The Ariel Helwani Show - Everything You Need To Know About the 2023 World Baseball Classic With Jason Takefman

Episode Date: March 10, 2023

With the 2023 World Baseball Classic upon us, Ariel speaks with one of his longtime best friends, Jason Takefman, who Ariel believes to be one of the smartest men in the business of baseball. On today's episode, Jason gets you pumped up for the WBC by getting into the following: Why Jason feels this year's Classic is the biggest one in the history of the tournament (4:40) The history behind the WBC, which began in 2006 (6:01) The top teams to watch out for in this year's Classic (19:05) The age-old question: When is the best time of year to hold the WBC? (24:18) His MVP prediction for the tournament (33:44) How he thinks the United States will perform this year (40:08) And more, including top story lines and the team he's betting on to take home the WBC trophy.Jason Takefman is currently a sports business consultant. He spent nearly 10 years with the Vancouver Canadiens, a minor league affiliate of MLB's Toronto Blue Jays. He's also worked with the UFC and the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL.If you enjoyed this episode of the program, please consider leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or giving us give stars on Spotify!

Hey everyone, hope you're doing well. Welcome back to a brand new edition of The Helwani Show. I, of course, am Ariel Helwani. It is Friday, March 10th, 2023. So we're about to ramp things up around these parts. A lot more content coming your way, a lot more fun stuff, a lot of different stuff. I'm very, very into what we're doing here. I'm reinvigorated. I am revamping it all. It's a very exciting time. And with that in mind, I'm presenting this conversation that I loved with a longtime friend of mine, one of the smartest people that I've ever met in any walk of life, but in particular when it comes to sports business. My good friend Jason

Takufman, who worked for almost 10 years for the Vancouver Canadiens, single A baseball club, has also worked for the Vancouver Canucks, and the UFC, among many, many others. He is the smartest man that I know when it comes to baseball in particular. And right now, going on across the world, is the World Baseball Classic. It's the fifth installment of the World Baseball Classic. And there's 20 teams from all over the world, from the US of A to Canada to the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela, Japan, Israel, Netherlands, Czech Republic, and so many more. And I love this tournament. I have a deep passion for it. I'm a big, big fan of it. And so I wanted tournament. I have a deep passion for it.

I'm a big, big fan of it. And so I wanted Jason to teach not only me, but all of you about it, what to look out for, who's the favorite, a bit of the history, a bit of the criticism, all that stuff and more. It's a fantastic conversation. And you'll notice right off the bat, he has a great passion for the game, great knowledge of the game, great passion for this tournament as well. So it's infectious. By the end of this conversation, you're going to be locked in. You're going to be watching all 16 games this coming weekend.

So this is a great conversation with a brilliant mind. Here I am talking to Jason Tachman about the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Enjoy. As you may know, I love worldwide competitions, especially when it comes to sports. I'm a big World Cup guy, whether it's the FIBA World Cup, the FIFA World Cup, the Euro Cup. I love the hockey championships. I love everything that is country versus country versus country. It feels bigger. I'm a patriotic guy. I get into this sort of thing. And ever since 2006, baseball, the grand old game, America's pastime once, has gone into the mix as well with the world baseball classic, 2006, 2009, 2013, 2017. We haven't had one since 2017. Why? Because of the pandemic. It was

supposed to happen a couple of years ago, but now they are back for 2023. And if I'm being honest, it kind of crept up on me. I didn't really realize that it was here. It's actually underway. It got underway just a couple of days ago, and it's going to really get underway here in North America this weekend. And so I thought that on our revamped YouTube channel, I would have one of the smartest minds in baseball come here and get us excited for the World Baseball Classic. Because I actually think this is a tremendous tournament. And I remember in 2017, it was fantastic, especially in Miami. And I really want to get excited. So I've called upon my old friend,

Jason Takethman, who I've known for probably 30 or so years. We used to go to Montreal Expos games back in the day. In fact, I talk often about the 1997 Montreal Screwjob, the Survivor Series. He's the reason why, by the way, I was in attendance that night at the Molson Center. Now, he's not just a friend. I'm not just one of these guys who brings his friends on to talk about sports. He's actually got some credibility. Dare I say, a lot of credibility. From 2006 to 2013, he was the general manager of the Vancouver Canadiens single A team for the Toronto Blue Jays.

In 2012 and 2013, he was named top 100 influential Canadians in baseball. Also has worked for the UFC, has worked for the Vancouver Canucks. He's a sports advisor right now. The man knows baseball like I know the back of my hand. All right, there he is, Jason Tachman, here to make us smarter. Hello, sir. And that's a great back of the hand, by the way. It's right up against the camera. Terrific intro. Thank you. And I would also say that the absence of the World Baseball Classic since 2017 has actually made it a little bit more enticing and has built up almost a pent-up aggression of these countries and has made it even more exciting as opposed to, well, it's every fourth year or every third year or let's do it here or what or what's the pool going to look like, or how are we going to set up the winter ball-like games between Venezuela and Puerto Rico? And this is the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It actually feels like it's the first really big one. 2006 was fun because it was the first one and they were trying it. Obviously, 2009, 13, you know,

2009, they tried in different countries. There was a game hosted in Canada. 13, 17, they kind of, you know, San Francisco and, you know, we got to see sort of a new champion. Obviously, Japan won the first years. But this, it feels very different. And it feels like there's just a lot of hype. And it feels like there's just anyone could win. There's about seven of the 20 countries where you can say these guys have an absolute chance to win. And you don't say that about many international tournaments, by the way. Maybe hockey, but it usually ends up the same three or four.

