The World Baseball Classic is the World Cup of Baseball, taking place every three to four years. The tournament this year spans from March 5 to March 17.
The countries featured in this year’s World Baseball Classic are:
Pool A: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama, and Colombia.
Pool B: The United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil.
Pool C: Japan, Australia, Korea, Czechia, and Chinese Taipei.
Pool D: Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Israel, and Nicaragua
In each pool play, there are games played in different locations and forty games.
In Pool A, they are playing their games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at Hiram Bithorn Stadium, which has a capacity that can reach up to 19,000 people.
Pool B are playing their games in Houston, Texas, at Daikin Park, formerly know as Minute Maid Park until the name change that happened at the beginning of last year. Daikin Park has a capacity up to 41,000 people.
For Pool C, they are playing their games in Tokyo, Japan, at the Iconic Tokyo Dome, which can fit up to 55,000 people.
Lastly, Pool D are playing their games at Loan Depot Park in Miami, where it happens to be where the Final will be. Loan Depot Park has a capacity of 37,000.
The opening game of the World Baseball Classic started off in Pool D Tokyo Dome, where Chinese Taipei faced off against Australia. There was not a lot of action in this game. Australia’s Robbie Perkins did hit a homerun in the fifth to make it 2-0, and then the 2024 MLB first pick, Travis Bazzana, hit a solo homerun. Travis Bazzana was taken first by the Cleveland Guardians and has yet to make his MLB debut. Australia won with a 3-0 victory
The Star Studded USA, in their first game on March 6, played against Brazil, a team filled with young talent. Even though this game was a blowout, the USA winning 15-5, there were still a bunch of star moments from both teams. MLB Legend Manny Ramirez’s son, Lucas Ramirez, is on the Brazilian national team, gaining the right to play because his mother is Brazilian. Lucas blasted two home runs in the game. The Youngest Player on Team Brazil is also the son of another MLB Legend, Jose Contreras, who was a World Series champion with the Chicago White Sox back in 2005. Joseph Contreras is 17 years old and in high school, facing the USA filled with World Series Champions and MVP’s. Contreras, in the second inning, was in a bases-loaded jam when Aaron Judge came up to bat, the world’s most feared hitter, and on 1-1 count, he retired Judge when he got him to swing at his fastball that went to the third baseman to finish off the inning.
The USA, a couple of days later, faced off against Dark Horse in the tournament, Italy. Italy has names like The Royals, Vinnie Pasquantino, and the Phillies, Aaron Nola. The Italian team pulled this one off in a semi-close game in the bottom of the second. The Chicago White Sox’s Kyle Teel hit a solo homerun to make it 1-0, then right after Another Chicago White Sox, Sam Antonacci’s hit a two run blast to make it 3-0 and then in the 5th Jac Caglianone of the Kansas City Royals hit a two run blast to make it 5-0. The USA finally started answering back with a Gunnar Henderson homerun, Pete Crow Armstrong hit a three run homer and then in the bottom of the 9th hit a homerun to make it, but that wasn’t enough. Aaron Judge was struck out by Greg Weissert of the Boston Red Sox’s to finish the game making the game 8-6 Italy victory
On March 11 the USA team was on the brink of elimination, and in order to move on they needed team Italy to win in their game against Mexico, or Mexico to win, but to score 5 or more runs, and the scenario that they would be eliminated was if Mexico won and scored four or fewer runs in the game.
Lucky for the US, Italy blew out the Mexican national team, winning 9-1
Vinnie Pasquantino had a historic game, hitting three home runs, and the only run that Mexico scored was on a Joey Meneses groundout.
I asked some ERHS students who they think will be the WBC champion.
Sophomore Emery McLaughlin said, “I think the USA is going to win it all. I just don’t see who else can really beat them.”
Sophomore Anthony Jimenez said, ” I think the Dominican Republic is going to win, they have Juan Soto, Tatis, and Vladdy.”
