2013 World Baseball Classic

[titorondon]

The thing to remember about Nicaragua is that it no longer has good hitters; the veterans who beat the Dominican Republic with five major leaguers in 1999, Chris Capuano in 2001 and lambasted Brian Bannister in 2005 are done. The only good hitter is Dwight Britton (local), and maybe Everth Cabrera and Atlanta minor leaguer Elmer Reyes. The real strength is pitching, but without the big leaguers it does not exist...
So Nicaragua is either a strong candidate to upset Panama, or a strong candidate to fight Brazil for the cellar. It depeds on MLB and if they really want to promote baseball... or know how.
Could it be that one day we will miss Riccardo Fraccari?

[NewEnglandAmazins]

I know its a cop-out to select multiple teams, but its hard to make a call with such limited information regarding rosters and schedules.

That's understandable, but it's all about fun.

[Richard]

It would be disastrous if Japan and Korea do not participate.

[NewEnglandAmazins]

Which teams from each group are most Likely to qualify for the WBC?
Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain. If I were a gambling man, I'd take the field over Canada.

This is the only part of your post I disagree with, I believe the Pan Am Champions are experienced and cohesive enough to win this group.

[Cincy Fan]

The thing to remember about Nicaragua is that it no longer has good hitters; the veterans who beat the Dominican Republic with five major leaguers in 1999, Chris Capuano in 2001 and lambasted Brian Bannister in 2005 are done. The only good hitter is Dwight Britton (local), and maybe Everth Cabrera and Atlanta minor leaguer Elmer Reyes. The real strength is pitching, but without the big leaguers it does not exist...
So Nicaragua is either a strong candidate to upset Panama, or a strong candidate to fight Brazil for the cellar. It depeds on MLB and if they really want to promote baseball... or know how.
Could it be that one day we will miss Riccardo Fraccari?

They know how to promote baseball, it's just a case of Major League Baseball games late in the year are more important than a qualifier few people will know is going on.

[wbcno1fan]

ballparkbiz.wordpress.com/ It seems to be official now, the Jupiter Q's will take place in September not November;meaning no major leaguers in it,i hate it.

[Rally Monkey]

ballparkbiz.wordpress.com/ It seems to be official now, the Jupiter Q's will take place in September not November;meaning no major leaguers in it,i hate it.

Here's what the press release says:

Roger Dean Stadium will be one of four venues to host the newly created qualification rounds for the upcoming World Baseball Classic, scheduled for five days beginning September 19.

Israel, France, South Africa and Spain will compete for the chance to play in the 2013 World Baseball Classic in March.

For the first time ever, a qualifying round will be held to determine the final set of teams that will compete in the main tournament. 16 teams will compete in the qualification rounds at four different venues world wide. Roger Dean Stadium, along with Regensburg, Germany, Panama City, Panama and New Taipei City, Taipei will be the sites for the upcoming qualifiers. The four winners of the distinctive qualifiers will advance to the main tournament that will take place during spring training in 2013.

“This is a prestigious honor that Roger Dean Stadium has been chosen to hold a qualifying round,” said Roger Dean Stadium General Manager Mike Bauer. “We are very excited to host this premiere event and look forward to working with Major League Baseball and the four international teams. This is a premiere event for the Town of Jupiter and Palm Beach County.”

The four countries invited to the qualifying round will arrive a few days before the start of the tournament and will participate in team practices on Roger Dean Stadium’s back fields. The event will be a double-elimination tournament, which will take five days to complete.

Six-game tournament ticket packs and group plans will go on sale July 30th. Six-game tournament ticket packs will be $48, while group rates start at $8. Individual tickets will go on sale Monday, August 13th at 10 a.m. Individual tickets will be $10 for adults, $5 for children (12 and under).

[TheInternationalGame]

It depeds on MLB and if they really want to promote baseball... or know how.