Women's hockey, it's the same two. And in basketball, they don't really have this type of championship. Okay, I love that. And by the way, I'm not just some Johnny come lately. You referenced 2009. 2009, I was there. I was there in Toronto, USA, Canada. I actually flew to Toronto from New York to attend that game and then covered UFC 96, I believe it was Rampage Jackson versus Keith

Jardine that night. So, you know, I've got some credibility myself. So, can we go back just a little bit? 2006, this thing launches. Why does it launch? Why did it happen? Why did they put it together? And who is actually responsible for making this into a thing? It launched because baseball, similar to hockey, actually has a lot of countries that could genuinely win it. For football, obviously, only one country plays it. There's not the same international fervor. You don't get the trash talk in the dugouts that you do, let's say, in hockey, or you don't have these world junior tournaments where people can represent their country,

like you said, under 17, under 18 to 19, the world juniors in Canada. Baseball kind of lacks that a little bit, or they kind of funnel you into the farm system. They funnel you into getting drafted. They funnel you away from sort of you're playing for your country and to be able to, let's become a great professional. How are we going to get you to, you know, what are you going to look like in 10 years as opposed to let's win this tournament now? Magic baseball should take a lot of credit for this.

It is very difficult to get this tournament going. It is very difficult to find time when the Japanese league goes on a different time when the Japanese league goes on a different time. The Cuban league goes on a different time. Major League Baseball, by the way, plays almost, including spring training, 200 games in 225 days. It is very difficult to find time for this. Not to mention, kudos to the players for wanting to play. It's one thing, you have some countries that put their toe in the water, and then you have some, let's say, like the pitching staff for Team USA right now that there's no Verlander, there's no Cease, there's no Scherzer, there's no Cole, there's no Webb, there's all these guys stepping out. Every other country, people are making excuses to play.

You have people like Marcus Stroman who are actually leaving countries to join another one to be able to play. Lars Neupahr left and leaving a country to be able to play for Japan. In this, the fifth iteration, it really feels like it's all hands on deck and it really feels like anyone is going to be able to win this. And the energy is very palpable, not just in the stadium, but also

online. Like there's a lot of talks on trash talk. There's a lot of talking about rotations, talking about lineups, talking about the holes in the lineups. Everyone obviously is very excited about the Dominican lineup. I can tell you two or three flaws that could be there undoing. But there's all kinds of excitement here, which feels like the first time. Wait a second.

Side note. Which country is Marcus Stroman playing for? Because he was like the MVP of the 2017 team that won the whole thing. He's not with the US? He's with Puerto Rico. What? Why? And let me tell you something, because he can. Why? Why is Lars Neupay? Listen, what is Matt Harvey doing with Italy, right? How is Team Israel doing the thing, right? Yes. How's this happening? Tell me. Listen, when we were kids growing up, you and I,

eight or nine years old, you always said to me, watch out for Matt Harvey and Team Italy. And I never paid attention until just game one here. And you're like, wow, they beat Cuba 6-3, Matt Harvey, three innings, shutout, just unbelievable. Stroman is the ace of Team Puerto Rico. And he is him and his agreeance. How can he do it? How do you do that? Because if he has roots or descendants from there, you're able to play for that particular country. Wow. And he's not good enough to play for the US? No, he is good enough to play for the US. By the way, he won MVP in 2017, pitched the gold medal game, not only pitched the gold medal game, but the shoulder shimmy, seven innings, he established himself as one of the best big game pitchers. If you remember, he started game five of, I personally think, the greatest baseball

game I've played. Texas Rangers, Toronto Blue Jays game five. The bat flip, the fights, the seventh inning that they had literally written books about. He pitched six innings, two earned runs in that game after he busted his ACL in spring training, rushed back to get back into the postseason he is the ultimate gamer and he is now the ace of puerto rico and puerto rico has been the silver medalist for 2013 2017 he recently y'all must have forgot right group as in they have an unbelievable roster and they are hungry and they brought back the adi Molina, who is an all WBC team.

