WHOLE sentence is the TRUTH!!!

Well said! agree 100%

In a hand full of countries not the whole world

And the us going all in elevates the whole field to a whole nother level

​@@Waffle_stomp I think they meant in the rest of the baseball loving world

Estos Americanos no saben ni como se vende este juego, y fueron los que lo inventaron; de verdad que estan en una cueva mental, espero que salgan pronto, los dueños dejen de llorar tanto y dejen a los jugadores jugar!!

I am living in the Netherlands and I'm surprised my local friends were talking about WBC here. They never watched a game of baseball and they don't know what's going on but they are just happy to see their country playing in a world stage

In Guatemala, what sports are popular right now? CONCACAF Champions League is happening right now. My team Los Angeles FC/MLS just played in Costa Rica against LD Alajuelense... Montagua/Honduras is in the Quarter-Finals... What sport are people in Guatemala watching?

@@davidday2373 the most popular is always football/soccer. Specially La Liga since a lot of people are Barcelona or Real Madrid fans. Not even our own league es watched by the most Guatemalans

It's worth noting that baseball is gaining ground in Guatemala due to the huge influence of Mexican sports media

@@199311walter you could say that but not really. Guatemala won a william sport international tournament around 2010 if I’m not wrong, and not a single soul cared besides who already liked baseball. I’ll say I’ve seen more people invested in this tournament than ever before. And I guess is because how a world tournament featuring the world’s best is so attractive. Last night my friends kept asking me about Japan and their players and Trout. This tournament is baseball best asset right now and they have to sell it as best as they can.

Primero Dios un día podamos tener nuestra propia selección jugando en el clásico 🙏🏾🙏🏾

Good point about insurance. Still not optimal to lose a player, but… not an entire loss.

@@brodiebrazil I wonder if their rates go up when teams allow their players to participate?

@@brodiebrazil neymar had his back broken in the 2014 world cup.

​@@brodiebrazil this is why the world cup is held every 4 years, teams can't afford to have their players get injured every year, plus it adds to how special the world cup is

Amen

Dude we almost had you! -Mexico Fan 🤘🏽😄

@@edgarponce746 It was a great game. To me, Mexico vs Japan was the best game in this WBC. Yes, your team almost eliminated my team despite our confidence in our pitchers. What a fighting spirit Team Mexico has. Great spirit! What a great baseball!🇲🇽🤝🇯🇵

It already has.

To be fair, I don't think the game is growing past the areas it already has a base in (East Asia, the Caribbean, Australia) which this tournament will no doubt help. Having teams represent Italy and Great Britian with American players kind of devalues the tournament

I'm hoping for it to survive lol.

@@kiroolioneaver8532check out the World Cup (soccer) teams. So many African teams had English and French players. No one said that devalued those teams tho

@@kiroolioneaver8532 baseball is not popular in Australia. Taiwan, Japan, Caribbean and Central America plus Venezuela

MLB is boring, that’s why.

@@nelsongalan1417 it’s the fact that 162 games have no stakes till the end of the season when we actually know how valuable each match up is. I think instead of the pitch clock they should’ve shrunk the season to 140-150 games

@@MattGS22 There's no way on earth the owners would ever go for that. "Hey, you know how you have home games to make money? Yeah, we're going to take away about 10 of those because we want to sacrifice them to have your players whom you pay millions for, to play in an exhibition tournament". Baseball is supposed to be an every day event played at a leisurely pace, but there are things you can do to speed the game up. First, call strikes as outlined in the rule book. Second, start enforcing rules 5.01 and 8.04 where the batters can't leave the batter's box, and the pitcher has to deliver the ball in a timely manner. The pitch clock hopefully solves the latter.

@@RobotShlomo the season used to be shorter. Also a shorter season could mean healthier players and more promotions throughout the season. A shorter season has its benefits and its drawbacks

His backstory is crazy too if you read about that also and why he plays for team Mexico.

