From the blowout Super Bowl to the epic extreme snowsports in the Winter Olympics, 2026 has already been a busy year for sports especially on the global stage. Now, the World Baseball Classic is up to the plate.
“I’m super pumped for it,” said Mike Wuebben, 20, of Redondo Beach, California.
Wuebben, who studies writing for film and television, is one of the coaches for the USC Women’s Baseball Team. He has been playing baseball his whole life, and played high school ball at Bishop Montgomery High School.
He said he looks forward to the WBC.
“I’m super excited to see all of these different players from different MLB teams and from around the world come together to represent their respective countries,” he said.
The WBC is a two-week event, from Mar. 5 to 17, where 20 national teams compete for the title of world’s greatest in baseball. The tournament starts off with four pools of five teams in a round-robin play style. Each pool competes in one of four international cities: Tokyo, San Juan, Houston, and Miami.
The international affair happens every three years now — not four like earlier seasons — due to the high popularity the WBC drew in 2023. However, the WBC is fairly new to the international sporting event world. Prior to its establishment, the closest major occasion to show off baseball’s best at the global scale was the irrelevant Baseball World Cup.
Starting in 1938, the Baseball World Cup event took place between the United States and Great Britain. The competition displayed no exciting professional talent, but rather featured amateur players from all sorts of minor or Double-A leagues, like the Montgomery Biscuits and Winnipeg Goldeyes. Barely any fans went to watch, or even knew it existed.
That changed in 2006 when the World Baseball Classic made its debut. Coordinated by then-MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, the tournament was created to broaden baseball’s international appeal. Audiences began to notice baseball on the international scale thanks to the WBC, with there being 737,112 total fans for the 2006’ tournament’s 39 games. There was spirit and energy for the two-week endeavor, making the games feel like they were part of the MLB regular season.
The event, organized by the MLB, the MLB Players Association and World Baseball Softball Confederation, is a premier global tournament for national baseball teams. The first of its kind, the WBC still has ways to go to get to Olympic and World Cup-level viewership and involvement. But there’s hope.
“Baseball raised me,” said Wuebben, “It’s an extremely diverse sport and it deserves to have a tournament that represents that.”
Based on recent statistics, it’s evident that the global baseball community is growing rapidly. Though the first tournament only saw a few thousand fans, over 1.3 million fans attended the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
That same year, U.S. viewership peaked at 6.5 million in the last 15 minutes when Shohei Otani, playing for Japan, struck out his then-MLB teammate Mike Trout to end the game. The Japanese round had even more with 29 million viewers.
“I think because of how exciting the finish was three years ago, more players are interested in playing in the event,” said Jeff Fellenzer, a USC journalism professor that specializes in sports, business and media. “ It is another chance for players to play for their countries.”
It’s not only the crowds growing, but also that the baseball’s getting better. Fans can expect to see closer games, less major shutouts and fewer runs with more international talent and more upsets. This all marks the immense growth of the tournament, as well as the elevated level of play every country is bringing to the table.
But getting baseball to be as popular as its sporting counterparts, like soccer and football, will take some time.
“It probably will never achieve something where you’d say it’s on a par with some of these big international events,” said Fellenzer. “It’s just not.”
Baseball may never be as much of a home run as soccer is worldwide. Though it was added for the 2020 Games in Tokyo, it was soon taken away for the Paris 2024 Games.
But baseball will show its head once more in Los Angeles in 2028.
With the MLB refusing to adjust their regular season for the Olympic schedule and with it being a very popular sport in only a handful of countries, getting baseball to go global has been a struggle.
“In order to grow as popular as other international sporting events,” said Keira Izumi, 19, of San Diego, “[the WBC] needs to really commit to being the tournament for the “best of the best.”
Izumi, a mechanical engineering student at USC, is the founder and president of USC Women’s Baseball. She’s been playing baseball for 15 years, and knows all about the highs, lows, successes and failures the game brings.
“I think the MLB could do more … like adjusting spring training schedules or creating insurance incentives to make it easier for their big starters to compete in the WBC without risking their MLB standing,” said Izumi.
With the help of the WBC, the baseball nation is seeing a rise in global interest, despite its fairly recent start.
“But I do think baseball is becoming more of a global sport,” said Fellenzer, “and certainly we see it in Southern California with the Dodgers.”
The World Baseball Classic is still developing. The 2026 tournament will be a clear pathway to becoming a sensation internationally. In time, it might be the next best thing. It may even have a Bad Bunny halftime show.