He's their manager now. Juan Gonzalez, he's in the dugout right now. There's a lot of teams have a lot of beef, historic beef, a lot of great talent in their dugout to help them win. They're not always all hands on deck between the white lines, but these countries are pulling up the stops to get unbelievable rosters outside of the field also and excuse me in the dugout and when you look at jose barrios and you look at marcus stroman as your one and two and then you look at jorge lopez and edwin diaz in the back of the bullpen for puerto rico and then you look at their incredible roster where you look at lindor and you start to say okay like these guys can actually make a move and it might be difficult for them because they're in the group of death like group d yeah but they have an unbelievable

roster okay you're getting me very excited here i do want to take a quick step back and and just briefly talk about 2006. no joke 2006 usa canada is one of my favorite sporting matches of all time i was working at espPN Classic as a researcher on a show called Classic Now, may it rest in peace. And basically it was a nightly show hosted by the great Josh Elliott, where we had to compare what was going on in sports today to things that were happening in the past.

And we had TVs everywhere. And the WBC at the time was on ESPN. Now it's on Fox. And this WBC at the time was on ESPN. Now it's on Fox. And this game happened in the middle of the day in Arizona, I remember, where the Diamondbacks play. And Canada, what was the guy's name? Like Stubby Clap or something like that? Yeah. It was like our version of the Miracle on Ice.

It was. We beat Jeter and all these guys. I remember there was one play, like a ball hit over to the center field and it went over someone's head and I freaked the hell out. And I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, wasn't I giving you updates because you couldn't watch? Did that happen? This is firstly a happy 17th anniversary

to the Miracle on Dirt. It happened on March 8th. Yes. Is that a thing? Wow. Is March 8th? No, no. It's called the Miracle on Dirt.

Canada beat the US 8-6. There's all kinds of think pieces and New York Times pieces. Yes. Is that a thing? Wow. Is March 8th? No, no. It's called the miracle on dirt. Canada beat the US 8-6. There's all kinds of think pieces and New York Times pieces. Yes. And like, wow, Canada just beat the US. And it was kind of like the opening for Canada in international play. We, of course, always knew Canada had great baseball players. We should not have beaten the US. But here's sort of to take it back to prove your credibility. So, well, March 3rd, 2006, I moved from my house in Montreal to Vancouver to start my internship for the Vancouver Canes. I'm literally starting a life and I am going into baseball. At the time, I was looking for apartments to live in. I was starting work on March 13th. And I totally forgot about the World Baseball Classic because my life has changed. I moved out of my house for the first time. I'm moving across the country. I'm starting in baseball. I tried for two years to get an

internship. This is like the biggest week of my life. I totally forgot. And I had my phone down because I was taking the bus to go look at apartments. And I checked my phone and you literally had sent me like 37 texts. And you were like, what is going on? This guy Stern just made a Willie Mays catch. Who stubbed the clap? Where's Russell Martin? Like all these, like Ernie Witt, like you're at point Larry Walker, like you're pointing out all these like Canadian baseball legends. And I'm like, I totally forgot. And I got back into my place and it kind of, it made me feel good about moving to the Vancouver Canes at the time where Canada is only my baseball team.

It kind of like put a nice little exclamation point. You know what? This feels right. And if I also recall, the Montreal Expos left in 2004 and this 2006 World Baseball Classic happened about a year and a half after that. This kind of was the nice bridge for you to just put your toe in the water to get back into baseball and to get those emotions going again and to kind of move on and to mourn properly and to be able to say, this is one thing I can still love, capital B baseball. I can still love the

sport. There's still a great community about it. I still love the nine innings, you know, the crack of the bat, all the great stuff that baseball is. And that like, that's correct, right? You're a hundred percent right. I think that actually was the first game that I watched, no joke. Cause I think it was the first since, since 2004, October, when I was at Shea stadium, when the Expos played their final game and they lost like seven to one or something like that, that I think that game was the first time that i i had enough courage i was i was deeply sad heartbroken over the departure of the expos and i had courage to turn it on i mean it was right there and i was freaking i i i think i said to you like because the expos never made the playoffs we never got to see them win anything of note right they had big games but this to me felt like the closest thing that i ever

you know was able to watch and be invested in a playoff game right a games but this to me felt like the closest thing that i ever you know was able to watch and be invested in a playoff game right a game that mattered to me canada us there were a bunch of nobody's pete or i think was on the team as well was there a guy named pete or yeah no they had a bunch of you know canada baseball wasn't what it was now now in 2023 well now funn enough, right now there's the perfect storm for people to not care about the World Baseball Classic here in Canada. And I say that with a heavy heart. And I say that because there's so many great legends, Paul Quantro, Larry Walker, longtime manager, Ernie Witt. But here are all the factors that play into this not being very sort of big for Canada. Because of the Miracle miracle on dirt in 2006,

they hosted a game at Rogers Center in 2009 that you went to. They haven't hosted a game in Canada in 14 years, maybe because they want to keep it in the US, maybe because the Rogers Center is under construction. Either way, it's not there, right? We should be talking about, let's have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. as the first baseman.

Where are we going to put Joey Votto? Is he going to D.H.? Could Freddie Freeman play left field? What about Josh Naylor and Bo Nayeman. Where are we going to put Joey Votto? Is he going to ditch? Could Freddie Friedman play left field? What about Josh Naylor and Bo Naylor? How are we going to get them into the lineup? Because I just mentioned two lefties or three lefties and then righty Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Only Freddie Friedman because of his mom is playing for Canada.

