Gary Sheffield is the first but he won't be the last to say that he won't risk his livelihood on early spring games.

The 16 team, 18 day World Baseball Classic is great in theory but will have many problems as MLB tries to make it work. Cuba has come out and said, that if this competition is a capitalization of baseball it will not participate. The Japanese Major Leagues has accepted, but their players association has not. Alex Rodriguez said he would love to play for the Dominican Republic, but minutes later was told by Commissioner Bud Selig, it's not his decision to make. These are just a few of the early problems getting these games off the ground.

The Major League Baseball Players association has said, they will require pitch counts. Here's my take.

Yes, I love the fact that baseball wants to go global, but no, the timing is terrible. Having a tournament in the middle of spring training is going to cause many players to decline and many teams to hold their breath while their players, which they pay millions of dollars to, participate in an event that holds NO rewards for them.

Just like winter baseball in many countries, once players have achieved some success in our Major Leagues, their teams ask them to stop playing, 1) because they don't want the player to risk injury and 2) teams want their players to have enough off-season as possible, and to save their best baseball for the MLB Championship Season.

These will be some of the major problems facing MLB as they ask players, 1) who are not in tip-top shape and 2) could be coming off season-ending surgery or some injury that hurt their production the year before. Listen, if I'm an owner, and I pay you to work and play for me, do I want you risking any type of injury that will hurt my teams chances that year? Also, do I want you wasting your pitches, or your energy on a tournament that gets me nothing in return?

And this might be the biggest reason — we are trying to get ready for a long, 185 day, 162 game season and possible playoff games. Some of our team is playing in this tournament, and some of us are playing spring training games, and all of us are not together for 18 days, and possibly longer depending on if you go to the final rounds?

Any activities, whether it be flag football or water skiing are written into players' contracts to protect them from harm. Why is it when it helps MLB it's OK for the same players to risk harm when they and the teams get nothing in return...

If I'm a player and or an owner, I say no thanks, if you won't stop the season for the Olympics, then don't stop spring training for The World Baseball Classic.