The tournament, proposed in 2005 by MLB and its Players Association, was first held in 2006 as an invitational event. It previously coexisted with Olympic baseball (until 2008) and the Baseball World Cup (until 2011) as tournaments sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, the predecessor to the WBSC.[7] The Baseball World Cup was discontinued after the 2011 edition, when the WBSC accepted an MLB suggestion to make the WBC the officially-sanctioned world championship, on the condition that the Classic should have direct qualifications and follow international anti-doping rules.[8]
After a three-year gap between the first two installments of the tournament, plans were made for the World Baseball Classic to be repeated every four years following the 2009 event. The third installment of the Classic was held in 2013, and the fourth was held in 2017. The World Baseball Classic was held five times from 2006 to 2023, with Japan, the Dominican Republic, and the United States winning the championship. Japan, as of the 2023 tournament, is the only team to win the tournament multiple times.
The tournament is the first of its kind to have national teams featuring professional players from the top-level major leagues around the world, including Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In addition to providing a format for the best baseball players in the world to compete against one another while representing their home countries, the World Baseball Classic was created in order to further promote the game around the globe. After the 2023 World Baseball Classic, the tournament has become one of the world's most viewed baseball events.[9]
Prior to the advent of the World Baseball Classic, there was no international baseball championship that saw universal participation from players across the globe. Outside the United States, the formally-recognized "world championship" was the Baseball World Cup, sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation and held 38 times from 1938 to 2011; it was known as the Amateur World Series until 1988. The 1938 Amateur World Series was the inaugural Amateur World Series tournament. It was contested by Great Britain and the United States over a series of five games from August 13 to 20 in England, and was won by Great Britain. Baseball was also intermittently played at the Summer Olympic Games as early as 1912, although it was not recognized a medal sport until 1992.
Although the Baseball World Cup formally rescinded its amateur-only status in the 1990s, allowing professional baseball players to participate, there was little participation from major league players. Nevertheless, the idea of a tournament with the express involvement of top-level professional ballplayers had been seriously considered since the mid-1990s. Gene Orza, counsel and board member of the Major League Baseball Players Association, began campaigning for such a tournament in 2004, enlisting the support of IBAF president Aldo Notari.[10] The inaugural tournament was announced by MLB CommissionerBud Selig and MLBPA president Donald Fehr on May 11, 2005.[11][12] The success of the 2006 tournament led organizers to immediately begin planning for a follow-up tournament in 2009.[13]
The IBAF merged with the International Softball Federation in 2013 to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation. That same year, the WBSC discontinued the Baseball World Cup, last held in 2011, making the World Baseball Classic one of the two main senior baseball tournaments sanctioned by the WBSC, alongside the Premier 12; however, the WBC is the only one which grants to the winner the title of "World Champion".[5][6]
History
MLB Commissioner Bud Selig was a driving force in establishing the WBC
The first World Baseball Classic tournament was announced in May 2005 by Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball.[12] Major League Baseball had been attempting to create such a tournament for at least two years, but faced resistance from both owners and the MLBPA players' union. MLB owners, notably New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, had been concerned about their star players being injured in international play before the beginning of spring training and the regular season. This was a concern for the MLBPA as well, but their primary objection was with drug testing. MLB wanted the stricter Olympic standards in place for the tournament, while the union wanted the more lax MLB standards in place at the time.[14] Eventually, a deal was reached on insurance for player contracts and a fairly tough drug testing standard. MLB teams would not be able to directly block their players from participating.
Similarly, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and its players' association had a disagreement over participation in the tournament. While the owners initially agreed to the invitation, the players' union was concerned about the time of year the tournament was scheduled to take place, as well as their right to be better represented for the 2009 tournament. On September 16, 2005, after four months of negotiations, NPB officially notified the IBAF and MLB they had accepted the invitation.
The 16-team field for the inaugural 2006 tournament was pre-selected, featuring the countries judged to be the "best baseball-playing nations" in the world; no qualifying competition was held.[15] The tournament format featured round-robin group play in the first and second rounds, followed by single-elimination semifinals and finals. The first game in WBC history saw South Korea defeat Chinese Taipei 2–0 before a crowd of 5,193 at the Tokyo Dome on March 3, 2006. South Korea went on to advance to the semifinals with a 6–0 record but lost to Japan (a team South Korea had beaten twice in the earlier rounds) for a berth in the final game. Meanwhile, Cuba defeated the Dominican Republic in the other semifinal. Both countries had to go through two rounds of group stages and the semi-finals in knockout format to reach the final. Cuba lost only two games, once to Puerto Rico in the first round and once to the Dominican Republic in the second round. However, Japan lost three times, twice to South Korea in each round and the United States in the second round. This sparked a format controversy since South Korea would have a better overall and head-to-head record than Japan by the end of the tournament. As such, Cuba was the favorite to win the final as the team with the higher winning percentage of games in the tournament were to be the home team.