What if MLB changes qualification next time around, and holds it in November in a warm place, maybe a year or two earlier? Any place near the equator would do, and players could go there before reporting to winter leagues. I guess this would mostly impact Europe negatively, since scheduling seems to cause problems already. On the other hand, stretching out the season could give them more flexibility earlier in summer, which was a problem at the European Cup this year.

[titorondon]

The Panama Qualifier will start after the Major League season is over. What you wrote makes no sense. The sentence itself is contradictory: "They know how to promote... few people will know (it) is going on". Remember the Classic is a creation of ML:B, who sacrificed the World Cups and the Olympics in order to concentrate their efforts on it!

[titorondon]

What if MLB changes qualification next time around, and holds it in November in a warm place, maybe a year or two earlier? Any place near the equator would do, and players could go there before reporting to winter leagues. I guess this would mostly impact Europe negatively, since scheduling seems to cause problems already. On the other hand, stretching out the season could give them more flexibility earlier in summer, which was a problem at the European Cup this year.

Reminds me of Roger Whittaker...

[Paula59]

What if MLB changes qualification next time around, and holds it in November in a warm place, maybe a year or two earlier? Any place near the equator would do, and players could go there before reporting to winter leagues.

This would be against the idea of promoting the game outside of the natural Baseball nations. The WBCQ is not only to have more teams participating, it is about promoting the game, raise some interest in WBC and open some new markets - see Regensburg/Germany.

On the other hand, stretching out the season could give them more flexibility earlier in summer, which was a problem at the European Cup this year.

This is only half the truth. With the international schedule like it is only Team France / Rouen Team does have a problem to participate at the european cup as it would collide with the WBCQ. The other qualified teams from Italy and Netherlands would be able to play the European Cup BUT with the EC in beginning of September leads the leagues to be finished by end of August. With this the club teams would be out of routine for about a month and who would pay players for a month without playing just to wait for a 2-day event??
So not the time of WBCQ is the problem, the problem is the schedule of CEB and no date was set for Final Four (because of WBCQ date was not set) and they had no host for it.
This schedule problem comes every 2 years as they have to find a way to schedule team events with national team events with national competitions.

IMO a WBCQ 1-2 years before WBC would be a better choice for many points (remember this is a new format of promoting the game) and for the european teams it would be a benefit if it wouldn´t collide with the EC schedule.

[Unit312J]

IMO a WBCQ 1-2 years before WBC would be a better choice for many points (remember this is a new format of promoting the game) and for the european teams it would be a benefit if it wouldn´t collide with the EC schedule.[/QUOTE]

I think they'll figure it out eventually. And make it so that everybody benefits. I wish, for selfish reasons mainly, that they would figure out a way to stagger the qualifers by a week or so so they each could get full attention....Granted with games in Germany six hours earlier than games in Florida there will not be overlap, but I don't know. Maybe I'm just thinking of spending a month in the future going from qualifier to qualifier.

I'm glad there are at least dates set so I can book my flight and condo since it does not appear I'll be at the 18U's in Korea

[TheInternationalGame]

I wish, for selfish reasons mainly, that they would figure out a way to stagger the qualifers by a week or so so they each could get full attention....

Ditto. A month on the road would be awesome.

[Cincy Fan]

The Panama Qualifier will start after the Major League season is over. What you wrote makes no sense. The sentence itself is contradictory: "They know how to promote... few people will know (it) is going on". Remember the Classic is a creation of ML:B, who sacrificed the World Cups and the Olympics in order to concentrate their efforts on it!

The World Cup was a nothing event no one cared about. The Olympics was a nice but fundamentally flawed tournament (2 European reps out of 8 was just wrong and represents a lot of what is wrong with Olympic sport and its eurocentrism), and that's why the IOC kicked it out.