Josh Naylor's not playing. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. chose to play for Dominican Republic, which we'll get into shortly. And Josh Naylor isn't playing. His brother Bo is. There's not the same all-hands-on-deck approach as it was. Votto's not playing. And that's the thing.

So you don't have this all-hands-on-deck approach for Team Canada. The other thing is that the Blue Jays just had an amazing year last year, right? They just made the playoffs. They have – I don't want to use the our world rebuild because they've actually done a great rebuild in the last two years, but they had a really good off season, you know, train Tosca Hernandez, train Lotus Carrillo June. They brought in Don Mattingly. It's John Shonner's first year. They have world series aspirations. If you have a baseball appetite right now, which a lot of Canadians do, you're watching the Blue Jays. You don't need to watch the World Baseball Classic at two in the morning to see Taiwan against Cuba or Panama

against Cuba. Now, a lot of people, a lot of fans do that, but you can get your whistle wet by watching Blue Jays games for baseball. And lastly, and this is just my opinion, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was the ultimate Canadian. He was born in Montreal. His father's one of the best athletes to ever play in this country. Like a lot of Canadians, his father was an immigrant. Everyone could identify with him. He plays on national TV across the entire country. The Blue Jays market is 37 million people. I'm going to want to repeat that because market size and everyone always talks about in sports business. But if you're a Texas Rangers fan, your local radio station, your local TV station, excuse me, it has 150 miles or you have to buy the MLB TV network to have all these local blackouts and all these things that have stunted the growth of baseball. You can get the basic cable package and

watch 130 Blue Jays games. And when the NHL playoffs are going on, you can get the adjusted, the super cable package and watch every single Blue Jays game, whether you live in Moose Jaw, Toronto, Montreal, Victoria, Yukon, you can get all these games. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., a Montreal-born player who plays in Canada for 162 games a year, is playing for Dominican Republic. That is 100% his right. God bless him. But it takes a little bit away from baseball's, from Canada's son to be playing for not Canada when he's on TV in Canada. We know him from Canada and that hurts. And that hurts Canada baseball. That hurts the plight of the team right now. Yeah, no, it would be great to see him there. And I think from a PR

perspective, it would have been a very smart move on his part to make him even more beloved in Canada. But alas, as you said, he's allowed to do whatever he wants. Now, this is the first time, correct me if I'm wrong, that they have 20 teams, not 16 teams, right? There's qualifying and all that. It's four pools, five teams each, and it's underway, like I said. And Canada and US are going to start playing, not against each other, but this weekend. You mentioned the top seven. Off the top of your head, could you tell me who they are? Who are the top seven that we should be looking at? Like, who are the favorites right now? US, by the way, the defending champs, they had a great run in 2017. And I really thought, it's unfortunate because of the COVID pandemic, thought that them winning

would help make this an even bigger deal here in the United States. Of course, you know, it feels like an eternity ago. You know, I don't even know if Adam Jones is still playing in Major League Baseball. I don't think, and he was one of the stars of that team. In any event, they've got the likes of Mike Trout and many others playing. So give me the top seven, as you mentioned earlier. In no particular order. Let's start with the pools that have started to play, pool A and B right now. Look, Cuba got off to an 0-2 start. Wow. Yeah, they were the finalists in 2006. They've kind of underachieved, so to speak, relative to their baseball prowess. Cuba obviously has a very difficult time procuring players. They don't let people who have fled

Jose Brea or Robles-Chapman, they don't let those players play for Cuba. Obviously, there's a great political sort of issue there. Cuba, even though they're 0-2, they were down to Panama, 4-2, bottom of the fourth inning. Panama had second and third, nobody out. And you felt that they were going to leave the term, they're going to go 0-3, they're going to be eliminated,

and they got out of it. And how did they get out of it? They got a strikeout, groundout, and a strikeout. And the players were celebrating. They were very demonstrative. And you could feel the tide turning. Wham, wham, bam. It went from 4-2 to 11-4.

Cuba's right back in this thing. And the White Sox guys, the core of their team, Johan Mankata and Luis Robert, the White Sox guys, they're getting going. They just went 5-11 in this game against Panama. I know it sounds weird. Panama, Cuba, playing in Taiwan. But, trust me, the energy was palpable, and they got right back into

this tournament. It was remarkable. Japan, they are... Sorry to interrupt. So it's five teams per group, and there's four groups, four pools. How many advance to the next round? Only two for each division. It's a round robin where they play, everyone plays each other in your own pool.

