As Major League Baseball’s regular season draws to a close, this offseason carries extra weight due to the revival of baseball’s globe-spanning event: the World Baseball Classic.
Many fans are ecstatic about the return of the Classic, which had been scheduled for 2021 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now it’s back and bigger than ever, having expanded the field from 16 national teams to 20. Every team from the 2017 iteration of the event is in, as well as four qualifying clubs. As of this writing, Great Britain and the Czech Republic have qualified from Pool A, while Pool B’s qualifiers will begin shortly.