The match began progressing when Japan's starting pitcher–Daisuke Matsuzaka–gave up four hits, five strikeouts and one run by the end of the 4th inning through a gyroball pitching style. Offensively, Japan was able to record 6 runs with the help of Ichiro Suzuki's batting style of contact hitting. Once the Japanese bullpen took the mound in the 6th inning, Cuba aggressively responded for the rest of the baseball game through power hitting. By the end of the eighth, the disparity would come down to one run in favor of Japan from Frederich Cepeda's home run, who would record three runs batted in by the end of the game. In the ninth, Japan would counter by pushing their offensive limit over Cuba's, which would result in a final score of ten to six. The aftermath of the final most notably included notice from Major League Baseball, from Cuba's increase in defection to Matsuzaka's impact for the World Series championBoston Red Sox in the next year.
featured the same 16 teams as 2006, but the controversial round-robin format from 2006 was replaced by a modified double-elimination format for the first two rounds (the semifinals and final game remained single-elimination). The eight teams advancing from the first round were the same as in 2006, except for a "Cinderella" performance by the Netherlands, which twice defeated the Dominican Republic to reach the second round. In the semifinals, South Korea defeated Venezuela while Japan defeated the United States. South Korea won the coin flip held after the second semifinal between Japan and the United States, designating them as the home team for the final.[16]
Japan drew first blood, scoring on an RBIsingle by Michihiro Ogasawara in the third inning. Shin-Soo Choo tied the score 1−all with a home run in the fifth inning. With runners on first and third, Hiroyuki Nakajima hit an RBI single to bring Seiichi Uchikawa home to give Japan the lead 2−1.[17] South Korea failed to take advantage of Japanese pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, who was visibly tired, when they failed to score in the seventh inning, when Iwakuma was relieved by Toshiya Sugiuchi after two outs. Uchikawa hit a single to start the eighth. Atsunori Inaba scored a double to put Uchikawa in scoring position, and Uchikawa scored on Akinori Iwamura's sacrifice fly. Hyun-wook Jong retired the remaining batters to close out the inning.[17]
Japan brought out their closer, Yu Darvish, for the bottom of the ninth with a 3−2 lead. Darvish struck out Keun-woo Jeong, but walkedHyun-soo Kim and Tae-kyun Kim to put South Koreans on first and second with one out. Darvish then struck out Choo and was one out away from saving the game. But Bum-ho Lee singled, driving in Jong-wook Lee for the game-tying run to make it 3−all and send the game into extra innings.[18] Japan batted first, with Chang-yong Lim pitching for South Korea in the tenth. Uchikawa and Iwamura hit a single to put runners on first and third with two out. Ichiro was one strike away from ending the inning when he hit a line-drive single up the middle that scored Iwamura and Uchikawa. Lim then hit Nakajima with a pitch and intentionally walked Norichika Aoki to face Kenji Johjima who was hitless up to that point. Lim was able to strikeout Johjima and send the game to the bottom of the tenth. Darvish made short work of South Korea, capping with a strikeout of Keun-woo Jeong to clinch Japan's successful defense of their 2006 championship.[18][19]
Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka of Japan was awarded the tournament MVP for the second consecutive time, with a 3−0 record and 2.45 ERA.[20][21]
After the match the team was congratulated immediately for their victory by Japanese prime minister Taro Aso. And Korean President Lee Myung-bak invited the Korean team to come and encourage the team.
In 2013, The World Baseball Classic is one of the two main senior baseball tournaments sanctioned by the WBSC, alongside the Premier 12 but the Classic is the only one which grants to the winner the title of "World Champion".[5][6]
The buildup to the 2013 tournament included a qualifying round for the first time, with the four lowest finishers from 2009 having to re-qualify against 12 additional teams. This resulted in two new nations making their first appearances in the WBC, as Brazil and Spain respectively replaced Panama and South Africa. The round-robin format was revived for the tournament's first-round, while the second-round remained double-elimination. in Pool B, South Korea went into the final game needing not only to win (which would cause a three-way tie for the two second-round berths) but to win by at least five runs in order to have a chance of advancing on tiebreakers. Although Taiwan lost its 2−0 lead in Korea's three-run eighth-inning rally, and then lost the game, they emerged as winners of the pool and of the second-round berth since Korea's margin of victory was only one run. and then Italy was the biggest surprise in the early stages of the tournament, making it to the second round with wins over Canada and Mexico.
