World Baseball Classic

World Baseball Classic
Tournament details
host
Attendees	16
Defending champion	United States

The World Baseball Classic , sometimes abbreviated as WBC , is an international baseball tournament for national teams, which is held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (before 2013: International Baseball Federation ). It was initiated after negotiations by Major League Baseball (MLB) and other professional baseball leagues around the world. After the first two editions in 2006 and 2009, a four-year cycle was adopted. The fourth World Baseball Classic 2017 was won for the first time by the United States, the motherland of baseball.

The WBC is the first international tournament in which national teams made up of players from the American Major League participate. This was not the case with the previous competitions: the national teams at the Summer Olympics often consisted of college and minor league players, as the games fall in the middle of the major league season. The baseball world championship was limited to amateurs until 1996, after which it only had participants from minor leagues and attracted little public interest. The WBC was created as a competition that aims to pit the best teams of all nations against each other and to increase the popularity of baseball worldwide. In the meantime, the World Baseball Classic in an expanded format has completely replaced the World Championship, which was held for the last time in 2011.

history

The USA versus Korea game on March 13, 2006 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim

The tournament was announced in May 2005. For two years the MLB had tried to organize such a tournament in negotiations with the players' association MLBPA and the team owners. The spring pre-season event led to objections from owners, including in particular George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees , who feared possible injuries to their player stars and the doping tests to be carried out according to Olympic standards. In the end there was an agreement on insurance for the player's contracts and, compared to the MLB, strict doping rules, according to which the team owners allowed their players to participate in the tournament.

In Japanese professional baseball there were also disputes between the league and its teams about the participation of their players in the tournament, but these were resolved after four months of negotiations: On September 16, 2005, the Japanese professional league accepted the invitation from the MLB.

Before the planned third World Baseball, disputes broke out again in the summer of 2011, this time over the distribution of the income: The Japanese league and the players' association threaten to cancel Japanese participation if their shares are not increased. In addition, the associations of Japan and Korea asked for the format of the tournament to be changed so that the same teams meet less frequently than before during the course of a tournament.

mode

2006

→ Main article : World Baseball Classic 2006

The following game mode was agreed for the first World Baseball Classic:

• In round 1, 16 teams play in four groups (A to D) in a round robin system . H. no series, just a game.
• In round 2 the first two of the groups play in two groups (A – B, C – D) again in round robin mode.
• The two best teams in both groups play against each other in the semi-finals (first against second) and the final (again only one game, no series; due to the format of the first two rounds, the semi-final teams had met at least once before).

2009

→ Main article : World Baseball Classic 2009

Again 16 teams played in four groups, but in rounds 1 and 2 in double elimination mode :

The winners of the opening games play against each other. The winner of this game is already qualified for the second round. The losers in the opening games play a knockout game. The winner plays the second place in the second round against the loser of the other game. The two qualified teams play a placement game, which is important for the classification in the next tournament round.

2013

→ Main article : World Baseball Classic 2013

The total field of participants was expanded to 28 nations. Based on their placement at the 2009 World Baseball Classic, 12 countries are directly qualified for the finals. The 4 participants who did not win a game at the WBC 2009 and another 12 nations contest the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in 4 tournaments. The respective winner completes the 16-country field of participants.

The following game mode was agreed for the 2013 World Baseball Classic:

• In round 1, 16 teams play in four groups (A to D) in round tournament mode, i. H. Everyone against everyone, no series, just a game.
• In round 2 the first two of the groups play in two groups (A – B, C – D) in double elimination mode
• The two best teams in both groups play against each other in the semi-finals (first against second) and the final

2017

→ Main article : World Baseball Classic 2017

The 2017 tournament mode was similar to 2006: Two round robin group phases were followed by semifinals and a final. However, this time the semi-finals were crossed instead of in the same group. In addition, an additional tiebreaker game was planned for certain constellations of statistical ties between second and third placed in the group stage. In this way, Venezuela prevailed in Group D of the first round against Italy in an additional seventh group game.

regulate

The agreed rules for the World Baseball Classic differ in part from those in the Major League:

