What kind of "Korea can't believe it's behind Taiwan..." Japan's overwhelming run to No. 1 "Is it a sad reality?"

*This content was translated by AI.

Korean baseball ranked fourth in the world baseball rankings released by the World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC).

WBSC announced the rankings of men's and women's world baseball and softball events on the 1st (Korea time). Korean men's baseball ranked fourth in the world with 4,192 points.

The WBSC ranks the world based on the performance of international competitions over the past four years, from the 12-year-old (U-12) national team to the senior national team.

It's a sad reality. South Korea ranked third in the world rankings released by WBSC on December 31, 2016. Then, on August 11, 2021, he finally rose to second place and seemed to surpass the top spot.

However, it fell back to third place on December 31, 2021, and to fourth place on December 31, 2022.

Then, in the world ranking announced on March 29, 2023, it ranked fifth, falling behind No. 1 Japan, No. 2 U.S., No. 3 Mexico, and No. 4 Taiwan. The poor performance at the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament had a decisive impact on the decline in the ranking. At that time, South Korea suffered from elimination in the first round of the 2023 WBC with two wins and two losses. At that time, he was caught by Australia and Japan in a row and suffered as the third place in the group.

After that, he certainly had a chance to raise his world ranking. It was the 2024 WBSC Premier 12 tournament held in Taiwan in November 2024. If I had a good performance in this competition, I could have jumped again. However, at that time, the Korean national baseball team recorded 3 wins and 2 losses in the group round and failed to advance to the Super Round (semi-finals) as the third place in Group B after Japan (5 wins) and Taiwan (4 wins and 1 loss). In the end, he ended 2024 in sixth place in the world.

And a year later, December 31, 2025. Korea finished the year in fourth place, up two places from last year. Now, South Korea is determined to raise its world ranking again with good results in the WBC finals in March. South Korea was in Group C along with Japan, Australia, Taiwan and the Czech Republic. Group C will be held at Tokyo Dome in Japan from March 5-10.

The world No. 1 was Japan. Although Japan finished second in the 2024 Premier 12 tournament, it remained firmly in first place with a total score of 6,676 points this time. Japanese baseball has been ranked first since 2018, although its consecutive wins in international competitions involving professional players have been cut off from "27."

Taiwan, which won its first championship after beating Japan in the Premier 12, remained in second place. Taiwan's total score was 5,112. After that, the U.S. ranked third (4357 points), South Korea ranked fourth (4192 points), and Venezuela ranked fifth (3653 points). Mexico ranked 6th (3606), Puerto Rico ranked 7th (3393), Panama 8th (2934), the Netherlands 9th (2690), and Cuba 10th (2622). Australia, which was in the same group with 2026 WBC, ranked 11th (2615 points) and the Czech Republic 15th (1544 points).

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*This content was translated by AI.