TOKYO -- Korea began its week celebrating home runs by spreading their arms wide as if they were on an airplane, carrying an inflatable "M" to stand for Miami. On Monday night, needing a win against Australia and for everything to go exactly right, it made it happen. Forget the

It will go down as one of the most memorable World Baseball Classic games in Tokyo Dome’s storied history. Chinese Taipei – which had never defeated Korea in the tournament before – needed a victory to keep its slim hopes of advancing alive. With a win, Korea would set up

TOKYO -- Seiya Suzuki missed Japan's 2023 World Baseball Classic title run with an oblique injury, with the team marking his absence by hanging his No. 51 jersey above the bench in the dugout. In Japan's 8-6 win against Korea on Saturday at Tokyo Dome, the Cubs outfielder showed what

TOKYO -- Hyun Jin Ryu was just 21 years old and he was pitching in one of the biggest games in the world. It was the gold medal game at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Korea was playing Cuba, one of the all-time greats of international baseball. Korea had missed

TOKYO -- Korea had one goal when entering the Tokyo Dome for the World Baseball Classic this week: Be on the flight to Miami for the quarterfinals when the week is over. It’s why it celebrated every home run by pantomiming airplane wings as it rounds the bases. On Thursday

TOKYO -- Some ballplayers opt out of the World Baseball Classic in hopes that their time in big league Spring Training may help them win a job. For the Astros' Shay Whitcomb, he may be making the best case while playing for the Korean national team in the World Baseball

When Tokyo's Pool C ends, two teams will head to Haneda Airport and fly to Miami for the quarterfinals. For Korea, which hasn't advanced out of the first round since reaching the championship in 2009, the mission begins there. So, during this past week's two exhibition games in Osaka, there

Get ready to dive into World Baseball Classic pool play. The 2026 tournament, which gets underway this week, features four pools: A, B, C and D. Each of those pools consists of five teams battling it out in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool then advance

Korea comes to the tournament at a turning point for its baseball program. The team dominated in the early-aughts, winning gold at the 2008 Olympics and going to extra innings before losing to Japan in the 2009 World Baseball Classic finals. Since then, however, the national team has struggled, failing

Korea's national baseball team was riding high in the early 2000s. In the years following Chan-Ho Park's debut as the first Korean-born player in the Major Leagues in 1994, the sport's popularity exploded, leading to a gold medal at the 2008 Olympic games and a heartbreaking, extra-innings loss to Japan

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- A five-plus-hour flight from Florida to San Francisco, followed by a 12-plus-hour flight from there to Osaka, Japan, were what awaited Astros infielder Shay Whitcomb on Thursday morning. He’s the first of three Astros players who will head to the World Baseball Classic in the

Below is a list of the players in every Major League organization who have been included on the rosters for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Pitchers denoted with ^ are part of the Designated Pitcher Pool (DPP), a reserve of up to six pitchers per federation that can be called

The World Baseball Classic begins on Wednesday, March 4, at 10 p.m. ET in a game between Australia and Chinese Taipei. It will kick off a fortnight of absolute madness, with the best baseball players on the planet highly motivated by patriotism, pride and plain old competitiveness squaring off in

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jahmai Jones’ role on the Tigers is to hit left-handed pitching. It’s how he transitioned from a non-roster invite last Spring Training to a fixture on the roster down the stretch last year and into the postseason. It’s a role that earned him a spot on Team

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Daisuke Matsuzaka carving up batters en route to back-to-back MVP Awards; Nelson Cruz’s triumphant blast; Adam Jones’ leaping home run robbery; Javier Báez’s no-look tag; and Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout with the championship on the line -- these are just some of the World Baseball Classic’s indelible moments that

The season couldn't have started worse. Do-yeong Kim, just 20 years old at the time, was entering his third year with the Kia Tigers of the KBO, Korea's top professional baseball league. He was coming off an 84-game season which saw him top a .300 batting average with an increase

The greatest hitters in baseball history have many things in common: A gorgeous swing, a keen eye at the plate and the kind of consistency that allows them to pester pitchers day in, day out, for dozens of years. The one thing that Ah-Seop Son, the KBO's newest all-time hits

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Baseball has become an integral part of South Korean culture since its introduction to the area more than a century ago, growing into a beloved pastime with unique customs and a fervent fan base. Philip L. Gillett, an American missionary with the YMCA, is credited with bringing baseball to Seoul

JUPITER, Fla. -- Just when Tommy Edman thought he was over the rigors of playing several three-plus-hour games, enduring a 20-hour travel day and adjusting to a 14-hour time difference between Japan and the East Coast of the United States, the Cardinals’ standout shortstop got another stark reminder of the

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Padres' middle infield is back in Peoria -- far sooner than they would've hoped. Xander Bogaerts, whose Team Netherlands narrowly missed reaching the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals, returned to the Padres’ clubhouse on Wednesday. He was in the lineup against the Guardians before that game was

TOKYO -- The Korean hitters took out their frustration from a difficult week -- all in one night. Unfortunately for Team China, it happened when their pitchers were on the mound.

TOKYO -- Korea’s World Baseball Classic dreams were almost dashed. Through two games, its pitchers had given up eight runs in a loss to Australia, and another 13 runs in the defeat against Japan – using an astonishing 10 pitchers along the way. • Box score Facing the surprising and

TOKYO -- On Friday night at a packed and boisterous Tokyo Dome, Team Korea found that there was no pitcher -- and no sequence of pitches -- who could quiet the Japanese bats. It used a remarkable 10 pitchers, and no arm, fastball or breaking pitch could solve the riddle