Once, right? Once. And then you go the first two and then let's say pool A, the first place in pool A plays pool B because they're in- It's like World Cup of Soccer, what we just saw. Right. Except for obviously it's not much bigger and they want to be able to maintain regional. So Taiwan and Japan will take their two semifinal teams and then go to Miami, Arizona, Miami. They'll play in Miami also, like the American team. So they'll want to keep it as regional. That's actually the next exciting step for this is they had preliminaries. They had like

the Netherlands had to get in, not to, there were teams that had to get into this tournament. Czech Republic had to qualify to get into this tournament. The next big step for this tournament is to not have it predicated on the local rivalries. So group D, the group of death aptly named group D, Dominican Republic, Israel, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, that might be the top three teams, right? Japan's in there. US isn't, but like you have the top three teams. Yes. They're going to play each other. Yes. The atmosphere is going to be amazing. Yes. It's going to be in Miami. Yes. It's a great marketing, but one of those teams has to go home and you don't want to have that. I think the next step is going to be having those teams sort of play anywhere and also to be able to have a draw like

they do in the World Cup of Soccer. Now, I say that, and the attendance for the first World Baseball Classic in 2006, they averaged almost 19,000. Now in 2017, they averaged 24,000. So the attendance is going up. I assume it's going to be a lot higher. We already know Chase Field is sold out for the U.S.-Mexico game in Pool C. So the attendance is going to – like you're going to see baseball, like you said, it's really going to start this weekend because – and this is respectfully to Groups A or B.

Baseball is about every day, consistency, volume, eight games a day. That is what's starting on Saturday. So that's when the tournament's really going to kind of, think of the Olympics where you have a few sports that start before the opening ceremony, but it really kind of gets going like day two. This is that. And it's with all due respect to pool A or B, you're going to see baseball on now for 20 hours a day for the next week, which is going to be incredible. Oh, it's fantastic. I think eight games a day, right? Saturday and Sunday. And that's how we're used to consuming baseball.

That's the other thing. They've made this so that you are consuming baseball like you consume baseball for over the last 150 years, which is there's a game at two, there's a game at one, there's a game at four. Okay, I got to go shopping. I got to come out. I got to work my schedule around the US. You know, Canada game.

I'm going to work my schedule around the US, Mexican, Dominican Republic, Spain, Venezuela. And you're going to be able to pick and choose what you want to watch. But you are able to binge. The games start at 2 a.m. in Asia, like in Taiwan or in Japan. That is how people normally consume baseball, obviously, with the exception of being in Japan, but they're used to watching baseball that is on all the time. And that is a huge pro. That's a huge advantage for this tournament. Now, as they grow, they're able to put more games on. So the two big talking points, I think, since the start of this whole tournament, this idea. Number one, getting the stars to play.

And we've seen this as a thing you said with the pitchers for the US, but the Trouts of the world, the Otanis of the world, they're playing. So that seems like a good thing. But number two was, when's the ideal time for this tournament to happen? And so we were just talking off air before we started. There's a lot going on right now in sports, right? We're just getting into baseball. Spring training is just getting rolling. We're just like warming up to baseball because we had football, American football on our minds.

If you're a soccer fan, that's in full swing. March Madness is about to start. NHL playoffs around the corner. NBA playoffs around the corner. There's big fights going on in my world every single weekend. Is this the best time? We just saw the FIFA World Cup happen in the corner. There's big fights going on in my world every single weekend. Is this the best time? We just saw the FIFA World Cup happen in the middle of all the seasons, right? They stopped everything.

Is that the best time? Like do it in July when people are really into baseball and there's not a lot of competition. Is November the best time after the World Series? When is the best time for this tournament to happen? Because this has been the constant debate since the start, right? I actually think now is when you factor in all the things you just said, now is the most realistic time to have it because major baseball owners are not going to take away their July gates. They're not going to take away in the middle of the summer when you're going to be able to have 15 games on fireworks on Saturdays,

movie nights, postgame concerts. That's the bread and butter of baseball. Realistically, they're not going to take that away. Japan pauses their season for this. Wow. They're in regular season right now. When there's a truly global sport, you have to take into effect all these global countries, and it's never going to be the right thing for everyone. Now, are players after a season going to want to ramp up and get the adrenaline rush for doing this? Probably not. November's not the right time. I think also after the World Series, it's hard to be like, oh yeah, wait, there's an after party. And I just think it cheapens and it dampens it. Not to mention November, the days are a little

bit, they're shorter, they're darker. It's not baseball here. The days are getting longer. We're going to daylight savings time. The sun is out. Baseball is being played. There's spring training. There's everything that's going on. I would say now is the best time. There really isn't an ideal time. Major League Baseball season is seven months again.

There's a longevity. There's a consistency to it. Now, Jason Stark, the great writer, former Philadelphia Inadelphia inquirer now of espn he has said that or he has he has posited the idea of why don't you have the tournament now and then you have the semi-finals and finals on all-star week where you literally have now i like that isn't that too far so so i like that idea because you really own that week of baseball and it's the best of baseball it's the best international the best of the home. And it's the best of baseball. It's the best international. It's the best of the home run contest. It's the best of the all-star game.

