Japan still undecided on World Baseball Classic

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http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/8581686

 

Japan still undecided on World Baseball Classic

CBS SportsLine.com wire reports   

 

NEW YORK -- Japan might skip baseball's first World Cup-style tournament next year.

 

U.S. major-league and union officials traveled to Japan last week and set an end-of-the-month deadline for an agreement with the Japanese owners and players. U.S. baseball officials have been planning a formal launch announcement of the World Baseball Classic for July 11, the day before the All-Star Game in Detroit.

 

"We told the Japanese we needed their decision by June 30, that was the absolutely outermost limit of time we had," Gene Orza, chief operating officer of the Major League Baseball Players Association, said Monday.

 

Under the plan formulated by the commissioner's office and the players association, Japan would host one of the four first-round groups of the 16-team tournament for national teams.

 

Orza went to Japan last week with Paul Archey, a senior vice president of Major League Baseball International, and remained hopeful that Japan would agree to participate in the event, which has been in the planning stage for several years

 

Nippon Professional Baseball and the Japanese players association expressed concerns, with the union believed to be the larger obstacle.

 

"I think they felt that they should have had more consultation afforded them than they believe was the case," Orza said. "We tried to reassure them that would be the case going forward."

 

Archey did not return several messages seeking comment Monday.

 

Several Japanese players, including Atsuya Furuta, the head of the Japanese players association, prefer to have the event in November rather than just before the start of the regular season.

 

Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners would likely be among those invited to play if Japan fields a team. Most baseball players haven't been following the talks.

 

"I haven't been thinking about it," Matsui said through a translator.

 

Suzuki isn't sure whether he would play, even if Japan does have a team.

 

"You don't know what kind of tournament this is going to be, and the future of the tournament," he said, also through an interpreter. "You don't know if it's going to be a big thing or not."