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With each passing iteration, the World Baseball Classic gets bigger and bigger – in crowd size, attendance, cultural currency and participants.
Yet the world within it keeps shrinking.
As the sixth WBC gets underway this month, the pool play portion of the event will bear faint resemblance to the earliest iterations of the event, an apparent marker of its growth and the game’s elevated level of play worldwide:
Closer games. Fewer run-rule victories and shutouts. And the more than occasional upset of a perceived global power.
“Everyone can see that there’s so much talent all over the world,” San Diego Padres and Dominican Republic third baseman Manny Machado tells USA TODAY Sports. “It’s not just here, but all over the world. It means a lot to be the last team standing. I hope it’s us.
“It’s just such a cool event. You’re playing for not just your country, not for the fans, but the people in their countries and across the world. I get goosebumps just talking about it because it’s such a special event."
The inaugural WBC was a little lighter on goosebumps. Pool play games were contested not in big league stadiums but rather spring training sites, Scottsdale and Lake Buena Vista among the locales to determine quarterfinalists.
And the games were, well, often over before they started.
In 2006, the nine countries and territories that supply the most major league talent – Japan, South Korea, USA, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Cuba and Canada – went a combined 15-0 against less-renowned baseball countries in pool play, with four shutouts and three run-rule wins.
Average score: 9-3, kicked off by Team USA’s 17-0 shellacking of South Africa behind Ken Griffey Jr.’s 4-for-4, two-homer performance.
Yet the gap has been shrinking in almost every iteration of the event since.
Have glove, will travel
In 2009, the less-heralded countries managed three victories in 13 games, including Australia turning the tables and run-ruling Mexico. The Netherlands, powered by a handful of major leaguers hailing from Curacao, scored the first big tourney upset, toppling the mighty Dominican Republic and bouncing them from the tournament.
And suddenly, the average margin of victory shrank from 9-3 to 7-3.
The trend continued through 2013 – when the average score between haves and have-nots shrank to 6-4 - and 2017, when the baseball-poorer countries endured just one shutout. Colombia knocked off Canada and took Team USA to 10 innings, while Australia fell in 10 innings to Venezuela.
China, which lost its first six WBC games against global powers from 2006 to 2013 by a combined score of 64-5, was suddenly playing baseball games in 2017, losing 6-0 to Cuba and 7-1 to China.
Meanwhile, players are seeing the upside of playing in a global event by representing homelands with which they have strong or even faint connections. Italy this year will feature Kansas City Royals sluggers Vinnie Pasquantino and Jac Caglianone as it aims to repeat – or exceed - its quarterfinal showing from 2023.
Israel, with major league old heads like Sam Fuld, Jason Marquis, Ike Davis and Ty Kelly alongside its “Mensch On The Bench,” made a startling 2017 run to the quarterfinals.
And stars spurned by their country of birth are nonetheless still pining to play. Eight-time All-Star Nolan Arenado, who starred for Team USA in 2017 and 2023, didn’t hear his phone ring this time as a star-studded group of American-born commitments poured in.
Instead, Puerto Rico manager Yadier Molina, his old St. Louis Cardinals teammate, called him up, asking to galvanize a squad beset by injury and insurance woes. Arenado, whose mother Millie is of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent, was all in.
“I didn’t expect (Team USA) to call coming off last year,” says Arenado, who produced a career-low .666 OPS for St. Louis before an off-season trade to Arizona. “I wasn’t going to play this year, but Yadi called me and my mom wanted me to do it.
“I love the tournament. The talent is sick. It just gets better and better.’’
Lurkers in the groups
Expansion may have its limits, however. In 2023, the event grew from 16 to 20 teams, with five countries now placed in the four pools. The giants flexed their muscles and the likes of Nicaragua, Czechia and Israel went 0-8 while getting outscored 66-6.
It made for a stirring back end of the tournament with Team USA surviving Venezuela in the quarterfinals and reaching its second consecutive championship, this time losing to three-time champion Japan. The final out, famously, came on a Shohei Ohtani strikeout of then-teammate Mike Trout.
Soon, we’ll see if the early rounds can again inject some drama into the proceedings. Australia will aim to repeat its first quarterfinal appearance in 2023 but will have to dislodge either Japan or Korea to do so.
Netherlands will aim to disrupt the Dominican-Venezuelan power duo in Pool D in Miami, with Israel also there in a spoiler role.
And Team USA will have to keep one eye on the disrupters in Houston’s Pool B, where Great Britain will deploy nearly a dozen current or former major leaguers – led by Bahamian Jazz Chisholm Jr. – and Italy’s paisan power guns for its third quarterfinal appearance in four tries.
Perhaps the chalk results will rule the day. But it’s likelier things will get a little tighter before the blue bloods move on.
“The WBC is getting better and better,” says Dodgers and Puerto Rico closer Edwin Diaz, “for every team. Look at the USA, they have a bunch of stars in this tournament.
“So that’s something that’s good for everyone.’’
