus mascots running about. It sounds kinda whacky, but is it really?

Baseball tradition seems to declare this as a whacky idea, an idea that would completely destroy a sport which was tailored around the spring and summer months, a sport which, due to America's weather patterns, was patterned around the warmer climates. Even the scholastic schedule was tucked into early spring so that students can represent their school's baseball team before the end of the school year. Summer leagues were formed in local communities. So baseball in America was created and tailored for the spring and summer months. Training habits are also built around this annual cycle and winter months are usually a period of inactivity for Major League Baseball players. At the lower level, in the schools, the younger kids are able to compete in other sports activities. But times have changed a bit, so that change at the Major League level is possible, or something to consider for Major League Baseball.

The reason I say this is because we see many of the players from Central and South America partake in winter baseball in the warmer climates. Although some Major League clubs are disallowing this for their premiere players (The Mets announced just today that Jose Reyes will not be allowed to play winter ball). In fact, many of those players, players from the Dominican Republic or Mexico were accustomed to year round baseball, a reality which aided them in establishing excellence at their respective positions. Imagine the advantages these countries' kids had in being able to play year round, while our kids had to stop playing in colder climates, many of them moving on to the next seasonal sports activity.

I feel that there is a possibility for a slight change in Major League Baseball. Now I'm not one with a concrete idea or means for how baseball can go about changing it's scheduling or it's product to a year round sport. Maybe it doesn't have to affect the 162 game season. Maybe baseball can add a shortened winter tournament, a shorter type of MLB competition apart from the traditional one. There are domed stadiums already in place which can be used for this winter idea, and maybe they can build a few more. I feel the best idea would be for a two month winter tournament, or mini season to be established which would allow the opportunity for Major League Baseball franchises to showcase their prospects and for international countries to showcase their premiere players as well.

This could replace the format in place for the World Baseball Classic. Maybe that's where the World Baseball Classic can fit in perfectly. By using American players that are young and not roster players of a MLB squad and using the professional international players not yet on a MLB roster, they can establish a very interesting stage in the winter months, as well as an olympic style of competition. To add more interest to this, perhaps they can decorate this with some of the major rivalries in MLB partaking in an annual Christmas series, like the Yankees vs. Red Sox, Dodgers vs. Giants, Cubs vs. White Sox. This would require that teams interested in this to invite various players of their team to compete for an agreed bonus or increase in their salaries, because they would have to keep in physical tone the two months following the regular season in which to avoid unwanted injuries.

Face it. There's more money to be made, more flexibility that is possible in which to make that money with professional baseball in America. Afterall, baseball is a business, and with the incoming year round crafted players from other countries competing for gold gloves or batting titles in Major League Baseball, it could only do America's pasttime some good by giving it's youthful players an opportunity to play year round and fine tune their talents, as well as showcase the exciting rivalries in MLB's past as a mid winter spectacle. Just how this could all come into fluition is beside me. But I'd like to be one of the first to suggest the idea.

Mark C. - (Baseball Etc.)