The best thing that can be said about the World Baseball Classic's experimental tie-breaking method is that the idea is 15 years and one commissioner too late.
Where was commissioner Rob Mandred when his predecessor, Bud Selig, really needed him in 2002? You might remember that's the year baseball's All-Star Game ended in a tie, in Selig's hometown of Milwaukee, no less.
Actually, Manfred was on Selig's staff, but he was more involved with speeding up labor negotiations than baseball games. Now that he's in the chair, Manfred's main objective seems to be speeding up the game, even if he has to use some off-the-wall tactics that appear to have come straight from the Sunday beer-league softball rule book.
