Baseball Twitter amazed by Team Japan’s highly attended first practice for World Baseball Classic: "National pride!" "Love this atmosphere"
The World Baseball Classic better be ready for another heavy dose of Samurai spirit. Team Japan packed more than 18,000 fans into a stadium in Miyazaki, located in southern Japan, for its first day of practice in preparation for the upcoming WBC.
Baseball analyst Shawn Spradling, who independently covers the sport internationally, provided images of the highly attended practice Friday. He noted that the five-hour session was also live-streamed on YouTube.
Look how many fans were in attendance on Day 1 of Japan’s WBC Training Camp…also they live streamed the entire 5 hour session on YouTube. https://t.co/8XH5Eg6Irh
The 2023 edition of the World Baseball Classic begins March 7, with Team Japan hosting China in its opener on March 9 at the Tokyo Dome. Japan is in Pool B of preliminary round play, along with China, Australia and the Czech Republic.
Love this! twitter.com/Shawn_Spradlin…
@Shawn_Spradling It truly looks like when Brazil pratice before world cup
Love this atmosphere
@Shawn_Spradling Simple ... #Japan National Pride ! https://t.co/lxxK6AUjvn
Team Japan will practice for a week before beginning a series of exhibition games in preparation for the World Baseball Classic. Japan will play warm-up games against the SoftBank Hawks on Feb. 25 and 26 in the same Miyazaki stadium where they practiced Friday before traveling to Nagoya, Japan, to play the Chunichi Dragons on March 3 and 4.
If MLB streamed training sessions for Team USA, I’d watch every single day. twitter.com/shawn_spradlin…
@Shawn_Spradling This is crazy! Would love to see DR Vs JAPAN final! 👀
hope to see many japanese supporters in miami they make a great crowd passionate fanbase twitter.com/shawn_spradlin…
Team Japan won the first two WBC tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. The team finished third in 2013 and 2017. Japan is seeking to add a third WBC title this season, with the Dominican Republic winning the 2013 title and the United States claiming the 2017 championship.
@Shawn_Spradling This is insane!
twitter.com/shawn_spradlin…
Spring Training #WBC Japón 🇯🇵⚾️ twitter.com/shawn_spradlin…
@Shawn_Spradling I wish the WBC would be played at any stadium in Japan OTHER than the Tokyo Dome. Seeing it move around Japan would be awesome.
San Diego Padres starting pitcher Yu Darvish was the lone MLB player to join Team Japan's initial WBC practice, joining 26 domestically-based Japanese players. Darvish was given the go-ahead by the Padres to skip the team's spring training in Peoria, Arizona, and head home to be with his WBC teammates.
Japan has five MLB players on its roster, with the other four to join the squad at the beginning of March. The other four are Los Angeles Angels two-way phenomenon Shohei Ohtani, along with outfielders Masataka Yoshida of the Boston Red Sox, Seiya Suzuki of the Chicago Cubs and Lars Nootbaar of the St. Louis Cardinals.
@Shawn_Spradling 5 hours of ambient baseball sounds?! Could sell that as a sleep aid white noise album!
World Baseball Classic features 20 teams in 2023
Twenty teams will play the World Baseball Classic. Team Japan's pool-play competitiors from the Czech Republic are making their inaugural appearance in the WBC, as is Great Britain and Nicaragua. The tournament will run through March 21, when the championship will be decided in Miami, Fla.