But are major league baseball owners going to want their players to go full out in the middle of their season, two weeks before the trade deadline, playing not major league baseball? Probably not. It's not the most realistic thing. Now, could they do that in two iterations

in the seventh or eighth? And this thing gets really big? Maybe. But as of now, I think this is the best time to have it, all things considered. Factoring in the Major League Baseball, that Major League Baseball of the season is number one, and they do have a problem getting players from Major League Baseball. Rightfully so, by the way. It's people's right, and they play for their team, and people may not identify with their country as much as they identify more with their career and bless their hearts. I think now is the best time. March, with March Madness, it really is only about six days and the UFC is also global and it is also every week. The NHL is also every week. NBA is also every day, excuse me. This is the best time to have it. Spring is in the air. The days are getting longer. It's baseball season, and you're almost extending your regular season and the impact of baseball, but from the front as opposed to from the back. Okay, fair enough. Can you tell me about and remind me the pitching rules?

And I think sometimes people bring that up as a reason not to get excited about this. It's like, ah, this is exhibition. Pitchers can't go a certain length, right? Yeah, look, in order for this tournament to get going, they had to get the major baseball owners and the players to sign off. Players and coaches and managers have to be stopped from themselves. In the pool play, there's a maximum of 65 pitches per game. In the quarterfinals, it goes up to 80. Then in the championship rounds and semisfinals, it goes up to 80. And then in the championship rounds and semis and finals, it goes up to 95. If you throw over 50, there's a four-day rest.

If you throw over 30, it's a one-day rest. Look, it's not this glamorous thing. Jack Morris pitching 10 innings in 91 in game seven, this is not. However, if you're going to have this tournament before the regular season starts, you have to put guardrails on it. And it sucks. And it's not the way baseball was designed to be played. It's not why everyone fell in love with baseball the last 150 years, but it's fine. to have Sandy Alcantara or Marcus Stolman in a semifinal match able to throw 95 pitches each, I'll take that. If we're able to have Shohei Otani being able to throw 95 pitches in the semifinals, I'll take that, right? The pool play, if you're going to increase the amount of games, you're going to have to win on depth anyways. You probably aren't going to throw more than 65 pitches in a pool game. Also, you may throw, you want that guy to go all in and maybe get to 80 or 90, but you need to have depth anyways. And then once you get into the second

round, 80 pitches, okay, you wish that was 90, 95, then you wish the 95 was 110. It's fine. It's, I don't think it cheapens the tournament at all. I don't think it dampens it. And it actually puts an emphasis on the depth of countries and the managers and the great things that we also love about baseball, which is the double or the switches, the when to put in the right guy at a certain time, when to get the lefty lefty matchup, when to get the righty righty matchup, when to do this. So it emphasizes the fun stuff about baseball, but also lets the stars shine and the depth shine a little bit more too. Okay. So according to my good friends over at BetMGM, current winner, at least favorite, to win it all is the Dominican Republic plus 220, USA plus 240, Japan plus 260, Venezuela

plus 1,100, Puerto Rico plus 1,800. So there's a big drop-off after Japan. That's the top three as far as their odds are concerned. DR, USA, Japan. In your opinion, who is the actual favorite? You know, to steal a line from one of your industries, Dominican Republic is built for show. Venezuela is built to go. Dominican Republic, I can name you all the stars, Machado and Peña, Rookie of the Year, World Series MVP, Rafael Devers, Julio Rodriguez, Juan Soto, but here's the problem. They don't have a natural first baseman after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. stepped away. Jamer Candelario has played the same amount of first base that you and I have since 2020, and bless his heart, he's not a very good first baseman to start with.

They're going to have a Robinson Cano or someone who is not a natural first baseman play first base, and that's not very good for a short term. Robinson Cano? Robinson Cano. What? That Robinson Cano, the 2013 World Baseball Classic MVP Robinson Cano. Wow. Now, that's not very good in a short tournament. That's not very good for defense. That's not very good when a Willie Adamas is going to be sitting on the

bench. Again, I can tell you all the stars they have, but a lot of them are going to be on the bench at the same time because they don't have a first baseman who can play now. If there were no injuries, if Luis Castillo, he of the five-year $108 million extension in Seattle, if he was the number two starter, okay. If Starley Marte was going to be the right fielder, okay. If Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was going to be the first baseman, okay. But these guys aren't playing. And that leaves a little bit of a hole in the lineup. And again, we can talk about the names all we want. And I can tell you how great their bullpen is because it is. They have the Astros guys, and then they have Doval from the Giants as a closer. They have Francisco Mejia, one of the best defensive catchers in baseball. They have a great team.

What could be their undoing is they don't have a natural first baseman, let alone a gold glove first baseman like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. And their outfield defense, if they had Starling Marte, you can say, okay, well, Starling Marte is in right field, Julio Rigg is in center field. You can stick Juan Soto, or you can stick Teoscar Hernandez. But now you have Teoscar Hernandez is going to have to play Teoscar Hernandez, Juan Soto. They're going to have to play two of the three outfield positions. And that's not very good. That's not very good having, that's not very good having an outfield positions and that's not very good that's not very good having that's not very good having an outfield defense again in one game where it could cost you i think that's going to

rear its ugly head for them so venezuela's the pick i like venezuela as the pick for wow they're not even in the top three no they're not look it's gonna their most difficult game is probably going to be their most difficult game is probably going to be getting out of the pool. I'm going to tell you why, Venezuela. Here's the X factor of the tournament. Okay? Get the lights. Get all these different things going on.

