World Baseball Classic? I'm excited!

Finally, a World Cup for baseball. I keep reading and hearing talk of the WBC being stupid and pointless (Mike Downey for the Chicago Tribune, Boers and Bernstein on WSCR 670), but it's stupid and pointless to those that don't get the purpose of it. Baseball is an international sport, and I can't wait to see how the USA's best stack up against the opposition. It will give many stars the opportunity to play on great teams before they go back to the mediocre teams they are stuck on. I love the idea of seeing players representing their nations. I hope that eventually the WBC becomes more important then the regular season, just as the World Cup trumps anything else in soccer. I hope that players will fight for spots instead of being begged to play. What worries me is that most of the stars may not play in the games, they're dropping out like flies. I hope Hideki Matsui gets ridiculed and humiliated for not playing for Japan, I hope Aramis Ramirez lives to regret his decision for dropping out.
Most of all I hope to see hardnosed competitive baseball.