It won’t be happening until 2013, but the next World Baseball Classic will be significantly larger than the previous editions. Twelve countries larger, in fact.
Here’s the new teams:
- Brazil
- Colombia
- Czech Republic
- France
- Germany
- Great Britain
- Israel
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Philippines
- Spain
- Thailand
They join the existing countries to form a 28-team field. Previously:
- Australia
- Canada
- China
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Panama
- Puerto Rico
- South Africa
- Taiwan (AKA Chinese Taipei)
- USA
- Venezuela
Should be interesting! On a personal note, I’m hoping there’s a Team Ireland some day. If Mike Piazza can play for Team Italy, it seems like there should be enough Irish guys around to put something together. ;)