The World Baseball Classic kicked off on February 21. Teams from all over the world are going head to head in competitive baseball games.
The games consist of two pools of teams. One pool is in Taipei and the other is in Tucson. The Taipei teams are: Nicaragua, Chinese Taipei, Spain, and South Africa. The Tucson teams are: Germany, China, Brazil, and Colombia.
The World Baseball Classic is a tournament in which countries put together a baseball team in order to compete with teams that other countries also put together. Each pool in the tournament consists of four teams who will all eventually play each other, and the team with the best record will move forward in the tournament.
The tournament happens once a year starting at the end of February. The rounds that are happening at this very moment are qualifier rounds. These qualifier rounds will determine what teams from both pools Tucson and Taipei will qualify for the final pools of the tournament. The two teams who qualify from these pools will be going to the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Columbia has won their pool and will be going to the World Baseball Classic. The MLB network updates state, “Colombia is going back to the World Baseball Classic. The team entered the Tucson Qualifier as the clear favorite, the country’s roster bursting with talent even after big league players such as José Quintana and Donovan Solano couldn’t participate. All they did at the Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium was live up to the billing, going a perfect 3-0, seemingly never breaking a sweat.” The Taipei pool is still playing games to determine who will move on to the next round. The team standings are: Nicaragua is in first place with a three and zero record, followed by Chinese Taipei and Spain who both have two wins and two losses, in last place of the tournament pool is South Africa with a zero and three record.
The World Baseball Classic began in 2009 and was supposed to take place every four years. It originally followed the four-year plan however, when Covid-19 struck the World Baseball Classic was delayed due to the virus outbreak. The last tournament was held in 2023 after the virus outbreak was over. It is stated, “After a three-year gap between the first two installments of the tournament, plans were made for the World Baseball Classic to be repeated every four years following the 2009 event. The third installment of the Classic was held in 2013, and the fourth was held in 2017. The World Baseball Classic was held five times from 2006 to 2023, with Japan, the Dominican Republic, and the United States winning the championship.” Now that Covid has ended, the World Baseball Classic is back on track with its qualifier rounds happening to determine what teams will be playing in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
