Was this the best World Baseball Classic ever?

The World Baseball Classic came to an epic conclusion on Tuesday night with a Hollywood ending, as Angels teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout faced off in the ninth. Ohtani won the battle of the game’s best to deliver Japan the WBC title.

Baseball is Dead and Jared Carrabis Podcast host Jared Carrabis joined GoJo prior to the WBC Final to discuss the tournament as a whole. The tournament has been hotly debated following injuries to players like Edwin Diaz and Jose Altuve, but Carrabis has been a staunch defender in the past on Baseball is Dead. As such, Carrabis has felt like he’s been defending the WBC from both people who say baseball is boring AND people who love the game but are upset about the injuries happening away from the players’ MLB teams. He does say he feels like he’s winning these arguments, handily he might add, but notes that while he does feel for Mets fans he feels they should be mad at the universe, not the tournament.

Rather than seeing players shy away from the tournament in the future, Carrabis thinks you will see MORE players looking to participate by actually writing the ability to participate into their contracts to prevent teams from prohibiting them to take part. He said he thinks the U.S. winning the 2017 tournament as a turning point, leading to the participation of the aforementioned Trout and Bryce Harper, who would have played had it not been for injury. He also said the tournament is building momentum every year, noting that Trea Turner’s grand slam drew more Twitter video numbers than any other major moment in recent MLB history.

Mike asked Jared about the possibility of moving the WBC to another time of year away from Spring Training, but Jared doesn’t think that will be necessary nor would it be conducive to the best competition. He thinks that you’re already playing Spring Training games in March anyways, and given the length of the season and the fact more teams are making the postseason with expansion it seems hard to ask players to play eight months of baseball and then add on one more. Plus, he also notes that you don’t want to compete with the NFL by moving it to November, so March is perfect timing for the tournament.

Given all the excitement both on the field from the players and in the stands from the fans, it blows Jared’s mind that there are still those who call the WBC meaningless exhibition games. Mike says this seems like the exact sort of thing because you can wrap it in national pride and we’re seeing a new side of some of the players, that could be a gateway for more casual fans invested in the game. Jared thinks the WBC has gotten back the attention of fans who have maybe drifted away from the game in recent years. He doesn’t necessarily think it will convert the “baseball is boring” crowd necessarily, but he does hope the WBC can take the people who fell out of love with baseball and make them fall back in love with baseball.

SHOW BREAKDOWN

Jared Carrabis breaks down the World Baseball Classic + LeBron returns from injury, Nick Saban throws shade, and the Jets, Packers, Rodgers saga

• Gojo and Brandon get ready for the return of LeBron and Ja Morant to the NBA court (03:50). The guys debate if this is too soon for Ja, and if this event has dampened the popularity of the Grizzlies overall (10:15). They also discuss who has more leverage in the stare down between the Jets and Packers over Aaron Rodgers (22:40). Baseball is Dead host Jared Carrabis joins to break down the World Baseball Classic (34:05) and why it’s been so successful. The guys finish up with This, That, and the Third (1:01:00): Some Shining Moments, Nick Saban subtweeting, Rick Pitino to St. Johns, and Rick Ross’ buffalo.

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