Some British sports fans like to poke fun at American baseball fans whenever they talk about the World Series as it’s not really a global competition and only part of the domestic game stateside. That’s for the club game though but there actually is a world national tournament known as the World Baseball Classic (WBC) which is basically the World Cup of baseball. Britain is in it too and Americans will no doubt be laughing back at us after they’ve thrashed us in the Pool match.

This world tournament has been around since the turn of the century not that I was aware of it until 2023 when Japan won it. The 2026 version is the sixth iteration of the event and involves 20 national baseball teams in four pools with matches mostly taking place in the USA but Puerto Rico and Tokyo are also hosting some of the pool games.

I’m not sure why Japan has the benefit of playing their Pool C matches on home territory but presumably it’s down to a mix of power and influence in the sport as well as money! No doubt I’m just looking at this competition from a football, rugby and cricket world cups point of view. Baseball is a completely different ball game from a different culture though, so who am I to disrespect that!

As someone who isn’t a baseball fan (or Japanese!) I didn’t think it was right to try and get a ticket to one of the Samurai Japan games at the expense of a real local fan. However, with the likes of South Korea, Taiwan (known as Chinese Taipei in this tournament), Czechia and Australia also in their Pool it offered the chance of experiencing the WBC at a heavily reduced price compared to the Japan games.

It cost just 3000 yen ($19) to watch Australia against Czechia on the second day of the tournament and perhaps most importantly allowed for some bragging to my students that I had a ticket for the WBC before then hilariously revealing it was for one of the lesser games!

It was a fairly simple half hour cycle ride down to Tokyo Dome from the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre in Itabashi-ku and I was there just over half an hour before the noon start. It was pretty busy outside, and it looked like some fans were already there ahead of the Japan match which was over seven hours away!

There was a huge line for the official WBC merchandise store as is always the way for such things in Japan. I’ve since heard stories of people waiting for eight hours to enter it!

My seat was easy to find on entering the stadium and the teams were soon out with the national anthems following.

Whilst I’d never support Australia in rugby or cricket, I figured it was ok on this occasion to back the country where a fair few members of my family are from. Besides, it doesn’t matter for baseball too much as I’m sure the majority of Aussies have no idea the WBC is even taking place now!

The plan was for three of us to experience the game together as indeed we did back in September when we went to Yokohama to watch DeNA Baystars against Yakult Swallows. However, to my surprise James (the only Aussie among us!) pulled out with sickness on the morning of the game. It was a bit of a blow, but the show had to go on and so it was just my former school manager Shinobu and me on this occasion. There was a lot to catch up on, and we chatted for pretty much the whole game!

Holding the most important part of the Aussie flag!

She had arrived right after the anthems having just purchased some rather expensive food and drink items.

Our view of the action wasn’t so good, but it didn’t really matter as it was a fairly relaxed occasion. I may have been supporting Australia but never got caught up in the atmosphere as there wasn’t really any other than the odd half-hearted “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!” attempts by some locals!

Our lower tier view of the main action!

On my previous visit to this venue, I saw Hiroshima Carp lose to Yomiuri Giants last September but technically that wasn’t the last time I was at Tokyo Dome as I was there for the first of Oasis’ live concerts in October. Read that last sentence carefully as all is not as it may seem!

In between the innings there was some excitement with various short games or activities such as t-shirts being fired into the crowd, a human sushi costume race and another running event as well as stuff on the big screen like social media photos, and the shell game but with three baseball caps being shuffled.

With the stadium being quite empty, the idea was to move around later in the game to see it from some different vantage points, but time passed quicker than imagined. Eventually, I got some action shots from a couple of other positions for inclusion in this post!

As for the actual on-field action, Czechia were off the mark first but never scored again. In contrast, Australia got a three-run homer via the bat of Curtis Mead in the third innings and went on to get a couple more runs to win their second match in two days having dispatched Taiwan 3-0 the day before.

When I’ve previously watched live baseball, I’ve often arrived late and left early but this time I was committed to being present for the whole match. Thankfully the nine innings flew by, and the game was over within two and a half hours.

Final Score: Australia 5-1 Czechia

The game ended and we were quite promptly encouraged to exit the stadium so they could clean up and prepare the place for the bigger game (Japan vs Taiwan) starting at 7:00 pm that evening which was about four and half hours away at that time. As we left, I did wonder how easy it would’ve been to hide in the toilets or air ventilation system until the start of the second game of the day.

Baseball may not be my game, but I did thoroughly enjoy this occasion and will follow the tournament results and so on as it’s always a good topic of conversation in the English lessons I teach!

Click here to read ‘How Many Different Sports Did I Manage to Go & Watch Live In 2025?’

Click here to read ‘Watching My Baseball Team at Home for the First Time In 9 Years!’

Click here to read ‘Jumping on the Baseball Bandwagon in Japan (& Then Jumping Right Off It Again!)’

Click here to read ‘This Shrine Is a Big Hit with Baseball Fans!’