Baseball is a long established but always small sport in Australia. The way to get a wider audience is via a national team competition like the WBC (with real national teams not the No MLB player Olympics) Not many Australians really follow soccer, but everyone seems to follow Australia at the World Cup (Qualification rules for national teams are a joke however -see Israel and Italy)

Look it up budy. Once there was a friendly exhibition game between the USA & your country in 1956 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Over 100,000 people showed up.

@Mr. Pete Channel has reached the big time! yep, though nearly after 70 years I am sure it had lost its momentum

As a baseball fan in Taiwan, I'm always curious about the popularity of baseball in Australia. There used to be some very famous players, like David Nilsson and Jeff Williams, who played quite well in MLB and Japan. And as I know, some players from Japan, Korea and Taiwan also choose to play in Australian league for improving their skills. But judging from the size of stadium, it seems baseball doesn't have a huge fanbase there.

@@eegh In Australia baseball is a small but well-established sport -if that makes sense The oldest Baseball clubs probably date from the 1870s. The WBC received zero coverage in most media . The Australian fans at the grounds would have been family members or club friends of players Most players come from baseball families (like in most minor sports )

Not trying to be rude, but isn't Puerto Rico a territory of the U.S.? Your governor answers to the POTUS, you benefit from our social programs, immediate U.S. relief from natural disasters, etc. Wouldn't it be territorial pride? If we voted to make you all a state before the next WBC, you would be in the 51st U.S State of Puerto Rico. Your nation is the U.S.A.

We love our beautiful Island 🇵🇷 we are very different culturally speaking. I’m proud to be an American citizen and I’m great full for that but my love for my people in the Island is very special. I don’t know how to explain it….

​@@MightyMattTM Puerto Ricans national pride make no sense but they are really proud of their island for some reason. They carry their flag everywhere. I'm like "How does that work?"

@@emanueldelacruz1101 similar to texan national pride and southerners who carry the confederate flag.

@@MightyMattTM Most of us would like aswell but sadly we aren't accepted by the senate, who have the final say. As to why we can compete as our own separate team, tell that to SCOTUS and their decisions on the insular cases. which basically made us into second class citizens if we live in the island. The only upside is that we can have our own sport teams and play in the olympics, miss universe, etc. Trust me, most of us in PR would love to be the 51st with all the same benefits, responsibilities and privileges.

Filipinos dont like baseball. But it is a sport that you dont have to be that tall to be a good team.

Filipinos have had a professional basketball league for nearly 50 years. Yet, they still could not advance in a FIBA tournament. Meanwhile, Japan has been in the WBC Finals thrice in WBC's short (

Filipinos are too into basketball and they would be much better suited for baseball

Is baseball still trying to find its place in the Philippines just like how it is with Great Britain. They did make it to the LLWS before.

Philippines used to be into baseball. I am not sure why that changed.

Yep, Adam Jones catch in 2017 was the most important thing to happen for the WBC classic. That play basically ensured that the US would finally give the tournament the respect it deserved and that the other countries had already been giving it. It may sound selfish but the WBC would never truly take off until the US took it seriously.

Yes! I think this is it. Consider this: Mike Trout himself declined an invite to the 2017 WBC and echoed the general US fan's consensus about it being an exhibition game. BUT immediately after it ended, he did a 180 and said he loved what he saw and wanted to be in the next WBC. And look at him now! True to his word, unlike LeBron who said something similar about the Slam Dunk Contest and feeling inspired to participate in the next one, but never did.

it's every 3 years but cheers!

Stoo lying nerd. No self-respecting Asian would ever settle for a Hispanic. Lol

You're just another one of those cringe weebs🤣🤣🤣

you okay dude? that was a tough one. Your team fought incredibly hard, much respect.

Wow, I bet y'all had a fun time last night! My friend is from Mexico but we have been to Japan together twice on vacation with a group of bros so we love Japan. So we got a group of guys together and watched last night. It was a blast. My buddy was cheering for both teams basically.

we need some growth in europe. and thats hard cause they are obsessed with soccer and are getting into basketball and thats about it .

