All That is Wrong with the WBC

The World Baseball Classic seems like a great idea to promote and spark interest in baseball in countries around the world. But stories like this one bother me:

His allegiance torn between the Dominican Republic and United States, Rodriguez finally made up his mind Tuesday night and decided he will participate in the World Baseball Classic as a member of the U.S. team.

Why are there so many players who cannot decide which team to play for? Why were the rules allowed to be so loose on the nationality of these players? Take a look at the Italian team: do Mike Piazza and Jason Grilli even speak Italian?

For some countries, particularly Italy, how does this help the development of baseball in their countries? If players are being allowed to compete for countries that are the homelands of one grandparent, why not have many teams made up solely of American players? Not just the Italian team, but Irish, English, and German teams as well.

The concept of the WBC is great, but it will never come close to matching the worldwide popularity of the World Cup, and some of the luster lost is becuase of these strange nationality rules.