{"id":18156,"date":"2023-03-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-08T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/08\/the-world-baseball-classic-begins-today-for-the-first-time-in-six-years\/"},"modified":"2023-03-08T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-03-08T05:00:00","slug":"the-world-baseball-classic-begins-today-for-the-first-time-in-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/08\/the-world-baseball-classic-begins-today-for-the-first-time-in-six-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The World Baseball Classic begins today for the first time in six years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>Pack up your winter gear and grab some peanuts and cracker jacks because spring is springing early with the start of the <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Baseball Classic<\/a>, aka the world cup of baseball, beginning in earnest today for the first time in six years after COVID-19 canceled the 2021 edition.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Adding to the intrigue? Unlike the Olympics, MLB\u2019s best and brightest \u2014 including a record-setting seven league MVPs \u2014 will suit up for their countries. Play ball, baby.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How it works: <\/strong>The newly expanded 20-team field is divided into four pools \u2014 spread out across Tokyo, Taichung, Miami and Phoenix \u2014 where they\u2019ll compete in <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-g\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">round-robin action<\/a>. The top two teams from each pool advance to single-elimination play, culminating with the championship game on March 21st in Miami. <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-w\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Dale<\/em><\/a><em>!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>The top teams: <\/strong>The Dominican Republic and their terrifying roster of MLB talent are the favorites. From All-Star teammates <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-yd\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manny Machado and Juan Soto<\/a> to American League Rookie of the Year Julio Rodriguez, this squad is the definition of Dream Team. But we\u2019d never bet against <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-yh\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">unicorn Shohei Ohtani<\/a>, who\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thegist.createsend1.com\/t\/t-l-fdtllul-jtnjdhukh-yk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">already blasting home runs<\/a> for two-time champs Japan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/fe4b538f-316f-49db-92c3-13791b26540d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: Pack up your winter gear and grab some peanuts and cracker jacks because spring is springing early with the start of the World Baseball Classic, aka the world cup of baseball, beginning in earnest today for the first time in six years after COVID-19 canceled the 2021 edition. Adding to the intrigue? Unlike [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}