It’s been five years since Team USA beat Team Puerto Rico 8-0 to win their first-ever World Baseball Classic title. And for the first time since, the tournament returns.
Pool play for the fifth edition, originally scheduled for 2021 but scuttled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, begins Wednesday.
Operated by MLB, the WBC was introduced in 2006 and championed by then-commissioner Bud Selig to expand the game on the international stage.
This year’s tournament features an expanded field of 16-20 teams, ranging from long-time favorites like the US, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Japan and South Korea to first-time entrants from the UK, Nicaragua and the Czech Republic. Here’s what you need to know.
what is the data
The tournament starts on March 8th (although the first game to be played in Taiwan starts on March 7th at 11pm ET) and the finals will be held on March 21st.
Which teams are playing?
The field consists of 20 teams playing in four pools. We will introduce them to you throughout the pool game.
Pelvis A
Chinese Taipei
Netherlands
Cuba
Italy
Panama
basin B
Japan
Korea
Australia
China
Czech Republic
Basin C
United States
Canada
Mexico
Colombia
Great Britain
cymbal D
Puerto Rico
Venezuela
Dominican Republic
Israel
Nicaragua
Where are the games held?
In the first round, Pool A will play at the Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan. Pool B takes place in the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Pool C is located at Chase Field in Phoenix and Pool D at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
The second round matches (the quarterfinals) will be played at Tokyo Dome (for the top two teams in pools A and B) and LoanDepot Park (for the top two teams in pools C and D), the semifinals and the final will be held in Miami.
How can I watch? what is the schedule
In the US, games will be available on Fox, FS1, FS2, FOX Deportes, Tubi and the Fox Sports App.
This is the schedule for the first round:
Tuesday March 7th
Cuba vs. Netherlands (11:00 PM ET)
Wednesday March 8th
Panama vs. Chinese Taipei (6 p.m. ET)
Australia vs Korea (10pm ET)
Panama vs. Netherlands (11:00 p.m. ET)
Thursday, March 9th
China vs. Japan (5 p.m. ET)
Italy vs. Cuba (6 p.m. ET)
Czech Republic vs. China (10:00 p.m. ET)
Cuba vs. Panama (11:30 p.m. ET)
Friday March 10th
Korea vs. Japan (5 p.m. ET)
Italy vs. Chinese Taipei (6:00 p.m. ET)
China vs Australia (10pm ET)
Panama vs. Italy (11:00 p.m. ET)
Saturday March 11th
Czech Republic vs. Japan (5 p.m. ET)
Netherlands vs. Chinese Taipei (6 p.m. ET)
Nicaragua vs. Puerto Rico (12 p.m. ET)
Colombia vs. Mexico (2:30 p.m. ET)
Dominican Republic vs. Venezuela (7:00 p.m. ET)
Great Britain vs. United States (9pm ET)
Czech Republic vs. Korea (10:00 p.m. ET)
Chinese Taipei – Cuba (11:00 PM ET)
Sunday March 12th
Japan vs. Australia (6 p.m. ET)
Netherlands vs. Italy (7 p.m. ET)
Nicaragua vs. Israel (12 p.m. ET)
Great Britain vs Canada (3pm ET)
Venezuela vs Puerto Rico (7pm ET)
Mexico vs. United States (10:00 p.m. ET)
Australia vs Czech Republic (11pm ET)
Monday March 13th
Korea vs. China (6 p.m. ET)
Dominican Republic vs. Nicaragua (12 p.m. ET)
Colombia vs. Great Britain (3pm ET)
Israel vs Puerto Rico (7pm ET)
Canada vs. United States (10pm ET)
Tuesday March 14th
Nicaragua vs. Venezuela (12 p.m. ET)
Canada vs. Colombia (3 p.m. ET)
Israel vs. Dominican Republic (7pm ET)
Great Britain vs. Mexico (10:00 p.m. ET)
Wednesday March 15th
(Quarterfinals) Pool B runners-up vs. Pool A winners (6:00 p.m. ET)
Venezuela vs. Israel (12 p.m. ET)
Mexico vs. Canada (3 p.m. ET)
Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic (7pm ET)
United States vs. Colombia (10:00 p.m. ET)
The full schedule can be found here.
What is the format?
Each team meets once in the first round. The top two teams from each pool by win percentage, eight in total, advance to the quarterfinals, which is a sudden death (this is a change from 2017 when the quarterfinals also followed the round-robin format). The four quarter-final winners advance to the semi-finals and you know what happens after that.
Who plays? Any names I recognize?
Absolutely. Many big names from MLB and international leagues will represent different countries. Here are a few examples:
- The full lineup of Team USA
- Pretty much the entire Dominican Republic roster (think Sandy Alcantara, Julio Rodríguez, Manny Machado, Juan Soto)
- Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, Masataka Yoshida, Lars Nootbar, Roki Sasaki, Reigning NPB MVP Munetaka Murakami (Japan)
- Javier Baez, Francisco Lindor, Edwin Diaz, Marcus Stroman, José Berrios (Puerto Rico)
- Freddie Freeman, Tyler O’Neill, Cal Quantrill (Canada)
- KBO MVP Lee Jung-hoo, Kim Ha-seong, Tommy Edman (Korea)
- Ronald Acuña Jr. (Venezuela), Randy Arozarena and Julio Urías (Mexico), Xander Bogaerts (Netherlands)
What are the rules?
The official rulebook is sort of here for those of you who want to study it. The tournament will use 2022 MLB rules with some additions. Here are some highlights:
- Each team has a so-called designated pitcher pool, 10 pitchers who are not on the official list but can participate in one or more consecutive rounds if required
- Pitch limits affect how pitchers can be used (example: if a pitcher throws 50 pitches on an outing, they cannot pitch again until at least four days have passed).
- Position players cannot pitch unless approved by the Game Operations Technical Committee, which monitors pitcher usage
- There is a rule of mercy in the first round: games are over when there is a lead of 10 or more runs after the seventh inning and 15 runs after the fifth inning
- The ghost runner goes global – extra innings start with a player at second base
- Since these are the 2022 rules, pitch clock, larger bases, and shift restrictions are not used
Why is [player name here] play for [country name here]?
There are seven rules that determine a player’s eligibility to play on a particular team. For the sake of simplicity, a player can represent a country if:
- You are a citizen or permanent legal resident of that country
- You were born in this country
- One of her parents is a citizen of this country
- One of her parents was born in this country
- They are eligible to obtain citizenship or a passport for a country
- You have previously appeared in the WBC final list (qualifier or tournament) for that country
How long has this tournament been around?
This is the fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic. Japan became the first-ever tournament winner, clinching the title in the 2006 final against Cuba and winning again in 2009. In 2013, the Dominican Republic went undefeated – the only team to do so in the tournament’s relatively short history – en route to their first WBC title. And the last time it was played, in 2017, Team USA won for the first time.
Anything else?
For updated storylines throughout the tournament, visit our WBC home base.
Follow all the action by checking out our live blog.
And to set the tone for the next two weeks, here’s a playlist of artists representing all nations at WBC 2023 – we hope you enjoy it.
(Top Photo by Shohei Ohtani: Kenta Harada/Getty Images)