World Baseball Classic Kicks off Friday: Complete Schedule

For baseball fans who are ready for more intense competition than Spring Training Games, the World Baseball Classic starts Friday at 11:30 p.m. ET when Taiwan hosts Australia. Joe Torre returns to the dugout, this time as manager of a US team that has failed to make the finals in the two previous WBC’s in 2006 and 2009. The championship game will be played in San Francisco on March 19, however each team will need to emerge from a 4-team pool first, and here is the schedule for all pool games:

Date	Day	Time	World Baseball Classic	Location
1-Mar	Fri	11:30PM	Australia @ Chinese Taipei	Taichung, Taiwan
2-Mar	Sat	10:30PM	Cuba @ Brazil	Fukuoka, Japan
2-Mar	Sat	5:00AM	Japan @ Brazil	Fukuoka, Japan
2-Mar	Sat	6:30AM	Korea @ Netherlands	Taichung, Taiwan
3-Mar	Sun	1:30AM	Netherlands @ Chinese Taipei	Taichung, Taiwan
3-Mar	Sun	5:00AM	China @ Japan	Fukuoka, Japan
4-Mar	Mon	11:30PM	Australia @ Netherlands	Taichung, Taiwan
4-Mar	Mon	2:30AM	China @ Cuba	Fukuoka, Japan
4-Mar	Mon	5:30AM	Korea @ Australia	Taichung, Taiwan
5-Mar	Tue	3:00AM	Brazil @ China	Fukuoka, Japan
5-Mar	Tue	6:30AM	Chinese Taipei @ Korea	Taichung, Taiwan
6-Mar	Wed	5:00AM	Japan @ Cuba	Fukuoka, Japan
7-Mar	Thu	3:00PM	Italy @ Mexico	Phoenix, Arizona
7-Mar	Thu	6:30PM	Venezuela @ Dominican Rep.	San Juan, Puerto Rico
8-Mar	Fri	2:30PM	Canada @ Italy	Phoenix, Arizona
8-Mar	Fri	5:30PM	Spain @ Puerto Rico	San Juan, Puerto Rico
8-Mar	Fri	9:00PM	Mexico @ United States	Phoenix, Arizona
9-Mar	Sat	11:00AM	Dominican Rep. @ Spain	San Juan, Puerto Rico
9-Mar	Sat	2:30PM	Canada @ Mexico	Phoenix, Arizona
9-Mar	Sat	5:30PM	Puerto Rico @ Venezuela	San Juan, Puerto Rico
9-Mar	Sat	9:00PM	United States @ Italy	Phoenix, Arizona
10-Mar	Sun	12:30PM	Spain @ Venezuela	San Juan, Puerto Rico
10-Mar	Sun	4:00PM	United States @ Canada	Phoenix, Arizona
10-Mar	Sun	7:30PM	Dominican Rep. @ Puerto Rico	San Juan, Puerto Rico

This year he hopes that international players have as much trouble hitting R.A. Dickey’s knuckleballs as they did in the Major Leagues this year. The US will not open play until a week from Friday at 8 p.m. ET when they play Mexico in Phoenix. The US will also play Italy and Canada in one of four pools of four teams each. Two teams advance from each pool. If two teams have records of 3-0 and 2-1 then they both advance. However, if three teams go 1-2, then only the team with the best run differential advances along with the 3-0 team. If three teams go 2-1, then the top two run differentials advance.

The competition has been very exciting in the past two series, except for an occasional game in which a team knew they would advance due to a huge run differential they already had while going 1-2.

For more details, see AP story here.