Baseball is the most popular sport In Panama

this only because in miami the countries that played their were well represented locally. they had mexico play in the pool that played in arizona and they let taiwan play in taiwan and had japan play korea and china in the middle of tokoyo. So all of those games were going to sell out

Those attendance numbers are misleading. The A's are essentially a lame duck team. They're going to be moving to Las Vegas in the very near future. The Marlins ownership has been struggling to put a winner on the field.

The entire WBC format is based on FIFA World Cup.

FIFA does a good job making the World Cup the biggest sporting tournament in the world. Not even the Olympics has such big numbers in viewership. There's a lot baseball can learn from them to make this sport more worldwide. Even in the US, you can see a big increase in soccer fans the last few years. Look at how European clubs take advantage of that increased interest and do promotional tours and exhibition matches in America to popularise the sport there.

FIFA has considered & many want the FIFA WC every 2 years.

Most of those players who "represent their country" aren't even from those countries, and I doubt they could even find them on a map.

@@RobotShlomo for some countries but can't say that about Japan or Diminican Republic

The Philippines need to get back to playing baseball. They would be one of the top teams. They have the talent. It's just not being developed.

It’s already more popular than the World Series. World Series 2022 - Average of 12 Million viewers World Baseball Classic 2023 - Japan games alone averaging about 60 Million viewers lol

@@Luiiciano yea, I saw those stats a couple days ago.

oh my ten times over yes. Honestly I partly didnt care before because yes I was afraid key players on my Chicago Cubs squad might get hurt (like Seiya Suzuki *sigh*) but also I knew we werent bringing our best team in the past so I didnt bring my attention span if that makes sense. And even we know most of our best players come from Latin countries that will probably kick our ass anyway honestly. Its a little painful to watch everyone be so gleeful to beat America when its like......what the hell man we're the ones making you all millionaires, a lot of them were born and trained here but they sure do love to "stick it to America"........but beyond that when I dig even deeper my favorite players are scattered all over the world its really hard to pick who to root for I just want to see people do well. Was pulling hard for Matt Mervis to show out for Israel. It was very odd to me to cheer for Paul Goldschmidt hitting a home run off of Elias Diaz. Because Goldy is a damn Cardinal and Diaz is battling to try and make the Cubs roster........its just all sorts of weird conflicting interests anywhere theres a Chicago Cub I want to cheer for them. And then really watching that game against Venezuela I realized I actually did care. Me and my roommates were getting genuinely upset watchig Daniel Bard melt down and our manager act with all the urgency of a company softball game........like no man, this shit is about to make us look bad! How could you eff this up! Why the hell is our bullpen chock full of dudes with control problems! And then Trea Turner dropped his nutsack all over everyone and we celebrated as hard as if it was a playoff game in any sport. So yes, Id say some of us actually care now.

that one young guy on the nicaraguan team who got a major league contract out of his impressive performance was cool.

Nicaragua 🇳🇮 🇳🇮 🇳🇮

Me too bro, The Mexican team inspired the country with his game. Greetings from Mexico City.

Now would you be willing to watch regular season baseball, or are a handful of games once every four years your limit?

you can follow randy. in tampa. verdugo in boston. alek thomas in arizona. meneses in washington dc.

So much fun! Wish there was more rounds, more countries....do it every 2 years lets gooooo! Also it would be sweet if the Finals was a 3 or 5 game series! Maybe quarters onwards are all best of 3 with the finals being best of 5? I love the intensity of single elimination but......a big part of baseball is team depth and proving you werent just hot or cold for a day or a victim or benefactor of fluke pitching good or bad. I dunno, above my paygrade to figure out but its pretty great!

@@danr154 I actually agree with a best of 5 series format for the finals. Doesnt seem feasible now considering all the buzz around injuries but maybe one day, this event doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

@@danr154I respectfully disagree with this take. World championships in regards to teams should be kept in a 4 year rotation. Thats what makes the FIFA World Cup exciting. And even more the knockout rounds should be one game only. The WBC made a great choice adding quarter finals this year, it made for more exciting action. I would only maybe add a 24 team expansion, with 8 teams qualifying for the tournament based on zone allocation (i.e. Europe and Asia / South America and the Caribbean)

This fan still doesn't think it's "the coolest thing in baseball", and it doesn't fix the problems with the game.

