The WBC has arrived. It probably arrived in 2023, to be honest — that Shohei-Trout at-bat feels like one of the most significant baseball moments of this century. But this is year that the WBC has broken containment. This is the year that the non-baseball watching people in my life are asking me about it. This is the year that it’s been discussed on social media more than the NCAA tournament. This is the year that the WBC haters — who were decidedly in the majority when this thing started back in 2006 — now sound out of step with the rest of the baseball world.
In fact, it seems pretty clear to me that, based on the trajectory we’re currently on, the WBC is going to be bigger than the World Series at some point. I would probably put the timeframe on that at about 20 years or so, which, coincidentally, is how long the tournament has already been around. Maybe that’s even underestimating it. Kiké Hernadez has already been very clear on where he puts the two events, and it seems like just about every non-American player agrees with him:
What happens tonight — when two baseball powerhouses meet for a politically-charged championship game in front of a raucous crown — may speed up the timeline.
Here are the lineups, first pitch at 8:00 PM on FOX:
