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The first couple of groups of pool play will be of particular interest to night-owls and our overseas readers, because they’re taking place in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan respectively. That means the games will largely be taking place in the dead of night for Arizona fans. Things will be a little more sociable for the final two pools, as they are based in Miami and Jalisco, Mexico - sadly, there will be no World Baseball Classic games taking place in Phoenix this time. That’s a shame, since we’ve always had great fun, attending games both in 2006 and 2013. But there will still be plenty of rooting interest, with seven members of the Arizona Diamondbacks (at various levels) taking part for their respective national teams, as follows:
- Miguel Aguilar, Mexico
- Zach Borenstein, Israel
- Silvino Bracho, Venezuela
- Daniel Descalso, Italy
- Reymond Fuentes, Puerto Rico
- Paul Goldschmidt, United States
- Fernando Rodney, Dominican Republic [he closed out the win in the 2013 championship for the DR, as shown above]
Me, I’ll be holding your jackets over the corner as you fight it out, because Team Great Britain just failed to make it, being eliminated by Israel in a winner-take-all qualifying contest. Here’s the schedule for the first round of contests. All times approximate, not least because I think the clocks change everywhere else in the middle. So, check local listings as appropriate!
WBC First round schedule
| Location/Teams | Date | Game | Start ( AZ Time ) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Location/Teams | Date | Game | Start ( AZ Time ) |
| Pool A, Seoul | March 6 | Israel vs. Korea | 3 a.m. |
| Israel | March 7 | Taiwan vs. Israel | 8:30 p.m. (Mon) |
| Korea | March 7 | Korea vs. Netherlands | 3 a.m. |
| Netherlands | March 8 | Taiwan vs. Netherlands | 3 a.m. |
| Taiwan | March 9 | Israel vs. Netherlands | 9:30 p.m. (Mon) |
| March 9 | Taiwan vs. Korea | 3 a.m. | |
| March 10 | Tiebreaker game (if necessary) | 2 a.m. | |
| Pool B, Tokyo | |||
| Australia | March 7 | Cuba vs. Japan | 3 a.m. |
| China | March 8 | China vs. Cuba | 8 p.m. (Thu) |
| Cuba | March 8 | Australia vs. Japan | 3 a.m. |
| Japan | March 9 | Australia vs. China | 3 a.m. |
| March 10 | Australia vs. Cuba | 8 p.m. (Thu) | |
| March 10 | China vs. Japan | 3 a.m. | |
| March 11 | Tiebreaker game (if necessary) | 3 a.m. | |
| Pool C, Miami | |||
| Canada | March 9 | Canada vs. Dominican Republic | 4 p.m. |
| Colombia | March 10 | Colombia vs. United States | 4 p.m. |
| Dominican Republic | March 11 | Canada vs. Colombia | 10:00 a.m. |
| United States | March 11 | Dominican Republic vs. United States | 4:30 p.m. |
| March 12 | Colombia vs. Dominican Republic | 9:30 a.m. | |
| March 12 | Canada vs. United States | 4 p.m. | |
| March 13 | Tiebreaker game (if necessary) | 6 p.m. | |
| Pool D, Jalisco | |||
| Italy | March 9 | Italy vs. Mexico | 7 p.m. |
| Mexico | March 10 | Puerto Rico vs. Venezuela | 7 p.m. |
| Puerto Rico | March 11 | Italy vs.Venezuela | 1 p.m. |
| Venezuela | March 11 | Mexico vs. Puerto Rico | 7:30 p.m. |
| March 12 | Italy vs. Puerto Rico | 12:30 p.m. | |
| March 12 | Mexico vs. Venezuela | 7 p.m. | |
| March 13 | Tiebreaker game (if necessary) | 6 p.m. |
How to watch
In the United States, the MLB Network is the English-language network for the World Baseball Classic, with ESPN Deportes neing the Spanish-language outlet, and each will air all the games in the United States. If you’re online, you can watch them through MLBNetwork.com/watch or ESPN.com/watchespn - both methods will require you to authenticate with your cable provider. Which reminds me, I must get the new Cox password from Mrs. SnakePit...