I don't even care for baseball but yet i watched mostly every game of the wbc 2023

Yep, plus...all the guys on the team now are star players with their role nailed down in the MLB teams. They don't need a full spring training anyway, they aren't young up and coming guys who have to stake their claim. I'd much rather have a Betts and Trout play in this than pointless spring training games.

This is only the 5th tournament. Your dad being 70 and not knowing about it means nothing,

it started back in 06 this is just the 5 wbc ever,it's basically our version of the world cup in soccer,plus the fact that we have ti wait 3-6 years for it makes it even more memorable.

How can it be the “World Series” if it’s not even a series?

i mean tehcnically the best plyaers in the world are playing the us except for some in the npb and they eventually make their way over like shohei etc. it is a dumb name but its been around since the 1800s. mlb is an old institution.

their both trash

In Mexico, PR, Venezuela etc there are cheerleaders too and the crowd is loud too. The american fans in MLB are so serious and quiet in comparison.

🇹🇼 🇹🇼 🇹🇼

Exactly what i said as well. I don't really watch baseball but when I saw my country doing well I tuned in.

@@omarzepedaaguilar fr! Mexico vs Puerto Rico was my first baseball match ever! And it's acually very intertaining, it even got me nervous in the last rounds!😅

I've never seen a WBC game until I heard that Mexico beat the US and saw Mexico's lineup. I only watched out of curiosity and now I'm getting ready to watch Mexico vs Japan.

@@Kaanaan last innings* and u got lucky

@@omarzepedaaguilar did you enjoy watching it. mexico was playing so well against some powerhouse teams with way less star power.

the uk team was mostly brits of people born in the bahamas technically able to play for great britain. lol.

The whole idea behind the baseball season being a grind is just that, it's a grind to determine which teams are the best and not just a flash in the pan. The season also is long to give the teams that are hampered by injuries a chance to recover, and make a run down the stretch. The long seasons have actually at times created more drama. In 1978 the NY Yankees were counted out it in July, and they surged back to end the season in a tie with Boston Red Sox, forcing the historic one game playoff at Fenway Park where Bucky Dent hit a home run to bring the Yankees back to win it. In 1951 the NY Giants were trailing the Brooklyn Dodgers by 15 games at the mid point of the season, and came back to force a playoff game against Brooklyn which culminated with Bobby Thompson's "Shot Heard Round The World". As far as the divisional structure, the divisions are built on geographic rivalries. NY vs. Boston. NY vs Philadelphia. LA vs. SF. etc. The schedule is "unbalanced" so that you play your divisional rival the most times, and it gives teams the opportunity to catch up to them during the season in head to head match ups. Interleague play was supposed to solve the problem of teams in the same city not playing each other, however it's diminished the need for you to watch a team that's not in your city. I know as a European you're used to seeing a relegation system where teams are promoted and demoted, however in baseball that simply will not work, and all those reasons stem from one thing; money. The fans won't go for it because if you sell them tickets for an A schedule and they get a B schedule, they're going to want refunds. The advertisers and the TV networks won't go for it for the same reason. The players won't go for it because they will refuse to be traded to a team that's been relegated or in danger of being relegated, and no free agent will sign with a relegated team. And the owners won't go for it because of all of the above. I know that as a Brit the structure of baseball might look archaic, but there's a reason why it works. It's supposed to be an every day thing that's part of the fabric of summer, and not just this thing you pay attention to every four years for a handful games.

