Instant Classic

WBC.

It doesn't stand for the World's Best Coffee or the Whitest Beard Contest. It does stand for the World Baseball Classic and it started this morning at 4:30 AM EST as Japan took the first game 4-0 from China.

The painfully early start is because the game was played in front of 43,428 screaming fans at Tokyo Dome in Japan. This is just one of four first round locations slated for the 2009 edition of the international baseball tournament. The other three are Foro Sol in Mexico City, Rodgers Centre in Toronto, and Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Cuba.

Each pool consists of four teams from around the globe. These teams will compete in a double-elimination round-robin competition for the first two-rounds. Both second round venues are located in the United States, with PETCO Park in San Diego and Dolphin Stadium in Miami hosting both the winners and second-place finishers from the four pools.

The finals in Dodger Stadium located in Los Angeles feature a single elimination series of the four remaining teams.

All of the same sixteen teams from the inceptive competition in 2006 are competing again this year. Fans may notice a significant trend within those teams. Countries represented are either from North America (USA, Canada, Mexico), Central and South America (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Pureto Rico, Panama, Venezuela) or east Asia (Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea). The only exceptions are Australian, South Africa, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The majority of the Dutch players are actually from Dutch held Caribbean Island like Curacao. South Africa only came because they thought baseball was just American for cricket.

This trend can be traced to the fact that, despite baseball's existence as America's national past time, the sport has garnered admiration from other regions of the world. Baseball is best described as the national obsession of Japan. It has also gained extreme popularity around the Caribbean especially in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.

As a result, more and more MLB players are coming from those countries as the sport continues to diversify.

After claiming the 2006 tournament by beating Cuba in the final game, Japan is among the favorites this year. Their competition primarily exists in a very strong Dominican team as well as a US team seeking redemption. Although the Dominicans made it to the semi-finals last time around, the Americans were embarrassed when eliminated in the second round, compiling a record of 3-3.

Bolstered with plenty of talent, the US team hopes they can stay focused against lesser known teams and players in order to improve on their performance on the global stage.

A good portion of all teams are comprised by major leaguers playing hooky from spring training. A number of professional clubs, however, denied their players request to represent their native countries participation due to the risk of injury and time away from regular season preparation.

Since baseball has been removed from the Olympic slate following the 2008 games in Beijing, the WBC could be the new form of international baseball. After 2009, the classic plans to be repeated on a four year basis, much like the Olympics. However, unlike the Olympics, the allowance of professional players to participate may give the competition more popularity and name recognition, espcially from the United States.

In the planned third instalment in 2013, the tournament hopes to expand to a field of 24 teams.