World Baseball Classic 2006

World Baseball Classic 2006
Tournament details
host	Japan Puerto Rico United States
Period	March 3rd - 20th, 2006
Defending champion	so far none
Bottom line
winner	Japan
Second	Cuba
Third	South Korea
Fourth	Dominican Republic
statistics
Games	39 completed 39 so far
MVP	Daisuke Matsuzaka
spectator	737,112   (Ø: 18,900 per game)

The first World Baseball Classic took place between March 3rd and 20th, 2006. The group games were in Tokyo , San Juan , Orlando , Phoenix , Anaheim and San Diego . The semifinals and the final took place at PETCO Park in San Diego. The winner of the first World Baseball Classic 2006 was the Japanese national team after a 10-6 final victory over Cuba. In the semifinals, the Japanese under coach Sadaharu Oh had defeated the team from Korea, which they were still defeated in round 1 and round 2. The USA were eliminated in Round 2 against Japan and Korea.

Venues

A game on March 13, 2006 at Angel Stadium, Anaheim, USA

The World Baseball Classic 2006 was played in the following stadiums:

Group A - Tokyo	Group B - Phoenix	Group B - Scottsdale	Group C & 2 - San Juan
Tokyo Dome	Chase Field	Scottsdale Stadium	Hiram Bithorn Stadium
Capacity: 42,000	Capacity: 49,033	Capacity: 8,500	Capacity: 18,000
Group D - Lake Buena Vista	Group 1 - Anaheim	Finals - San Diego
Cracker Jack Stadium	Angel Stadium of Anaheim	PETCO Park
Capacity: 9,500	Capacity: 45,037	Capacity: 42,445

groups

The countries participating in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

The teams for the first World Baseball Classic were selected because they are "the best baseball-playing nations in the world and ensure global representation of the event."

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
People's Republic of China	Canada	Cuba	Australia
Chinese Taipei	Mexico	Netherlands	Dominican Republic
Japan	South Africa	Panama	Italy
South Korea	United States	Puerto Rico	Venezuela

Round 1

Group A

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	South Korea	3	0	-
2	Japan	2	1	-
3	Chinese Taipei	1	2	-
4th	People's Republic of China	0	3	-

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 3, 2006	South Korea	2–0	Chinese Taipei		Box score
March 3, 2006	Japan	18-2	People's Republic of China	8th	Box score
March 4, 2006	People's Republic of China	1-10	South Korea		Box score
March 4, 2006	Japan	14-3	Chinese Taipei	7th	Box score
March 5, 2006	Chinese Taipei	12-3	People's Republic of China		Box score
March 5, 2006	South Korea	3–2	Japan		Box score

Group B

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	Mexico	2	1	1-1, 1.59 RA / 9
2	United States	2	1	1-1, 4.00 RA / 9
3	Canada	2	1	1-1, 7.50 RA / 9
4th	South Africa	0	3	-

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 7, 2006	Mexico	0-2	United States		Box score
March 7, 2006	Canada	11-8	South Africa		Box score
March 8, 2006	Canada	8-6	United States		Box score
March 8, 2006	South Africa	4-10	Mexico		Box score
March 9, 2006	Mexico	9-1	Canada		Box score
March 10, 2006	United States	17-0	South Africa	5	Box score

Group C

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	Puerto Rico	3	0	-
2	Cuba	2	1	-
3	Netherlands	1	2	-
4th	Panama	0	3	-

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 7, 2006	Panama	1-2	Puerto Rico		Box score
March 8, 2006	Cuba	8-6	Panama	11	Box score
March 8, 2006	Puerto Rico	8-3	Netherlands		Box score
March 9, 2006	Cuba	11-2	Netherlands		Box score
March 10, 2006	Netherlands	10-0	Panama	7th	Box score
March 10, 2006	Puerto Rico	12-2	Cuba	7th	Box score

Group D

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	Dominican Republic	3	0	-
2	Venezuela	2	1	-
3	Italy	1	2	-
4th	Australia	0	3	-

