Lucas Rojas ’24
Founded in 2006, this international Baseball tournament known as the World Baseball Classic partnered up with Major League Baseball to form a baseball tournament with different countries in the world competing for the grand trophy. The winning team also gets bragging rights for being known as the country with the best baseball athletes at the time.
The tournament happens every four years and is growing in popularity yearly. This edition in the World Baseball Classic there are 20 teams competing for the trophy and 4 different pools that these teams are sorted in. Pool A consists of Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Cuba, Italy and Panama. Pool B consists of Japan, Korea, Australia, China, and Czech Republic. Pool C consists of the USA, Canada, Colombia, Mexico and Great Britain. Pool D consists of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Israel and Nicaragua.
The World Baseball Classic will start on March 8th and end on March 21st, and features pool games, quarterfinals, semifinals , and a championship game. The tournament also has four different locations in which the games will be played: Miami, Phoenix, Tokyo and Taichung. In Miami the games will be played at LoanDepot park; in Phoenix the games will be played at Chase Field; in Tokyo the games will be played at the Tokyo Dome; and in Taichung the games will be played in the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium.
Who are the top 5 favorites to win the WBC? Dominican Republic, United States, Japan, Puerto Rico and Venezuela in that order. The world’s biggest baseball stars play in this tournament such as Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Vladimir Guerrero Jr,, Ronald Acuna Jr, Freddie Freeman, etc. The list goes on and on. Tune into the World Baseball Classic to see highly competitive games and players playing for their own country.
In conclusion the World Baseball Classic is a place for athletes to represent their talents and their home country.
Everything you need to know about the World Baseball Classic:
The Salesian Spectator 