How excited are you for the World Baseball Classic?

· Yahoo Sports

Mar 21, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Gold medals wait to be presented to team Japan after defeating the USA in the World Baseball Classic at LoanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Rhona Wise-Imagn Images

Despite the gigantic piles of snow outside my window, real baseball that matters is just one week away, with the World Baseball Classic set to begin next Thursday, March 5th.

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If you’re a really big fan of the tournament, you may also already know that exhibition matchups start on Tuesday, with Teams USA playing the Giants at 3:00pm on ESPN, and the Red Sox playing Puerto Rico at 6:00pm on NESN+. The pool play games then begin on Thursday, March 5th in Tokyo (with the first one actually falling at 10:00pm ET Wednesday night, and then the real fun begins on Friday the 6th when 16 teams begin their pool play.

For Team USA, their pool play schedule is as follows:

  • Friday, March 6th vs. Brazil at 8:00pm on FOX
  • Saturday, March 7th vs. Great Britain at 8:00pm on FOX
  • Monday, March 9th vs. Mexico at 8:00pm on FOX
  • Tuesday, March 10th vs. Italy at 9:00pm on FS1

If they make it through the pool stage (and it would be a massive failure if they don’t), and then go all the way to the final, the remaining schedule would follow this general outline:

  • Quarterfinal Game: Either Friday, March 13th at 8:00pm or Saturday March 14th (on FOX)
  • Semifinal Game: Either Sunday, March 15th at 8:00pm or Monday, March 16th at 8:00pm (on FS1)
  • Final: Tuesday, March 17th on Fox at 8:00pm

I don’t know about everybody else, but to me this feels like an event that’s really, really about to pop. It falls in a perfect window on the sports calendar between the Olympics and the NCAA tournament to suck casual fans in, it has by far the most star studded lineup the U.S. has ever featured including Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Aaron Judge, Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh, Bobby Whitt, and now Roman Anthony in there, and the U.S. is going to be playing most of their games on a major network in primetime. Add in the epic conclusion to the last WBC where Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to end it, the incredible stars on other highly competitive teams, and wild and whacky world we know high stakes, small sample size baseball will produce, and this thing has some serious potential to take off.

And if all that doesn’t get your juices flowing, maybe this image will:

But what do you guys think? Is the WBC about to take off? Were you already a big fan last time? Do you still think it’s a gimmick and are you just hoping the star plays don’t get hurt?

Talk about this and any other baseball topics you’d like, and as always, be good to one another!

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