That is true, but other sports need to try a bit harder IMO. I know this tournament is a deal between the World baseball and softball confederation and the MLB. But one thing to advance it could be a damage to the MLB: making the national team calls mandatory. You don't know how cool it is to see the lists and say "this player should be in" or "that player should be not". There were some advantages in the forging of association football that worked to the advantage of the World Cup. International games became systematized before the national leagues. In England, the first division (either under the EFL or as the Premier League) is 136 years old, but the first ever international friendly is 151 years old. On baseball, the process is the opposite. The idea of association also is a lot rubbed in, that is why there is an A in FIFA. You grow your association, it become stronger. Ownership is relatively new in association football, but has been in baseball since the beginning. The rule and ideal thing for us used to it would be the model of the Green Bay Packers in the NFL. That's why no club ever went against the World Cup. Also, FIFA made itself ready: made the national calls mandatory and imposed such harsh punishments for anyone that goes against this that it's really not worth it. And the players would not be on the club's side either. And there is one thing needed: time. Time is an ultimate fixer. The british nations never bought the idea of the World Cup from the get go. Did not accept the invitation for the first edition in 1930 and by their own choice never played in the qualifiers for 1934-38. They thought, especially England, that no one was better than they were since they created the thing. When England qualified for the 1950 World Cup, they got beaten by a United States squad composed of basically italian immigrants. There seems to be that the MLB can surrender to the pressure of the owners and talking heads someday. I hope they don't. Because when it was created in 2006 the owners voted for it, in majority (some ownership groups, like the Yankees, made an apology for their fans stating their position against it in case of players being called, injured or whatever).

watching taiwan play in 2023 made me a fan lol

I am Taiwanese , and I very happy you love our baseball. It’s very good league

@@allenwu2312 Yu chang was awesome. I am a diamondbacks fan and one of our best players is eligible to play for taiwan , but i dont think he did cause hes trying to earn his way onto the team in spring training. hopefully next world baseball classic, he will play for you if you want. His mother was born in Taiwan and his grandaprents and extended family all live there. his name is corbin carroll. He is likely going to win Rookie of the year this year if he's someone you want to keep an eye on.

@@kylo180 ​ ​ Yes , I know Corbin Carroll ！we ever try to invite he join to team Taiwan this WBC game. But he say no this time ,because he must to keep his job on major. Whatever ,Taiwan fans expect his major league career And also hope he join next time WBC for Taiwan,if USA not invite him And II'm looking forward to the performance of the D-backs this season. Defeat the Dodgers and t Padres to enter the playoffs ！！

Japan has 3 titles and the modern Babe Ruth.

Yup 🇺🇸

@@projectc.j.j3310 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 baby!!!! proud to have been born here!!!!

Because a large amount of the best players in the world don't have the availability to play during the Olympics

@@CNep99 exactly. That’s why the WBC is much more exciting!

Many Japanese people hated those Olympic games because of all the corruption. The media is still covering illegal activities behind the games even now. On the other hand, many Japanese people did enjoy the WBC because it was more serious, exciting, and fun and less about money and politics.

im puerto rican but live in the us and the us doesn't want to win. They don't care as much as we do. so i was happy usa beat pr to win it all but they didn't have to crush us lol. dr is the best at baseball in the world in my opinion. they jus under performed the last 2 times thank god

@@ericayala7387 I disagree that the US doesnt want to win, I think americans dont care as much if they lose though. Im dominican so I think DR has some of the best talent, but Im hesitant to say they are the best in the world. I think alot of people underestimate Japan because alot of their stars stay in Japan to play but they have more talent than DR in my opinion. I will say DR is top 5 in best countries for baseball. Cuba and Venezuela are also very good but I think due to the political climate it's hard for MLB to make an effort to scout these countries the way they do in DR. I believe DR is the only non-US country that holds a camp for all 30 MLB teams.

@@Anon-yy6wm mlb thinks that Latinos especially the darker ones are more talented and have more athleticism than Asians or whites and are more exciting. Obviously Japan is a first world country they don’t need mlb camps unlike the Dominican Republic which is poor and wouldn’t have the resources to pursue professional baseball without mlbs guidance. Other baseball countries like cuba and Venezuela are communist countries that hate United States politically which is why mlb have very little camps there

The inherent problem is that "online presence" usually leads nowhere. It's easy to post to comments like "I don't follow baseball, but..."., and then nothing happening because that online audience doesn't show up, and they certainly don't spend money on anything, and most times those who claim to love something on Twitter or TikTok are just marketing accounts. The other downside of that is that most of the people saying these things online, most likely won't watch another game and for them baseball will drop off their radar. To them it will be like the Olympics "yeah, we love swimming...See you in four years!".