5 Things to Know About MLB Spring Training

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2. Competition and Locations

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Exhibition games in spring training do not have to be played between two MLB teams. NCAA baseball teams are eligible and have provided competition in the past. Minor league clubs, as well as intra-squad games between players on the same team also factor in. On years when the World Baseball Classic occurs, national team squads prepare for the tournament by playing against major league rosters.

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While Arizona and Florida are typically exclusive to 15 MLB clubs each, teams have played exhibition games elsewhere. Last year, the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Mets played two games at Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Canada. The Jays will host the Reds for two additional games there in 2015.

Spring training facilities are not unique to MLB clubs at the professional baseball level. The Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan adopted the same formality. They host spring training contests regularly in South Korea, Taiwan and the Phillipines, as well as at American sites in Salinas, CA and Yuma, AZ.

Additionally, since 1986, Japan has hosted an All-Star series pitting various MLB players against some of the best from the NPB every even numbered year. Though they are not considered spring training games, they are still exhibition gams being played on foreign soil by MLB players. The series was cancelled from 2008-12 in favor of the WBC.

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