Provisional World Baseball Classic Rosters Will Be Released Tonight…

(Zell's Pinstripe Blog)

The WBC provisional rosters will be released at 6 PM ET today. It will mark 45 days until the tournament starts on Mar. 5. The 16 team rosters (up to 28 players) will need to be finalized by Feb. 24. Over 600 players made requests for filling in the rosters this year, but there is a maximum of 448 spots.

The same teams that participated in ‘06, will be in this years tournament. (Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, SouthAfrica, the U.S. and Venezuela) The contest’s brackets will be different though.

These games will be played in seven different locations in four different countries/territiories. The first game of the tournament will showcase China against the defending champions...Japan in the Tokyo Dome on Mar. 5.

Team USA will start out against Canada on Mar. 7 at Rogers Centre.

The finals will begin on Mar. 23 at Dodger Stadium.

If you're interested in buying tickets...

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Tickets for first-round games in Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico, second-round games in Miami and San Diego, and the semifinals and finals in Los Angeles go on sale on Monday. First-round games in Tokyo go on sale on Jan. 31, and first-round games in Mexico City go on sale on Feb. 10.

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