The World Baseball Classic

Baseball's Version of "March Madness"

The World Baseball Classic, the brainchild of Major League Baseball and the MLB Player's Association, will be held in March of 2006. The tournament will bring together sixteen nations and territories where baseball is a popular pastime, with four pools of four teams each competing against one another for the right to advance to a one game finale. The World Baseball Classic's objective is to increase the exposure of the game of baseball globally. It is a stirring concept, especially for fans of the countries involved. The World Baseball Classic will provide compelling contests and storylines for baseball followers who usually must wait for the regular season to end and the playoffs to begin to find such excitement and passion. And there will be passion!

March was really the only time that this novel event could be played out. The regular season, stretching from April to September, with the playoffs going into late October, afforded no space for such a bold affair. The long season's strain on pitchers made it necessary to have the World Baseball Classic scheduled when they would be fresh. There are rules in place to protect the pitchers; pitch counts are in place to assure they do not overwork their arms. The tourney begins on Friday, March 3rd and concludes on Monday, March 20th.

Here is how the pool play works. The world's best baseball countries and territories, sixteen in number, were divided up into four groups. A team in a group will play the other three teams once, with the two squads with the best record advancing to the next round. These eight teams will then be divided up into two pools of four. Again, each team in a pool will play the other teams in its division once. The two top sides will meet in the single elimination semi-finals, with the two victors going to the championship tilt to decide the winner.