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 7, 2006	Dominican Republic	11-5	Venezuela		Box score
March 7, 2006	Australia	0-10	Italy	7th	Box score
March 8, 2006	Italy	0-6	Venezuela		Box score
March 9, 2006	Italy	3-8	Dominican Republic		Box score
March 9, 2006	Venezuela	2–0	Australia		Box score
March 10, 2006	Australia	4-6	Dominican Republic		Box score

round 2

Group 1

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	South Korea	3	0	-
2	Japan	1	2	1-1, 2.55 RA / 9
3	United States	1	2	1-1, 2.65 RA / 9
4th	Mexico	1	2	1-1, 3.50 RA / 9

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 12, 2006	Japan	3-4	United States		Box score
March 12, 2006	Mexico	1-2	South Korea		Box score
March 13, 2006	United States	3-7	South Korea		Box score
March 14, 2006	Japan	6-1	Mexico		Box score
March 15, 2006	South Korea	2–1	Japan		Box score
March 16, 2006	United States	1-2	Mexico		Box score

Group 2

Rk	team	W.	L.	Tiebreaker
1	Dominican Republic	2	1	1–0
2	Cuba	2	1	0-1
3	Venezuela	1	2	1–0
4th	Puerto Rico	1	2	0-1

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 12, 2006	Cuba	7-2	Venezuela		Box score
March 12, 2006	Puerto Rico	7-1	Dominican Republic		Box score
March 13, 2006	Dominican Republic	7-3	Cuba		Box score
March 13, 2006	Venezuela	6-0	Puerto Rico		Box score
March 14, 2006	Venezuela	1-2	Dominican Republic		Box score
March 15, 2006	Cuba	4-3	Puerto Rico		Box score

final

	Semifinals					final
	2V	Cuba	3
	2G	Dominican Republic	1
						HF1G	Cuba	6th
						HF2G	Japan	10
	1V	Japan	6th
	1G	South Korea	0

Semifinals

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 18, 2006	Cuba	3–1	Dominican Republic		Box score
March 18, 2006	Japan	6-0	South Korea		Box score

final

date	Team 1	Score	Team 2	inning	Box score
March 20, 2006	Japan	10-6	Cuba		Box score

Final score

Championship Trophy

Item	team	S.	N
1	Japan	5	3
Final defeat
2	Cuba	5	3
Semi-final defeat
3	South Korea	6th	1
4th	Dominican Republic	5	2
did not qualify for the semi-finals
5	Puerto Rico	4th	2
6th	Mexico	3	3
7th	Venezuela	3	3
8th	United States	3	3
not qualified for the 2nd round
9	Canada	2	1
10	Italy	1	2
11	Netherlands	1	2
12	Chinese Taipei	1	2
13	Australia	0	3
14th	Panama	0	3
15th	People's Republic of China	0	3
16	South Africa	0	3

Audience response and revenue

Ichiro , part of the victorious Japanese team

Because of the low interest of the baseball audience in previous international tournaments, expectations, especially of the US media, were low. Many games were only broadcast with a time delay and shortened. The fact that many of the Major League stars competed in the national jersey for the first time led to a relatively large response from the American audience, although a number of MLB players had also canceled their participation in this tournament. The broadcaster ESPN , which owned the sole broadcasting rights in the USA, reported record ratings for games outside of the major league.

47% of the income from the Word Baseball Classic was distributed as prize money and 53% was distributed among the organizers, including the World Baseball Classic Inc., which is supported by the MLB, the MLB Players Association (each 17.5% of total income) and the The Japanese League (7%) also includes the Korean Federation and the World Federation (5% each). The Cuban team donated their 7% of the proceeds to the victims of Hurricane Katrina .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ World Baseball Classic FAQ. MLB.com, archived from the original on May 17, 2009 ; accessed on October 14, 2012 (English). 
2. ↑ http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20060309&content_id=1342176&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Web links

Commons : 2006 World Baseball Classic  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• World Baseball Classic official website (English)
  • 2006 Results (English)
  • 2006 Rosters (English)
  • 2006 Stats (English)
  • 2006 Multimedia (English)