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: World Baseball Classic 'gets better and better' with 2026 schedule
Middle East conflict impacts Iraq preparation for World Cup play-off
The conflict in the Middle East is impacting Iraq's preparation for an upcoming World Cup play-off in Mexico as embassies and air spaces are closed in the region.
Iraq's FA said on Instagram on Wednesday that coach Graham Arnold is stranded in the United Arab Emirates.
The delegation also appears to have trouble obtaining visas for the March 31 match in Monterrey, Mexico, where Iraq face the winner of a tie between Bolivia and Suriname for a place at the June 11-July 19 finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Iraq are bidding to play at the World Cup for a second time, the first being in 1986.
“Because of airspace closures, our head coach, Graham Arnold, is unable to leave the United Arab Emirates. In addition, several embassies remain closed at the present time, preventing several professional players, technical and medical staff members from obtaining entry visas to Mexico,” the statement said.
Mexico has no embassy in Iraq but its foreign ministry said that its embassy in the UAE is dealing with the matter and has asked the Iraq FA to submit all names to speed up procedures. It said that visas could also be obtained at its embassies in Europe.
The Iraq statement said they are "in constant communication" with FIFA and that the world governing body as well as the Asian Confederation AFC "are fully aware of every development regarding our team's situation."
“I’ve said to the physios” – Cole Palmer shares major fitness update
Cole Palmer has revealed he’s feeling the best he’s felt in “four of five months” following Chelsea’s win against Aston Villa.
The Blues ran out emphatic 4-1 winners at Villa Park, to move above Liverpool and back into fifth place as the race for Champions League football continues.
Chelsea responded brilliantly to going a goal down in the opening minutes with Joao Pedro scoring a hat-trick, and Palmer also getting on the scoresheet.
Cole Palmer shares fitness update
Palmer has struggled with a groin injury this season, which caused him to miss virtually the entire first half of the campaign.
Since returning in December he’s had some good moments, but things haven’t appeared quite right, and he didn’t have a good performance against Arsenal.
Palmer was back on the scoresheet against Villa. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
However, speaking before the big win, Palmer provided a fitness update, and revealed this is the best he’s felt in months.
“I still feel a bit away from being [the best Cole Palmer],” he said as quoted on X.com.
“I’ve said to the physios this week that this is the best I have felt in four or five months.
“I can do everything on the pitch now so it is just about finding my rhythm.”
Palmer has previously stated he’s yet to play a game fully fit this season, but put in an encouraging performance at Villa Park.
The England international now has five goals and an assist in his last league five games, and Chelsea will be hoping that form continues.
Joao Pedro delivers once again
Whilst Palmer is continuing to work on getting back to his best, Pedro has continued to go from strength to strength under Liam Rosenior.
The 24-year-old has now scored 14 league goals this season, and has eight in his last eight Premier League matches.
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“I’ve said to the physios” – Cole Palmer shares major fitness update
Pedro will likely be on the bench against Wrexham in the FA Cup on Saturday, but the Blues will need him at his brilliant best against PSG next week.
Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here:
Arne Slot offers Florian Wirtz injury update as he addresses Liverpool’s attacking struggles
Liverpool manager Arne Slot claimed that Florian Wirtz “could be available for a few minutes” during the FA Cup tie against Wolves on Friday, while suggesting that the Germany international is key to the team’s overall “balance”.
Wirtz has been out of the squad since picking up an injury in the warm-up ahead of the win over Nottingham Forest on 22 February, and the 22-year-old has missed three games in that time, including the 2-1 loss to Wolves in the league earlier this week.
However, he could feature against Wolves in the FA Cup fifth-round tie this week, in what would be a welcome boost to Liverpool’s attacking options.
“He trained half and half with the team yesterday. He made the next step in rehab. Let's see where he is today. He could be available for a few minutes tomorrow in the best scenario,” explained Slot, before adding that “everyone else [is] fine”.
The absence of Wirtz has coincided with Liverpool struggling in attack at times, and while the Reds did beat West Ham 5-2 over that spell, there are still questions over the attacking output and chance creation, with Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah coming under criticism for not offering enough from the wings.
And while Slot highlighted that “attacking isn't just down to Cody [Gakpo] and Mo [Salah],” the Dutchman did seem to admit that Wirtz is a key cog in his side’s attack.
“One of the players who creates is Florian Wirtz. He got injured three games ago. Before that the team had a certain balance and we've had to adjust again. That's happened a lot this season,” explained the Liverpool boss.
“Not all the games have improved in terms of creating chances. But we're not the only team that finds it hard to create from open play. It's the qualify of the league that makes it more complicated.
“We are not in terms of chance creation last in the league. We're not doing that bad. We're also the team with most ball possession so you'd expect us to create more.
“Cody and Mo we expect and they expect from themselves to score more. But attacking isn't just down to Cody and Mo,” he added.
Liverpool will book a place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup with a win at Molineux, in what is the first of an important string of games that includes a Champions League last-16 tie against Galatasaray and a Premier League match against Tottenham at Anfield on 15 March.