The World Baseball Challenge is living up to its "world" status.
With five countries involved with the proceedings at at Citizen Field, some of the visiting teams have brought along reporters to cover the tournament.
Satoka Fujikura, a staff writer with Mainichi Newspapers, is filing daily stories about JX-Eneos, the Japan Intercity League champions who represent Japan at the WBC.
The morning newspaper, published in Tokyo, has a daily circulation of four million readers.
Also on the WBC beat is the Taipei Times, one of three major English-language newspapers in the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan.
The Cuban delegation is sending back photographs to a website in the Caribbean country which is also tapping into the live internet pay-per-view broadcasts from each game.
Dozens of Major League Baseball scouts from the United States are also spreading the word about the WBC.
Fujikura says she's impressed with the quality of baseball in the tournament and she says the Japanese team is being well treated by the local organizing committee.
"Prince George is very nice and the streets are very clean,' said Fujikura, who is getting her fill of blueberries for breakfast at the Prince George and District Senior Citizen Activity Centre.
"Blueberries are very expensive in Japan -- six dollars [for two small handfuls], so I eat a lot of them here," she said.
She said the players are also enjoying the food at the Seniors Centre, although they are finding it a little strange to have potatoes instead of rice with their evening meals.
n Vladimir Garcia, a national team pitcher for Cuba who played in the World Baseball Classic against current major league players, had the scouts watching his every pitch with radar guns in hand in Cuba's 4-2 win over Japan Wednesday night.
Garcia's fastball was approaching 94 miles per hour and he had it tuned accurately, allowing just six hits on the way to complete-game victory. His slider was moving between 79 and 85 mph and he said he needed it working in his favour to defeat an excellent Japanese squad.
"Japan has a great team, that is why they won the first two World Baseball Classics," Garcia said.
"We had a great tournament this year and we were only four outs away from qualifying for the semifinal game but somebody for Holland [Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves] hit a home run and that was it."
This is Garcia's second trip to Prince George. He was a member of the Cuban team which won the 2011 World Baseball Classic, defeating Chinese Taipei 9-5 in the final.
"Prince George is a nice place and we feel great here," Garcia said. "We hope to people come to see the games and we appreciate the generosity of the people of Prince George."
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