World Baseball Classic

In March, baseball fans will be looking forward to the season and may see one of the most exciting tournaments of baseball anywhere in the world.

The World Baseball Classic is an exciting baseball event, that will feature many of the best players in the world competing for their home countries and territories for the second time ever. Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have joined together to establish the World Baseball Classic. The tournament will be conducted jointly by MLB and the MLBPA in cooperation with Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), their respective players associations and other professional leagues from around the world.

One of the best things about the World Baseball Classic is that no matter where you watch
the games, and no matter what team you’re betting, you’ll be able to bet on some of the greatest and most famous ballplayers in the game today.

All the teams that participated in 2006 were invited back to 2009. Those clubs were Australia,
Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the USA and Venezuela.

Players like Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis will team up to bring the gold home to the US.
While A-Rod and David Ortiz will drop the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry to represent the Dominican Republic.

Japan won the title in 2006, beating Cuba in the finale with 10-6.

All 39 games will be televised this year by ESPN and the new MLB Network, 16 by the fledgling network, which will be born on Jan. 1 and debut to a potential audience of more than 50 million basic cable subscribers.

The first round opens in Tokyo, with defending champion Japan facing China. Mexico City,
Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico, host the other three first-round brackets, as follows:

• Tokyo (March 5-9): Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Korea

• Toronto (March 7-11): USA, Canada, Venezuela, Italy

• San Juan, P.R. (March 7-11): Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Panama

• Mexico City (March 8-12): Mexico, Cuba, South Africa, Australia

This time, the tournament will be run in a double-elimination format in the first two rounds, with the winners from Toronto meeting the winners from Puerto Rico in the second round at Miami's Dolphin Stadium. The winners from Tokyo will meet the winners from Mexico City in San Diego's PETCO Park.

The semifinals and final will be played March 21 and 23 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

World Baseball Classic Results

The players from Japan and Korea lined up on the dugout rail, from the first pitch to the last.

Fans of each side clapping ThunderStix and chanting for four hours straight.

Japanese cleanup hitter, Kenji Johjima, who has exactly one sacrifice in three years in the major leagues, trying to lay down a sac bunt because he so wanted his team to get on the board first.

Japanese starter Hisashi Iwakuma so in command of Korean hitters through the first three innings that I wondered if maybe I'd be writing my first no-hitter story.

Korean right fielder Shin-Soo Choo driving a ball so hard over the center field wall in the fifth inning that thoughts of a no-no seemed an absurd and distant memory.

Japan collecting 13 singles and 15 total hits, but Korea making them strand 29 runners, twice stemming the tide with critical 5-4-3 double plays, the second of which featured a stout, quick turn and was, in the words of one of my colleagues in the press box, "a legitimate 180-footer like you almost never see."

Two strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double plays, one by Korea in the fifth and one by Japan in the sixth.

Japan taking the lead four times and Korea battling back to tie the game on three separate occasions.

Team Japan manager Tatsunori Hara riding young stud Yu Darvish late in the game for a second straight night and being rewarded when the kid hit 100 mph on the gun and pitched two complete innings to earn the win.

Team Korea manager In-Sik Kim deciding to have reliever Chang Yong Lim pitch to Ichiro with first base open in the top of the 10th and paying the price when the Mariners right fielder laced a ball up the middle to drive in the deciding runs.

Players from Team Japan, basking in the postgame moment, jogging up and down the third base line with an unfurled Japanese flag, saluting the thousands of fans who lingered more than 30 minutes after the last out.

Japan 5, Korea 3 for what it was: A great night of baseball, a great night for baseball.

World Baseball Classic Betting Information:

World Baseball Classic Specials: Specials World Baseball Classic Sportsbook Bonuses.
World Baseball Classic Odds: Live World Baseball Classic odds for boxing betting.

Sports Betting Help: How to get sportsbook help.
Sportsbook Rules: The Sports Betting Rules.
Sports Betting deposits: View World Baseball Classic Deposit options.

Be sure to get your World Baseball Classic bets down early at Gamblers Palace sportsbook, because the game is here!

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