We'll get a little strobe light going on. It's Ronald Acuna Jr. Okay? I can tell you how good Anthony Santander, the quietest 33 home runs you have. He's your right fielder or left fielder. I can tell you. We all know about Altuve and Luis Urias and all these great, like we know how great Miggie Cabrera, the last, his true last dance, Andres Jimenez. But Ronald Acuna Jr. was on his way to an MVP in 2021 when he busted his ACL, ironically, in Miami. Okay.

The Braves went on to win the World Series that year. They put a patchwork team that picked up Eddie Rosario, that picked up Adam Duvall, and they made the, to win the World Series that year they put a patchwork team that picked up Eddie Rosario they picked up Adam Duvall and they made the they won the World Series that year and while Ronald Acuna would they would not have made the playoffs without Ronald Acuna that year he wasn't part of the World Series victory he wasn't part of that playoff run and he has been itching to get on the world stage and to prove that he is a dominant player. And there is no bigger world stage now than the World Baseball Classic. I think he's going to go off. I think they have the, I just mentioned all those pitching restrictions. Well, they have Marquez, Pablo Lopez, Jesus, Zardo, Martin Price. They have a really good rotation that plays to the

depth of the tournament. They got the great Phillies guys in the back end, Jose Alvarado, Ranger Suarez, and the X Factor. My prediction for the MVP is going to be Ronald Acuna Jr. He's going to round everything all together. It is a true group of death. You have Puerto Rico, like I said, Dominican Republic, but only two could survive. I think Venezuela is going to sneak through, and I think they're going to win. I love this. I'm going to go to BetMGM, shout out, lay a little lumber. One of the darlings of the 2017 iteration of the World Baseball Classic was Israel, near and dear to our hearts.

Do they have a chance to make some noise this time around? And, you know, you're talking about, you know, Stroman. I recognize the fact that I think no one, maybe one or two dudes, but I don't think any of them are actually from Israel. It's people who, correct me if I'm wrong, it's if you are eligible to gain citizenship in these countries. You don't even have to have citizenship. It's just if you are eligible. And the rule in Israel is if you are Jewish, you can gain citizenship. So the requirement is you just have to have someone in your family, a grandparent that is Jewish in order to play for Israel, right? Right. I mean, look, the rules of WBC are aiming to grow the sport of baseball and what the sport of baseball is going to look like in the Netherlands. It looks like Victor Wembyana, who's going to be the number one pick overall from France. It looks

like Nico Hirscher, who was the first overall pick in hockey from Switzerland. It looks like Marie-Philippe Poulin, who's the consensus best female hockey player ever after watching all those great US-Canada fights. It looks like all those Mexican champions at the UFC. This is the investment of baseball into the sports. And you're only going to see it bloom in the next generation. So yes, the team Israel is made up of a bunch of Americans, but they have to plant the seed to get the sport going before they actually get the sport going.

I love it. I love everything about it. So the finals are March 21st. So this is happening very quickly. I can't wait for the scenes in Miami. Six years ago. Fantastic. I mean, the scenes were better there than any Marlins game that I've ever seen at Marlins Park.

I mean, it's just ever. Yeah. Exponentially better. Ever. That's not even by the way, that's not even a shot. That includes 97 when they tore the team down six hours after the parade uh that is literally it is the literal best moment that has happened ironically marcus sturm winning mvp against puerto rico in 2017 was also the best

moment to have a shot that's a shot at dodgers fans chevez ravine's a house of horrors for them it's got the only teams to win championships at Chavez Ravine are the Red Sox, the Astros, Team USA, a.k.a. not the Dodgers. It's funny how the Marlins are going to have the best baseball moments of that stadium are going to be not the Marlins. Do we have any chance to see like a Netherlands checkerboard, like some random country make a little run here? Is there any shot?

And if so so who would that be we could netherlands right now is two and oh uh you know if cuba panama and italy can kind of beat each other up on the back end they can maybe sneak in look i i i don't think anybody in pool c or excuse me the group of death is going to be able to do it but here's a team to maybe keep an eye on and it's mexico in group c we just mentioned how great britain bless their hearts columbia bless their hearts team israel you made a great movie out of 2017 to mention on the bench yeah i think we're done uh mexico mexico is better than canada they have julio urias they have taiwan walker they have better players than they should

be able to sneak through. And if they can line up their rotation, if they can get those guys, Alex Verdugo, if they can get those guys sort of into the next round and at least have one big victory, that could be the team. They could be the South Korea from 2006 or the team Israel from 2017. They could be the team that kind of sneaks through. Of course, us as Canadians, Team Mexico is going to miss Alejandro Kirk. Now, he missed a little bit of spring training because of the birth of his child, and the Blue Gears are prepping him to be the horse behind the –

they're prepping to win a World Series. It is his right to not be able to play in the tournament. Team Mexico is going to miss him. Does Canada have a chance to advance? It's going to be between them and Mexico. The smart money is on Mexico. And again, I say that, like, I love the Ernie Witts, Laiwa, because I know the sacrifices they have made.