This was the third time in the tournament that the Dominican Republic defeated Puerto Rico.[22] The Dominican Republic completed the tournament with an 8–0 record, becoming the first undefeated team to win the World Baseball Classic.[25]Robinson Canó was named the Most Valuable Player of the Classic after he batted 15-for-32 (.469), the most hits in tournament history. After the match the team was congratulated for their victory by Dominican president Danilo Medina.[25][27]
The 2017 tournament returned to the format used in 2006, where both the first and second rounds were round-robin, though with the addition of tiebreaker games if needed. Colombia and Israel qualified for the first time, with Israel, using a roster mostly of Jewish American players. Prior to the start of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, ESPN considered Team Israel, ranked 41st in the world, to be the biggest underdog in the tournament, referring to it as the "Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC".[28][29] On the other hand, Defending champion Dominican Republic extended its WBC winning streak to 11 games, dating to the 2013 tournament, before being eliminated in the second round. The United States won its first WBC championship, defeating Japan and Puerto Rico in the semifinals and finals, respectively. Puerto Rico reached the championship undefeated in the tournament, winning all seven games played. Puerto Rico had defeated the United States when they faced each other in Pool F.[30]
In the semi-final Japan reached the semifinals with wins in all six games played in the previous rounds.[31]Tanner Roark started for the United States in the semifinal game,[32] while Tomoyuki Sugano started for Japan.[33] Roark pitched four scoreless innings,[34] while Sugano allowed one run in six innings. The United States scored a run on an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen in the fourth inning, and Ryosuke Kikuchi hit a home run for Japan in the sixth inning to tie the game. The United States scored another run in the eighth inning to take the lead, and Luke Gregerson earned the save. Though the Japanese team was considered the strongest defensive team in the WBC, mistakes by Kikuchi at second base and Nobuhiro Matsuda at third base led to each of the United States's runs.[35]
In the championship game, Seth Lugo started for Puerto Rico,[36] and Marcus Stroman started for the United States. Ian Kinsler hit a two-run home run for the United States in the third inning, as Puerto Rico's performance faltered without earning a single run throughout the innings. Kinsler scored again in the fifth inning on a single by Christian Yelich, and Yelich scored on an infield single by McCutchen. Two more runs scored on a bases loaded single by Brandon Crawford in the seventh inning, and Giancarlo Stanton scored the inning's third run with an RBI single. Meanwhile, Stroman did not allow a hit for the first six innings of play. The United States added another run in the eighth inning with an RBI single by McCutchen. The United States completed the shutout to win the championship.[37] Stroman was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.[38]
2023: Baseball's already won
World Baseball Classic Championship gold medal November 21, 2023
In January 2020, MLB announced that the 2021 WBC would be expanded to 20 teams. The additional four participants would be determined through qualifying tournaments, which were originally planned to take place in March 2020.[39] However, on March 12, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that the 2021 tournament would be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[40]
The United States beat Venezuela to face Cuba in the semifinals. Baseball is Cuba's most popular sport, and is played at a very high level. Therefore, the stakes of the encounter were high. Meanwhile, Japan faced Mexico in the semifinals, who were on a Cinderella run, majorly led by Tampa Bay Rays outfielder Randy Arozarena.
After defeating Cuba in the semifinals by a wide margin, the United States faced another great rival, Japan, in the final. The final was incredibly popular in Japan, drawing over 54 million Japanese viewers. Shota Imanaga started for Japan, while Merrill Kelly started for USA. With a 3 - 2 lead, two outs, and no runners on base in the bottom of the ninth inning, Japan's Shohei Ohtani - one of the best pitchers in recent memory - stood on the mound as his Angels teammate Mike Trout, widely considered the greatest player of his generation, stepped up to the plate. After the first pitch of this iconic matchup, Fox Sports commentator Joe Davis reflected on the spectacle, saying, "As Benji Gil said last night, 'Baseball's already won.'" The two battled to a full count. Ohtani would lure Trout to swing and miss with a gutsy slider down and away, sealing the victory for Japan.
After the match, the team was congratulated for their victory by Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida. With Japan's win over USA in the championship game, they became the second team to win the World Baseball classic without losing a single game the entire tournament, after the aforementioned Dominican Republic in 2013.[46]
For the 2026 tournament, 16 teams qualified by making the top four of their four respective pools during the 2023 tournament. The other four remaining participants were determined through the qualifying tournament.[47]
The World Baseball Classic is held during the month of March, coinciding with the spring training pre-season for most top-level professional baseball leagues such as Major League Baseball (MLB), Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the KBO League.[48] Venues are located in either indoor baseball domes or at outdoor baseball stadiums which have mild or moderately warm temperatures during early spring.
