For baseball fans who are ready for more intense competition than Spring Training Games, the World Baseball Classic starts Friday at 11:30 p.m. ET when Taiwan hosts Australia. Joe Torre returns to the dugout, this time as manager of a US team that has failed to make the finals in the two previous WBC’s in 2006 and 2009. The championship game will be played in San Francisco on March 19, however each team will need to emerge from a 4-team pool first, and here is the schedule for all pool games:
TABLE.tableizer-table {
BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; FONT-FAMILY: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: 12px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid
}
.tableizer-table TD {
BORDER-BOTTOM: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-BOTTOM: 4px; MARGIN: 3px; PADDING-LEFT: 4px; PADDING-RIGHT: 4px; BORDER-TOP: #ccc 1px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: #ccc 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 4px
}
.tableizer-table TH {
BACKGROUND-COLOR: #104e8b; COLOR: #fff; FONT-WEIGHT: bold
}
| Date | Day | Time | World Baseball Classic | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-Mar | Fri | 11:30PM | Australia @ Chinese Taipei | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 2-Mar | Sat | 10:30PM | Cuba @ Brazil | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 2-Mar | Sat | 5:00AM | Japan @ Brazil | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 2-Mar | Sat | 6:30AM | Korea @ Netherlands | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 3-Mar | Sun | 1:30AM | Netherlands @ Chinese Taipei | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 3-Mar | Sun | 5:00AM | China @ Japan | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 4-Mar | Mon | 11:30PM | Australia @ Netherlands | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 4-Mar | Mon | 2:30AM | China @ Cuba | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 4-Mar | Mon | 5:30AM | Korea @ Australia | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 5-Mar | Tue | 3:00AM | Brazil @ China | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 5-Mar | Tue | 6:30AM | Chinese Taipei @ Korea | Taichung, Taiwan |
| 6-Mar | Wed | 5:00AM | Japan @ Cuba | Fukuoka, Japan |
| 7-Mar | Thu | 3:00PM | Italy @ Mexico | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 7-Mar | Thu | 6:30PM | Venezuela @ Dominican Rep. | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| 8-Mar | Fri | 2:30PM | Canada @ Italy | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 8-Mar | Fri | 5:30PM | Spain @ Puerto Rico | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| 8-Mar | Fri | 9:00PM | Mexico @ United States | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 9-Mar | Sat | 11:00AM | Dominican Rep. @ Spain | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| 9-Mar | Sat | 2:30PM | Canada @ Mexico | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 9-Mar | Sat | 5:30PM | Puerto Rico @ Venezuela | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| 9-Mar | Sat | 9:00PM | United States @ Italy | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 10-Mar | Sun | 12:30PM | Spain @ Venezuela | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
| 10-Mar | Sun | 4:00PM | United States @ Canada | Phoenix, Arizona |
| 10-Mar | Sun | 7:30PM | Dominican Rep. @ Puerto Rico | San Juan, Puerto Rico |
This year he hopes that international players have as much trouble hitting R.A. Dickey’s knuckleballs as they did in the Major Leagues this year. The US will not open play until a week from Friday at 8 p.m. ET when they play Mexico in Phoenix. The US will also play Italy and Canada in one of four pools of four teams each. Two teams advance from each pool. If two teams have records of 3-0 and 2-1 then they both advance. However, if three teams go 1-2, then only the team with the best run differential advances along with the 3-0 team. If three teams go 2-1, then the top two run differentials advance.
The competition has been very exciting in the past two series, except for an occasional game in which a team knew they would advance due to a huge run differential they already had while going 1-2.
For more details, see AP story here.