Everything You Need to Know About the World Baseball Classic

How is this different from the Olympics?

The Tokyo Olympics took place during the 2021 major league season, so star players based in North America did not participate. As a result, the lineups at the Classic are significantly stronger. Moreover, baseball will not be included at the 2024 Olympics and faces an uncertain future beyond that. At this point, the Classic is the pinnacle of the international game, and the sport hopes to continue to develop it as its version of the World Cup.

How big a deal is this?

You might ask the players. No one’s saying it’s bigger than the World Series, but over the years, many players from around the world have shown significant enthusiasm for playing.

When the Dominican Republic won the Classic in 2013, the players raced onto the field for flag-waving celebrations, then headed to the D.R. for a parade.

Even the supposedly jaded American players rushed from the dugout in 2017, gestured at the U.S.A. on their jerseys and celebrated with a bald eagle statue that had been their mascot. “We had a goal — to put the U.S.A. on top of the baseball world where it belongs, and we did exactly that,” first baseman Eric Hosmer said.

As for 2023, Trout, who skipped the previous Classic, said: “That’s the whole reason I signed up, trying to win this thing. There is nothing else. Anything else is a failure.”

That is a sentiment unlikely to be expressed at the Cubs-Royals spring training game in Surprise, Ariz., the same day as this year’s final.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/07/sports/baseball/world-baseball-classic.html