National team baseball manager Hirokazu Ibata has said he will step down following Japan’s loss to Venezuela 8-5 in the quarterfinals of the World Baseball Classic.

Team Japan was widely considered among the favorites to win the 2026 World Baseball Classic after defeating Team USA for the tournament championship in 2023. Armed with the reigning National League MVP (Shohei Ohtani) and starting the reigning World Series MVP (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) in the quarterfinals against Venezuela,

Three years ago, Samurai Japan fielded a team in the World Baseball Classic that might as well have been called the Future Dodgers. Playing both ways was Shohei Ohtani, who was employed by the Angels at the time.

Few people on this planet can hit the ball as hard or as far as Munetaka Murakami. The Samurai Japan slugger, who inked a two-year, $34 million deal with the White Sox earlier this offseason, proved t

Fresh off a World Series title, Shohei Ohtani will go for another world championship this summer. He will join Dodgers teammate and reigning World Series MVP Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the Japanese national team for the upcoming World Baseball Classic, manager ...

March 20, 2024; Seoul, SOUTH KOREA; Los Angeles Dodgers player Shohei Ohtani reacts after playing against the San Diego Padres during a MLB regular season Seoul Series game at Gocheok Sky Dome. Photo Credit: Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters via USA TODAY Sports Fresh ...

MIAMI — Nobody is saying the quiet part out loud, but nobody has to. The evidence is in the bracket. The World Baseball Classic is being staged for Japan — or more specifically, so that Major League Baseball can extract as much money as it can from the baseball-crazed country.