The teams who have first round byes usually do some exhibition matches against local teams for practice and marketing purposes. For example, Team USA will scrimmage against the San Francisco Giants and Team Canada against the Chicago Cubs.

Back in 2017, 25.4% of all households in Japan tuned into just the first round games (albeit that's the only info I could find in like 2 mins of googling). Now Japan has Ohtani playing for them again, and his stardom has only grown after he dominated MLB in '21 and '22.

If they make the finals, I could see viewership in Japan being even higher than the world cup. Afterall they have their Koshien tournament, which is a high school baseball tournament, that is basically as big as March Madness is in the states.

Wow. I don't really follow college basketball, but Boeheim's longevity as a head coach is astonishing.

Easily will surpass the World Cup. Every day on tv here in Japan you can’t miss them talking about Ohtani and WBC. I would say well over 50% will watch the games.

MLB, NPB, KBO, Mexican Baseball League, and most other major league seasons run March/April to Sept/Oct. Right now is spring training for everyone and the perfect time for the tournament.

I mean MLB is the one that basically created and pushed for this tournament, originally through the IBAF, in order to grow the sport internationally after it was removed as an Olympic sport. Of course they have control over it. And honestly March is a good compromise. I'd rather have something like this in Spring Training than not at all. And while it's a cool tournament I'd rather not have MLB games be shut down for a month in the summer time. No way the owners would ever allow their players to leave in the middle of the season. Nor would they ever give up the middle summer months when MLB is the only big 3 sport on TV for about 2 months.

I get where you're coming from on the suggestion, but I'm just glad it exists at all.

Looking forward to going to the United States games this weekend in Phoenix.

It was against a fairly new NPB arm though, likely not on the same level as those he’ll be facing.

Japan hasn't played their first game yet though

Ok edge boy

Ohtani hit 2 3-run home runs in the opener.

Japan is to be feared solely because of him… let alone the rest of the Japanese badasses

I do not care.

I mean baseball is absolutely massive in Japan. Shohei Ohtani, Samurai Japan’s headliner, is the biggest celebrity in the entire country, and he’s playing with some other massive names in Japanese baseball.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole to think that this WBC might do better than the World Cup, at least in Japan.

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For those who don’t know much about baseball the heavy favorites are: Dominican rep, USA and Japan. The teams who could potentially win are: Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Korea, Cuba, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mexico

Maybe the writer is from the UK, still very much in use here

"In Japan, where 34.6% of households watched a World Cup game with Croatia last year, the WBC can be an even bigger draw than the global soccer event."

"Can" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

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you know baseball trying to be “hip and cool” with the kids.

Sick bro, what year is it?

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The baseball universe needs to see USA v The Dominican Republic. Don’t over look this tournament folks! If you’ve played sports I am sure you’ve dreamed of representing your country in a tournament. I think these players are going to bring it!

It would be hilarious if they lose to, oh I don't know, maybe Vietnam?