Despite the absence of many elite MLB pitchers due to exposure or conditioning limits set by their club employers and insurance underwriting issues and non-standardization,[51][52] the tournament continues to attract a star-studded field of elite baseball players, particularly among position players who are potent batters.[53]
For the 2013 tournament, Japanese players threatened to boycott the event despite its domestic popularity,[54] before later agreeing to take part after reaching a compromise in September 2012 with tournament organizers on sharing sponsorship and licensing revenue.[55] Nevertheless, many key players from the 2009 Japanese team such as Yu Darvish, Ichiro, and Hisashi Iwakuma decided not to participate. However, other prominent MLB players accepted selections from their national teams, such as Miguel Cabrera, David Wright, R. A. Dickey, Joey Votto, Adrián González, Robinson Canó, and José Reyes, among many others.
The first two iterations of the Classic featured the same 16 teams, chosen by invitation. A qualifying round was added leading into the 2013 tournament and takes place in the year before the WBC proper. Brazil and Spain were the first new countries to earn berths in the WBC via qualification, and so far the addition of qualifying has allowed seven nations to play in the tournament who were not part of the original 16.
The qualification setup for the 2013 and 2017 WBCs featured the top 12 finishing teams from the previous WBC being automatically entered in the following edition, while the four lowest finishers (the teams that finished in last place in their first-round pools) were relegated to the qualifying round. Qualifying consisted of four four-team modified double-elimination tournaments, with the winners earning the last four slots in the main tournament.
With the 2023 WBC expanding to 20 teams, the qualifying format changed as well. All 16 participants from the 2017 WBC received automatic bids. The restructured qualifying round consisted of a pair of six-team double-elimination tournaments, from which the winners and runners-up advanced to play in the 2023 WBC.
Tournament
Table updated February 22, 2024 based on the 2026 world baseball classic
The tournament is being one of the world's most viewed baseball events.[9][61][62] The 2023 tournament was broadcast in 163 territories through 63 media partners, and it was broadcast in 13 languages around the globe.[63] and received US$100 million in benefits,[64] In the Japanese archipelago, nearly 100 million people watched the WBC in 2023,[65] and 55+ million people watched the end of the tournament, as Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout. and the tournament is one of the most popular event in the Caribbean, Central and South America, particularly in Venezuela, part of Northern Colombia and is called the "Clásico Mundial".[66][67][68] The match between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is considered a strong rivalry, called "El Clásico". In 2023, the Pool D game between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic was viewed by 62% of households in Puerto Rico.[69]
While comparable tournaments traditionally have had one host country, each WBC has used multiple hosts spread around different parts of the world. Thus far, seven different countries have hosted at least one WBC pool, with each edition of the tournament featuring games played in Asia, Latin America, and the United States. However, the championship round has always been held at Major League Baseball stadiums in the United States.
The inaugural winner of the award in 2006 was Japan's Daisuke Matsuzaka, who pitched 13 innings and finished with a 3–0 record. Soon after this performance, Matsuzaka received a multimillion-dollar contract to join the Boston Red Sox of America's Major League Baseball.[70] Again in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Matsuzaka received the world classic MVP, finishing with a record of 3–0 and an ERA of 2.54. In 2013, Robinson Canó won MVP after hitting .469 with two home runs and six RBI over the course of the tournament.[71]Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman took home the award in 2017 for the United States. Stroman posted a 2.35 ERA over three starts and no-hit Puerto Rico through six innings in an 8–0 win in the Finals.[72] In 2023, Los Angeles Angelstwo-way superstar Shohei Ohtani claimed MVP honors after slashing .435/.606/.739 as a hitter and posting a 1.86 ERA and 11 strikeouts in 92⁄3 innings as a pitcher, also pitching the final inning of Japan's win over the US in the final.[46]
At the end of each edition of the World Baseball Classic, an all-star team is selected based on their play in the tournament. Three pitchers, eight other position players (one each at each position, including three outfielders), and a designated hitter are named to the team. Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, Puerto Rican catcher Yadier Molina and Puerto Rican shortstop Javier Báez are the only players to be named to the All–WBC team twice. Japanese two-way player Shohei Ohtani is the only player to be named to the All-WBC team at two separate positions, having been named to the 2023 team as both a designated hitter and a pitcher.
The Japan national baseball team, also known as Samurai Japan (侍ジャパン), is the national team representing Japan in international baseball competitions. It won the World Baseball Classic in 2006, 2009, and 2023 as well as WBSC Premier12 in 2019. The team is currently ranked 1st in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation and is a baseball powerhouse.