On a side note, someone attempt to defend the 2004 Olympics having 3 European teams out of 8. I dare you. Not so coincidentally after those 3 European teams took 6th, 7th, and 8th going a combined 1-14 against the other 5 countries in the field, the writing was on the wall for baseball to be dropped as an Olympic sport. Jacques Rogge played a sport when he was younger that I play now, rugby union, and he wanted rugby sevens in the Olympics which it will be beginning in 2016. But he could only bring it in if something else got dropped, which turned out to be baseball and softball (Rogge's wife was a golfer, and that came in too). When you compare the 2006 and 2009 WBCs to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, how can anyone with a sound mind tell me the Olympic baseball was better?

Even go outside MLB to your next best pro leagues in the world, it's not like NPB or KBO sent their best players to those events. The World Baseball Classic in a combined two months has done more to promote baseball internationally than the World Cup, IBAF, or the Olympic Baseball Tournament had done for their entire existances. No one on this message board ever wrote 68 pages' worth of discussion about the qualifiers for the 2011 Baseball World Cup for example.

[titorondon]

The World Cup was a nothing event no one cared about outside the Cubans. Ditto the Olympics, and that's why the IOC kicked it out. Even go outside MLB to your next best pro leagues in the world, it's not like NPB or KBO sent their best players to those events. The World Baseball Classic has done more to promote baseball internationally than the World Cup, IBAF, or the Olympic Baseball Tournament had done for their entire existances.

First sentence: right if you only think about fans in baseball-established countries. Otherwise, wrong. Second sentence: taht is not why, wrong again. Third sentence, mostly right, but it's not Australia's fault they beat Daisuke Matsusaka in Athens. Last sentence: I respect your opinion, I guess it must be true in your environment. I do not see it that way, but I am thinking of Pakistan, Europe and others.

[Cincy Fan]

First sentence: right if you only think about fans in baseball-established countries.

That's where the fans are! I play rugby in the United States, don't lecture me about sports in countries where said sport is not popular. There's no money and little interest in the game in said place and having a big world tournament every few years is nice and all but it still gets minimal interest because people that don't like a sport still aren't going to like the sport even if it's a "World Cup" and if anything what it does is it bankrupts your minor national governing bodies that organizes the team because they get little to no commercial sponsorship or TV rights fees that pays for the team to be assembled, train, travel to host country, play games, hotels, etc. And IBAF in that regard was far worse than the International Rugby Board (IRB) because the IRB at least makes tons more money than IBAF ever has.

The game in those places where baseball has little fans and gets little attention would be far better served if they largely ignored major international competition and took all that money they wasted on shipping their national team abroad and just focused on growing the game domestically.

Honestly, here's the 2011 Baseball World Cup with attendances. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Baseball_World_Cup To pick a random game near the top of the page, Netherlands defeated Greece 19-0 in 5 innings in front of 122 people. How much money did these two countries' baseball federations waste that could've been better spent on growing baseball at home to play an uncompetitive game in front of all of 122 people? You can't say it's for the Dutch or Greek fans, because if it was, they'd've gone to Panama to watch, and that attendance shows you they didn't.

[wbcno1fan]

The World Cup was a nothing event no one cared about. The Olympics was a nice but fundamentally flawed tournament (2 European reps out of 8 was just wrong and represents a lot of what is wrong with Olympic sport and its eurocentrism), and that's why the IOC kicked it out.

On a side note, someone attempt to defend the 2004 Olympics having 3 European teams out of 8. I dare you. Not so coincidentally after those 3 European teams took 6th, 7th, and 8th going a combined 1-14 against the other 5 countries in the field, the writing was on the wall for baseball to be dropped as an Olympic sport. Jacques Rogge played a sport when he was younger that I play now, rugby union, and he wanted rugby sevens in the Olympics which it will be beginning in 2016. But he could only bring it in if something else got dropped, which turned out to be baseball and softball (Rogge's wife was a golfer, and that came in too). When you compare the 2006 and 2009 WBCs to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, how can anyone with a sound mind tell me the Olympic baseball was better?

