It’s almost that time again: the sixth edition of the World Baseball Classic, played once every four-ish years, is starting on March 4 with Chinese Taipei (Taiwan) playing Australia in the Tokyo Dome. The last edition was in 2023; there should have been tournaments in 2021 and 2025, but a global pandemic got in the way and messed up everything. But that last one, with Shohei Ohtani striking out his Angels teammate Mike Trout to win the whole thing?! Get outta here with that craziness!
There are four
pools, each with five teams:
- Pool A (San Juan, PR): Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Panama, Puerto Rico
- Pool B (Houston, TX): Brazil, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, USA
- Pool C (Tokyo): Australia, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), Czechia, Japan, South Korea
- Pool D (Miami, FL): Dominican Republic, Israel, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Venezuela
I went to some first-round games in 2009 when they were in Toronto, and holy mackerel, that atmosphere was bananas. If you’re within a reasonable distance from these games, they would be a blast to attend.
There are great teams in every pool, but I think Pool A might be the hardest to get out of. Cuba and Puerto Rico are always loaded with talent, and Panama can surprise you. Colombia is an up-and-coming team but has a ways to go yet, and Canada has good players but always seems to under-perform at this tournament.
China and Germany are ranked higher in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) rankings than a few teams in this tournament but didn’t qualify for it. I’m surprised Czechia made it in, but that is an awfully tough Pool C, with three of the top-four WBSC teams in it. Good luck to you; you’ll need it.
Nein!
Schedule
Exhibition games between Major-League teams and Pool A/B/D teams start on March 3 in both Florida and Arizona. However, the Tigers are the only team who get to travel for these exhibition games: they will be playing two games on March 3-4 against the Dominican Republic in Santo Domingo, in a stadium named for Hall of Famer Juan Marichal. (That should be a lot more fun than sweating out a game in front of a couple thousand retirees in Jupiter!)
Pool C starts its games in Tokyo on March 4, and the other pools start their games on March 6. For me, the game to watch that first full day will be Cuba vs. Panama; that should be a good one. The US plays the same night against Brazil; Canada doesn’t play its first game until March 7, against Colombia at 11:00 am EST.
The preliminary round finishes with three games on March 11; all playoff-bound teams have a day off before the quarterfinals take place on March 13-14 with two games each day in Houston and Miami. The semifinal games take place on March 15-16, and the final is on March 17; both the semifinals and finals are in Miami.
Will Japan repeat? They just might.
How to Watch
This is where things get a bit interesting and complicated.
Fox has the rights to the WBC, and most of the games will be on either the Fox broadcast network, and the FS1 and FS2 cable channels. A few preliminary-round games will be streamed on the Fox App, and a few other ones will be streaming on Tubi, a free app/website which usually streams movies and TV shows. But hey, if Netflix and Amazon Prime can show football and hockey games, why not put WBC games on Tubi? Things are getting weird these days.
Most preliminary-round games involving the US will be on Fox, which is on all basic cable systems (as far as I know). You can also pick up Fox using a good, old-fashioned antenna if you’re decently close to the broadcast tower; I have one in my attic and I can get Buffalo’s broadcast affiliates across the lake in Toronto. So, if you don’t have cable and can’t stream it through the internet, make Guglielmo Marconi proud and put up an antenna.
Quarterfinal day games will be on either FS1 or FS2, and the night games will be on Fox. Both semifinal games will be on FS1, and the final is on the Fox broadcast network.
Tigers in the WBC
You may have heard recently that Javier Báez has been ruled ineligible for this year’s WBC due to a failed marijuana test back in 2023 during the previous tournament. Báez didn’t break any MLB rules, as marijuana has been acceptable to use since 2020 there. But, internationally, I guess they’re all a bunch of buzzkills at the WBSC. For his Báez has said he doesn’t think the rule makes much sense, but that he did break it and so it’s his own responsibility. Fair enough, but it’s pretty ridiculous. Between that and the myriad insurance issues keeping some good players out, the field isn’t as great as it could have been.
Other than Báez, there are ten people in the Tigers organization that will be on WBC rosters.
- Pool A: none*
- Pool B: Tarik Skubal (USA)
- Pool C: Woo-Suk Go (South Korea), Jahmai Jones (South Korea), Hao-Yu Lee (Chinese Taipei)
- Pool D: Emmanuel De Jesus (Venezuela), Duque Hebbert (Nicaragua), Kenley Jansen (Netherlands), Charles Lequerica (Israel), Keider Montero (Venezuela), Gleyber Torres (Venezuela)
The * in Pool A is for Jordan Balazovic, who spent last year in the Tigers organization, mostly in Toledo, but chose free agency at the end of the season. He’s on the Canadian team, so I’ll count him as an honourary eleventh Tiger. (What can I say, aside from the Naylor brothers and Edouard Julien, Canada doesn’t have a lot of star-power. Is Larry Walker busy, and how are his knees? I bet Fergie Jenkins could go a full nine innings, the way he pitched.) The recently-released Tommy Kahnle is also playing for Israel, but given how the ALDS ended, I’m not sure I’m willing to make him an honourary #12 just yet.
Obviously the biggest name on that list is Skubal. I was a little surprised with Jones playing for South Korea, but apparently his mom is from there; I love learning neat facts about players that I thought I knew. As for Jansen, he’s originally from Curaçao, which is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It’s just off the coast of Venezuela, and that place loves baseball, so I guess the love of the game made it across the water. Former Tiger, Jonathan Schoop, among numerous other former MLB players, hails from the island.
Yep, that’s Jansen as a catcher in 2009.
Baseball is pretty international these days: Brazil has started sending players to the Major Leagues, which is great. Malaysia has a team; it’s ranked #70, so they’re not at the WBC, but I hope they have a good time out on the diamond when they play. Fiji is tied for last with Bulgaria and Turkey at #83 worldwide, but you know, good on ‘em for having a team.
Do you love this tournament? Indifferent about it? Happy to have competitive baseball to break up the long spring training camp? Rather not have it and just get on with the MLB season? Let us know in the comments.
