The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic is about to sing “play ball” with 20 teams, the largest number of participants in the history of the event, and in a tournament of this relevance there are always curiosities and statistics to tell baseball fans .’ hot ball’
Here are some details from the World Classic which will be played in four locations: Taichung, Taiwan; Tokyo, Japan; and Phoenix and Miami in the United States.
1. A history of Major League Baseball and who will be the manager of the Puerto Rico team, former catcher Yadier Molina is the only position player to be selected twice on the ideal team of the World Classic. Molina played 19 years for the St. Louis Cardinals, with whom he won the World Series twice.
2. According to the organization of the tournament, there will be 690 players from 34 nationalities and 20 countries. The teams that have the largest number of foreigners on their ‘roster’ are Israel, Italy, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
3. One of the legendary managers in this event hails from Canada: former receiver Ernie Whitt, who with his working group consisting of coaches Denis Boucher, Greg Hamilton, Larry Walker and Tim Leiper; they have remained for ninth since the first World Classic was played in 2006, although they have never progressed past the first round.
4. The maximum number of points scored in a World Classic match is held by Japan, who scored 18 against China in the first edition of the match.
5. Some lights from Colombia. Manager and former big leaguer Jolbert Cabrera would play with Gio Urshela at third base, Meibrys Viloria at catcher, Óscar Mercado in left field and Harold Ramírez in right field. Colombia is part of Group C, based in Phoenix, along with the United States, Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom.
6. In this fifth edition of the tournament, which will be played from March 8 to 21, the lowest capacity stadium is Intercontinental in Taichung, with a capacity of 20,000 spectators, and the largest is Chase Field in Phoenix, with 48,686 spectators . , home of Major League Baseball’s Arizona DiamondBacks.
7. The stadium of the Miami Marlins, LoanDepot Park, home of Group D, has a capacity of 36,742 fans and the Caribbean Series will be played on that same stage in 2024.
8. According to various bookmaker information, the Dominican Republic team is the fan favorite to win the title. The ninth Dominican won the championship for the first time in the 2013 edition.
9. All venues where the final stage of the tournament has been played have been US cities. In 2003 the last location was San Diego, in 2009 Los Angeles, in 2013 San Francisco, in 2017 repeated Los Angeles and this year it’s Miami.
10. It is the first time that Cuba has included players from the major leagues. Three are position players: third baseman Yoán Moncada, 27; outfielder Luis Robert, 25, both with the Chicago White Sox; and Andy Ibáñez, 29 and an infielder for the Detroit Tigers. Pitcher Roenis Elías of the Chicago Cubs also joined the team.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
