Love of C untry

By: Mathias Woerner Sports Editor

There is something different about the baseball fan’s spring this year. For the first time in six long years, fans can rejoice for the World Baseball Classic.

The WBC is a global celebration of the sport of baseball and serves as the first high leverage baseball of the season. The World Baseball Classic brings attention to the fans all around the world who share in the love so many have for the sport of baseball. Different national organizations sponsor baseball in nations across the globe but the WBC offers the unique opportunity to see competitive international baseball with world class athletes. Increased player participation, media coverage and fan anticipation for the event has been promising for the success of the 2023 edition.

Julio Rodriguez, the 2022 AL Rookie of the Year for the Seattle Mariners, said of the World Baseball Classic to Bleacher Report’s Walk Off, “It’s just different. You’re playing for everything you represent...everything that made you who you are.” Rodriguez is representing the Dominican Republic in the tournament and is one of many high-profile superstars of Major League Baseball to participate in the WBC this year. Notable stars to commit to Team USA for the tournament include Nolan Arenado, Mookie Betts, Pete Alonso, defending NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt, and the incomparable Mike Trout. This is a trend in the right direction as the tournament continues to gain traction in the baseball community.

As of now, we are in the middle of the tournament, played amongst 20 national baseball teams from different countries around the world. These teams have been grouped into four pools of five teams, where teams started tournament play by facing the teams in their pool, with the two leading teams from each pool advancing to the quarterfinal round.

The first place teams from the pools play the runner-up from another pool and then the remaining four teams take part in a traditional bracket style format to determine the champion. The aptly named World Baseball Classic is being held in various international sites. Two of the WBC sites are here in the United States, playing in Miami, FL and Phoenix, AZ, with the global sites located in Tokyo, Japan and Taichung, Taiwan. As the field gets narrowed down, the teams will converge to Tokyo and Miami for the quarterfinal round before the home stretch of the tournament settles in Miami, FL at loanDepot Field until a champion of the 2023 World Baseball Classic is crowned.

Fans have been deprived of this wonderful experience for six years after it was deviated two years off of the 4-year cycle by COVID-19, but the celebration is making a return to the global sports stage on what hopefully is a regular basis from this point on. The WBC does not have the advantage of tradition, which has made scheduling, participation and attention a constant battle since the first run in 2006.

As the governing bodies of baseball hope to build a better reputation for the World Baseball Classic, this year’s edition is making a lot of headway. The road to an international baseball celebration has gone through different iterations and struggles, but the hope is that the excitement the World Baseball Classic has been generating is a launch pad for the future of international baseball and spreading love for the game of baseball.

By: Valerie Reyes Editor-in-Chief