For the first time in six years, the World Baseball Classic is back, and it’s bigger than ever before.
The 20-team tournament will begin in four cities across three different countries: Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. The four pools of teams will all start their games on different days, with the teams in Taiwan beginning on March 8 and the five teams based in Florida starting three days later.
The participating countries, broken down by their starting pools, are:
- Pool A: Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Cuba, Italy, and Panama (Taichung, Taiwan)
- Pool B: Japan, Korea, Australia, China, and the Czech Republic (Tokyo)
- Pool C: USA, Mexico, Colombia, Canada, and Great Britain (Phoenix)
- Pool D: Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Israel, and Nicaragua (Miami)
The United States will be looking to repeat as champions while Great Britain, the Czech Republic, and Nicaragua are looking to gain some respect in their first tournament.