(CTI News) Des supporters de Taïwan soutiennent leur équipe nationale lors du match d’aujourd’hui entre la Corée du Sud et Taïwan lors de la Classique mondiale de baseball 2026.
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Par Reignaaldo
Baseball
(CTI News) Des supporters de Taïwan soutiennent leur équipe nationale lors du match d’aujourd’hui entre la Corée du Sud et Taïwan lors de la Classique mondiale de baseball 2026.
—
Par Reignaaldo
5 Comments
Some MLB fans might deride the WBC as overglorified meaningless exhibition games that distracts players from the coming season.
To the Taiwanese, this is the World Cup.
Right now the country getting the most hyped about this WBC is definitely Taiwan, and the spark for that was their win at the WBSC Premier12 in 2024. That victory really lit a fire under baseball fans there, so I’m hoping they make it to the knockout stage.
Meanwhile Japan, which used to have the biggest WBC hype of any country, feels very different this time. The broadcast rights weren’t won by the terrestrial TV networks, so the tournament ended up being exclusive to Netflix. Because of that, the attention level here is surprisingly low compared to past tournaments. Casual fans usually won’t bother paying just to watch a few games.
MLB basically chased the money and went with a Netflix exclusive, but I think that’s a mistake and it could hurt baseball’s popularity in Japan. From a viewing perspective baseball is still the number one sport here, but when it comes to participation, soccer already has more players than baseball and other sports are catching up too. So baseball’s popularity isn’t as secure as people might think.
The WBC used to be one of the few events where people across Japan could really come together and enjoy the same thing at the same time. When it’s watched on free TV, it becomes a shared national experience. But when people are watching individually on laptops or phones, it stays a personal viewing experience. It just doesn’t create the same nationwide excitement.
taiwan fans treat baseball the way europe treats soccer and honestly the sport is way more fun when the energy is like this
Huge victory for Taiwan and heartbreaking loss for South Korea. Last time South Korea lost to Australia and this time Taiwan.
look at that motion despite being 0-2. Baseball!