Every few years in March, baseball’s greatest stars assemble for an international tournament in what is the equivalent of the World Cup for baseball. This year, with games being played in Miami, Houston, San Juan, and Tokyo starting this week, the relatively new tournament is receiving more popularity and anticipation than ever.
This year, the three heavy favorites to win the tournament are Japan, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. These three countries happen to be the only countries to win the WBC, with Japan winning it three times and the other countries each winning once. In past years, the US hasn’t had its best possible roster, especially from a pitching standpoint, because some players want to prepare for the MLB season rather than playing in the WBC. This year however, the US has its best pitchers and a star-studded lineup, making them the favorites going into this year’s tournament.
Sophomore baseball player and fan Harper Ewer thinks, “The US is definitely the best team in the tournament, so they should win it all.”
However, Japan has stars from the MLB, including Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, on top of many players from their own league, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), who have propelled them to three WBC titles in the first five tournaments played.
The tournament begins with pool play split up into four different pools of five teams each. Each team plays four games of pool play, one against every team in their pool, before the top two teams in each pool move on to bracket play. The eight teams that qualified play in a single-elimination bracket, all leading back to the finals in Miami.
Pool A plays in Puerto Rico, Pool B plays in Houston, Pool C plays in Tokyo, and Pool D plays in Miami. After pool play, two quarterfinals are played in Houston and two are played in Miami, and then both semifinal games and the final are played in Miami. All games are broadcasted on FOX or a FOX network.
Last tournament’s final featured an iconic matchup between two teammates at the time, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and Japan up by one. Ohtani ended up striking out Trout in an at bat featuring multiple 100+ mile per hour pitches, bringing the trophy back to Japan. Despite being widely considered the two best players in the world at the time of the last tournament in 2023, Ohtani is only hitting, not pitching this year and Trout has dealt with injuries in recent years so he could get the insurance required to play for Team USA this year.
With international competition thriving recently in professional sports through the Olympics for hockey and basketball and rise of competition level with new countries building strong teams, there is a lot of anticipation going into this tournament. Team USA has a particularly young team of rising superstars, with 14 players under 30.
Red Sox fan Jamie Franklin explained, “I am excited to watch Roman Anthony play for Team USA this year. At just 21 years old, he has a bright future ahead of him.” Anthony got the nod to play for Team USA after Corbin Carroll broke a bone in his hand and had to opt out of the tournament, which makes him the youngest player on Team USA.
With many teams lined with MLB and other professional talent, this should be one of the most competitive World Baseball Classics we have seen. Baseball is historically America’s pastime, but with powerhouses throughout the Americas and Asia, even with some strong teams from Europe, the US might be challenged yet again as the global baseball powerhouse.
