Why the World Baseball Classic keeps getting 'better and better'
USA TODAY
World Baseball Classic's sixth edition figures to be the best yet.
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.
Team USA faces off against a star-studded Dominican team in the WBC semifinals on Sunday.
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Team USA faces a win-or-go-home quarterfinal against northern neighbor Canada in the 2026 WBC.