Hopefully it Won't Be 'Three Strikes, You're Out' for China at World Baseball Classic

China is hoping to literally knock one out of the park today as its World Baseball Classic team takes to the field to face off against Cuba. That game begins March 8 at 10.40am Beijing time, and can be viewed for subscribers (who can afford to fork over the steep fees) at mlb.tv.

After that game, the mainland's team will also try to dominate the diamond while playing against Australia, March 9 at 6pm. That will be followed by a game against Japan on March 11 (for a schedule in Chinese, click here). An English schedule can be found here.

The China-Cuba game, taking place in Tokyo, is part of the competition's first round (the World Baseball Classics is also happening in several other cities like Seoul, Miami, Jalisco). The games are arranged in a pool play set up, meaning the teams in each pool will be ranked according to the percentages of games won in the first round. The two teams with the highest percentages in each pool will then advance to the second round.

China's national baseball team hasn't exactly proved themselves champions in this regard, falling outside the top 10 of all four of the World Baseball Classics since they began in 2006, and managing only fourth over and over again at other competitions like the Asian Games and the Asian Baseball Championship (more on that here).

Nevertheless, Major League Baseball (MLB) is making a push in China, hoping to break into a massive and highly coveted market in similar, albeit slighter, fashion to the National Football League's recent attempts. Still, MLB China is streaming the games on LeTV and iQiyi, far more preferable places to watch than the much pricier mlb.tv alternative.

Still, the competition has yet to gain much traction in China, with scant mention of it in most domestic sports news outlets, and no broadcasts on its most popular TV stations. CCTV 5 is instead showing, unsurprisingly, an NBA game. China's baseball teams and their small following, however, still have an optimistic outlook, albeit modest. As sports writer Chris Cwik recently put it: "World Baseball Classic 2017: Team China is just looking for a win."

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
WeChat: 13263495040

Image: Zimbio