The South Korean national baseball team, also known as the Blue Wave, is the national baseball team of South Korea. It has participated in every edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), reaching the finals in 2009, and won the WBSC Premier12 in 2015. South Korea also hosted and won the Baseball World Cup in 1982, and has participated in several Summer Olympic Games.
The United States national baseball team, also known as Team USA represents the United States in international-level baseball competitions. The team is currently ranked 2nd in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The United States has won many international tournaments, many of which are now discontinued. Most notably the team won the Olympic baseball tournament in 2000, and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2017.
The Canada national baseball team represents Canada in international baseball. They are overseen by Baseball Canada, the governing body of baseball in Canada.
The 2006 World Baseball Classic championship was the inaugural final of the World Baseball Classic played on March 20, 2006, at Petco Park in San Diego, United States. The best-of-one final was the match to determine the first world champion in baseball. Although this was the first iteration of the World Baseball Classic, both Cuba and Japan were favorites to win the championship, as they were the only countries to have appeared in the top four at every iteration in the Summer Olympics up to this final. Japan won by 4 runs to claim the first championship of the World Baseball Classic.
The 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 to 20 in stadiums in or around Tokyo, Japan; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Lake Buena Vista, Florida; Phoenix, Arizona; Scottsdale, Arizona; Anaheim, California; and San Diego, California.
The Dominican Republic national baseball team is the national baseball team of the Dominican Republic. The team has won the Baseball World Cup in 1948 and World Baseball Classic in 2013. They are the first team to have won both world competitions. They are currently ranked the 9th-best in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. At the Olympics in 2021 it faced Israel, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the United States.
The Puerto Rico national baseball team, also known as Team Rubio is the national baseball team of Puerto Rico. The men's senior team is currently ranked 13th in the world. Puerto Rico is the incumbent Pan American and Central American/Caribbean champion, as well as the World Baseball Classic runner-up. The team will compete against Israel, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Nicaragua in the 2023 World Baseball Classic in March 2023 in Miami, Florida.
The Netherlands national baseball team is the national baseball team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, representing the country in international men's baseball. They are currently ranked as the best team in the WBSC Europe, and the team is also ranked seventh in the WBSC World Rankings.
The Italy national baseball team represents Italy in international baseball competitions. The Italian national team was ranked 16th in the world as of 2022. The team is managed by Mike Piazza, a former New York Mets player and Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductee.
The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on March 5 and finished March 23.
The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts were Seoul, Tokyo, Miami, and Zapopan. The second-round hosts were Tokyo and San Diego, and the championship round was played in Los Angeles.
The Israel National Baseball Team represents Israel in international competitions. It is managed by Ian Kinsler.
The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009.
The championship round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic was held at AT&T Park, San Francisco, California, United States from March 17 to 19, 2013.
The 2015 WBSC Premier12 was an international baseball championship sponsored by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the inaugural event of the WBSC Premier12. It was held from November 8 to 21 in Taiwan and Japan. The South Korean national team won the championship, and split a US$1 million prize.
This article lists the performances of each of the 23 national teams which have made at least one appearance in the World Baseball Classic. The 2006 and 2009 tournaments, each had the same 16–team field, chosen by invitation. Beginning with the 2013 tournament, the four last-place teams from the previous tournament's first round each contested a qualifying round against three additional teams. The outcome of this process has been that 14 of the original 16 teams have continued to appear in every tournament. In 2013, Canada and Chinese Taipei re-qualified while Panama and South Africa were respectively replaced by Brazil and Spain. In 2017, Australia and Mexico re-qualified while Brazil and Spain were respectively replaced by Colombia and Israel.
The championship round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic took place at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, from March 20 to 22, 2017. The championship round was a single-elimination tournament. Japan and the Netherlands advanced to the championship round from Pool E. Puerto Rico and the United States advanced from Pool F. Defending champions Dominican Republic were eliminated in the second round.
The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball tournament and the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It began on March 8, 2023, and ran until March 21.
The 2023 World Baseball Classic knockout stage was a single-elimination tournament of the 2023 World Baseball Classic took place from March 15–21. The top two teams from each pool automatically qualify for the top eight knockout stage, beginning with the quarterfinals at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, and LoanDepot Park in Miami, Florida. The semifinals and final took place in Miami.
↑ "IBAF World Ranking Notes"(PDF). International Baseball Federation. January 13, 2009. Archived from the original(PDF) on May 9, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2009.
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2026 World Baseball Classic 
Japan (2023)