Paul Quantrill, Russell Martins, like, they're going to be in the dugout. I know these are legends of Canadian baseball. We grew up idolizing them. Like, they literally built the sport. Fergusonizing them. They literally built the sport, Ferguson Jenkins. They built the sport. I just wish there was more of a buy-in for more Canadians playing. Again, I wish that we were having the conversation of, you know, a barbershop conversation of, where's Freddie Freeman going to play? Where's Joey Votto going to play? Is Guerrero going to move to third base because he's going to give the older brother Votto the right

to play first base and, you know, go black and play, like all these great things, but it doesn't exist, sadly. So give me Mexico coming out of Group C. It's always the problem with Canadian sports other than hockey. We had this problem with basketball for years. Only now are we starting to see the basketball guys from Canada, the young studs, want to play for Canada. But, you know, we had Stephen Ash in 2000 and no one of note, Rick Fox, all these dudes never wanted to play for Canada. Alas, I digress. Last one, Venezuela, you say is going to win it all. Are they going to play the States? Are the States going to make it? Because I do think it's huge for this country to start to fall in love with baseball again, for the States to make a run here. I think it would be huge for them. Can the States make it at least to the final?

They have the best lineup anyone's ever seen and not only so they are the true best lineup but they have the right combination of lefties righties also such a well-known spooky bets arenado with junior goldschmidt schwarber tucker mcneil they have an amazing lineup i don't like their pitching where's hater where's webb where's nola where's wheeler where's cole where's kershaw where's schutzer where's sale where's vereler? Where's Cole? Where's Kershaw? Where's Scherzer? Where's Sale? Where's Verlander? Where's Cease? Where are these guys? And by the way, Clayton Kershaw, the whole insurance thing. Chargers are worth about $6 or $7 billion. Kershaw's made $300 million. Insurance is one of the largest industries in the world. You're telling me that all three of them couldn't put their heads together to get him to play in the World Baseball Classic? He seemed upset. Do you think it's a work? He's not upset? Of course it's a work.

You're telling me if Clayton Kershaw wanted to play in the World Baseball Classic, he couldn't have. Wow. Right? Now, the Dodgers haven't exactly managed Clayton Kershaw. Clayton Kershaw is going to have when he's sitting on the ranch in Texas when he retires. I don't know if you know this, but him and Matt Stafford are really good friends from their childhood.

They're going to be saying to you, you know what? You made a decent move in your career to force your way out of Detroit to get a Super Bowl. And I listened to my manager. I was going to throw a complete game, but I was taken off to 78 pitches in April in Cincinnati. And my manager said, we're preparing for October. If anyone does anything in April that they know they can manage in October, play the lottery.

Get out of sports. Get out of whatever you're doing. It was disgraceful then. It was very unsavory. And the fact that Clayton Kershaw, Clayton Kershaw, the first ballot hall of famer, cannot play for the world baseball classic because the Dodgers are probably putting their clamps on him. It reeks. It reeks. I went in doubt, always blame an insurance company. That is the right PR move, but it reeks if he wanted to play for them and he wasn't able to. All right. Well, that's a sour note, but I am excited. All right. There's a lot to be excited

about. There's a lot to get into. If you're looking for something to do this weekend, there's, like I said, 16 games over the next 48 hours. It's fun. The atmosphere is fun. It's patriotic. And again, watch those games in Miami, especially when the DR is playing, when Puerto Rico is playing. I mean, it's just, it's fantastic theater. I really do love it. And I want people to get into it here. You're amazing at this. And I love listening to you on Gabe Morenci's show. It is called Sports Rage? Sports Rage Late Night. Yes. He is the man. You are the man. Jason Takifman. Follow him on Twitter

at Jason B. Takifman. I do believe it is one of the smartest men that I've ever met when it comes to all things, not just baseball, if I'm being honest, sports, sports business in particular. Thanks so much for doing this. Enjoy the games. Thank you for having me. All right. How great was that? That was fantastic stuff. Infectious, right? I mean, his personality, his passion for the game was tremendous. I'm even more excited about everything that is to come. And it's going to happen very quickly. Just 11 days left. So jump on board right now. Follow him on Twitter for all the great insight, at Jason B. Takifman. And go check out

our YouTube page as well. A lot more stuff coming next week, week after. And I'm very excited about it. It's Ariel Helwani on YouTube. Thank you very much to the production team. Thank you to Jason Tachman. Thanks to all of you. Appreciate you guys listening. Please do continue to rate, download, subscribe, review. A lot more to come.

All right? So buckle up. Different stuff, fun stuff. We're going to have fun. This is my little personal playground from the mind of Helwani. Hope you enjoyed this one. Hope you have a great weekend. I'll talk to you next time. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh