The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament held every three years to four years where baseball players from all over the world come together in order to represent their country and win a gold medal.

This upcoming World Baseball Classic will be co-hosted by Puerto Rico, The United States (Texas and Florida), and Japan.

The 2026 World Baseball Classic, like in 2023, will have 20 countries participating, 16 of which qualified after finishing top four in their pool in the 2023 edition of the competition. The remaining four slots were determined by countries playing in qualifying tournaments a year prior to the event.

The opening round pool play will be played in Houston, Texas, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miami, Florida, and Tokyo, Japan. The quarterfinals will be played in Houston, Texas and Miami, Florida. The semi-finals and finals will be played exclusively in Miami, Florida, and the entire event will last 13 days.

WJPS 11th grader Simon Ospina said, “I don’t really watch baseball, but at least I get to root for my country in a sporting event.”

WJPS 11th grader Alexis Moncada said, “I’m going to watch so I can start really getting into baseball.”