• A pitcher is not allowed to compete if
  • not at least four days after a game in which he completed 50 or more pitches
  • not at least one day has passed after a game in which he completed 30 or more pitches
  • not at least one day has passed after a game after pitching for two consecutive days
• A pitcher cannot throw more than
  • 70 pitches in round 1 of the tournament (2006: max. 65)
  • 85 pitches in round 2 of the tournament (2006: max. 80)
  • 100 pitches in the semi-finals and finals (2006: max. 95)
  • If the limit is reached, he may remain in play until the opposing batter's Plate Appearance (PA) ends .
• A game is canceled as a called game if
  • a team with ten or more runs leads and the losing team has completed at least seven innings on the offensive
  • a team with 15 or more runs leads and the losing team has completed at least five innings on the offensive
• All games are played with a designated hitter (DH).

Results

year	Final host		Finalists				Semi-finalists
			winner	Result	2nd place		3rd place	4th Place
2006	San Diego		Japan	10-6	Cuba		South Korea	Dominican Republic
2009	los Angeles		Japan	5–3 ( 10 )	South Korea		Venezuela	United States
2013	San Francisco		Dominican Republic	3–0	Puerto Rico		Japan	Netherlands
2017	los Angeles		United States	8-0	Puerto Rico		Japan	Netherlands

Venues

In contrast to comparable tournaments such as the FIFA World Cup and the FIBA Basketball World Cup , in which one country hosts the entire event, the WBC is hosted by several hosts from all over the world. To date, seven countries in Asia, Latin America, and the United States have hosted WBC games. The final round is traditionally played in Major League Baseball stadiums in the USA.

All cities that have already hosted a WBC round are listed below. The number of rounds played is in brackets (F = final).

Tokyo , Japan (5): 2006 1, 2009 1, 2013 2, 2017 1, 2017 2
San Juan , Puerto Rico (4): 2006 1, 2006 2, 2009 1, 2013 1
San Diego , United States (3): 2006 F, 2009 2, 2017 2
Miami , United States (3): 2009 2, 2013 2, 2017 1
Los Angeles , United States (2): 2009 F, 2017 F
Phoenix , and Scottsdale , United States (2): 2006 1, 2013 1
San Francisco , United States (1): 2013 F
Anaheim , United States (1): 2006 2
Lake Buena Vista , United States (1): 2006 1
Mexico City , Mexico (1): 2009 1
Toronto , Canada (1): 2009 1
Fukuoka , Japan (1): 2013 1
Taichung , Taiwan (1): 2013 1
Seoul , South Korea (1): 2017 1
Guadalajara , Mexico (1): 2017 1

Audience numbers

year	Total audience	Number of games	Audience Ø
2006	737.112	39	18,900
2009	801.408	39	20,549
2013	885.212	39	22,698
2017	1,086,720	40	27,168

The 2009 final between Japan and South Korea at Dodger Stadium in front of 54,846 fans holds the record for a single game .

Web links

Commons : World Baseball Classic  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alan Schwarz, Baseball America, May 10, 2005: World Cup announcement made (Accessed via ESPN.com: January 10, 2008)
2. ↑ More WBC share wanted. In: The Japan Times . July 15, 2011, accessed August 8, 2011 . 
3. ↑ Japan may skip WBC. In: The Japan Times . July 23, 2011, accessed August 8, 2011 . 
4. ^ World Baseball Classic asked to change rule. In: The Korea Times . May 20, 2011, accessed August 8, 2011 . 
5. ↑ World Baseball Classic expands to 28 teams. MLB.com, accessed October 20, 2012 . 
6. ^ World Baseball Classic: Rules and Regulations. (No longer available online.) Worldbaseballclassic.com, archived from the original on February 9, 2013 ; accessed on October 10, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ World Baseball Classic: (No longer available online.) Ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com, archived from the original on October 13, 2007 ; accessed on May 20, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ↑ 2017 World Baseball Classic sets records for attendance, ratings . In: CBSSports.com . ( cbssports.com [accessed June 3, 2018]).
9. ↑ 2017 World Baseball Classic sets records for attendance, ratings . In: CBSSports.com . ( cbssports.com [accessed June 3, 2018]).
10. ↑ World Baseball Classic sets attendance records leading into round two - WBSC . In: WBSC . December 3, 2013 ( wbsc.org [accessed June 6, 2018]).