Thank you all for your responses.



My reason for asking is that right now the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is taking a LOT of flak from fans of Major League Baseball (MLB), mainly because of some injuries sustained by key players during the WBC tournament.

Those who defend the WBC (including yours truly ) point to the players themselves, who gladly represent their countries for free... although they knowingly put themselves at risk of injury just like any other sport.

But MLB fans are especially vicious... and some become quite ultra nationalistic (and a bit jingoistic)... in trashing the WBC as a "useless" tournament.

I've put in my own two cents in some instances, where I've made comparisons between the WBC, the FIFA World Cup, the FIBA World Cup, and other international tournaments.