We’re just a few months away from baseball’s biggest international competition — the World Baseball Classic. On Thursday, the event organizers announced the host cities for the 2017 WBC and for the first time a Mexican city not named Mexico City was included on the list.
The announced host cities were Los Angeles, San Diego, Miami and Guadalajara, Mexico. According to the MLB.com announcement, the WBC semifinals and final will be held at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles.
It will be the second time the final rounds of play will be at the stadium, with the semifinals and final of the 2009 tournament at the venue.
As for the new hosts, Guadalajara? They will play host to first round games at Estadio Charros de Jalisco on March 9-13. Naturally, the Mexican hosts will see their own entry into the tournament during that first round as they are part of Pool D, which also includes Italy, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela.
It’s a group that likely wouldn’t have generated much in the way of interest in most of the United States, so putting it in a city as close to the rest of the hosts as possible was a smart move.
Guadalajara is certainly happy to play hosts, with the Governor of the state wanting to stake claim as the capital of baseball in Latin America.
“We are proud of welcoming the World Baseball Classic to Jalisco,” said Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval. “We are certain that, thanks to the quality of our infrastructure and the warmth of our people, Jalisco will be known as the baseball capital of Latin America.”
For those teams not in the Western Hemisphere, pool play and second round games will take place at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea, and the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
Tournament games can be seen exclusively on the MLB Network here in the United States, and we’re betting oh so many of you will be tuning in.