Even go outside MLB to your next best pro leagues in the world, it's not like NPB or KBO sent their best players to those events. The World Baseball Classic in a combined two months has done more to promote baseball internationally than the World Cup, IBAF, or the Olympic Baseball Tournament had done for their entire existances. No one on this message board ever wrote 68 pages' worth of discussion about the qualifiers for the 2011 Baseball World Cup for example.

Couldn't agree more.

[USA101]

The World Cup was a nothing event no one cared about. The Olympics was a nice but fundamentally flawed tournament (2 European reps out of 8 was just wrong and represents a lot of what is wrong with Olympic sport and its eurocentrism), and that's why the IOC kicked it out.

On a side note, someone attempt to defend the 2004 Olympics having 3 European teams out of 8. I dare you. Not so coincidentally after those 3 European teams took 6th, 7th, and 8th going a combined 1-14 against the other 5 countries in the field, the writing was on the wall for baseball to be dropped as an Olympic sport. Jacques Rogge played a sport when he was younger that I play now, rugby union, and he wanted rugby sevens in the Olympics which it will be beginning in 2016. But he could only bring it in if something else got dropped, which turned out to be baseball and softball (Rogge's wife was a golfer, and that came in too). When you compare the 2006 and 2009 WBCs to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, how can anyone with a sound mind tell me the Olympic baseball was better?

Even go outside MLB to your next best pro leagues in the world, it's not like NPB or KBO sent their best players to those events. The World Baseball Classic in a combined two months has done more to promote baseball internationally than the World Cup, IBAF, or the Olympic Baseball Tournament had done for their entire existances. No one on this message board ever wrote 68 pages' worth of discussion about the qualifiers for the 2011 Baseball World Cup for example.

I think the last sentence says it all.

[wbcno1fan]

The World Cup was a nothing event no one cared about. The Olympics was a nice but fundamentally flawed tournament (2 European reps out of 8 was just wrong and represents a lot of what is wrong with Olympic sport and its eurocentrism), and that's why the IOC kicked it out.

On a side note, someone attempt to defend the 2004 Olympics having 3 European teams out of 8. I dare you. Not so coincidentally after those 3 European teams took 6th, 7th, and 8th going a combined 1-14 against the other 5 countries in the field, the writing was on the wall for baseball to be dropped as an Olympic sport. Jacques Rogge played a sport when he was younger that I play now, rugby union, and he wanted rugby sevens in the Olympics which it will be beginning in 2016. But he could only bring it in if something else got dropped, which turned out to be baseball and softball (Rogge's wife was a golfer, and that came in too). When you compare the 2006 and 2009 WBCs to the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, how can anyone with a sound mind tell me the Olympic baseball was better?

Even go outside MLB to your next best pro leagues in the world, it's not like NPB or KBO sent their best players to those events. The World Baseball Classic in a combined two months has done more to promote baseball internationally than the World Cup, IBAF, or the Olympic Baseball Tournament had done for their entire existances. No one on this message board ever wrote 68 pages' worth of discussion about the qualifiers for the 2011 Baseball World Cup for example.

The average baseball fan doesn't know there used be a World Cup,and that Cuba won most of those cups; IBAF has never have the money to properly promote this event and the fact only minor leaguers and college players participated didn't help its cause. Olympic baseball despite its flaws must be reinstated (baseball federations around the world need the olympic funding to help grow the game),baseball is one of the largest team sports in the world,it should be an olympic game,but even after reinstament the WBC will remain baseball premier international event,just like FIBA's World Cup is for soccer,even though soccer is an olympic sport.

[NewEnglandAmazins]

Roberto Kelly will be managing Panama and FEDEBEIS has a list of 30 players, but has yet to confirm if any players that play professionally in the U.S. will get permission from their respective organizations.

Source (in Spanish): http://www.critica.com.pa/hoy/sport-...as_del_clasico

[cutchemist42]

I think if Japan gets the 2020 games, baseball has a decent chance to be back on.

Also, anyone know if the WBC has an official Twitter hashtag yet?

[TheInternationalGame]

http://www.baseball-softball.de/worl...-tv-produktion

Looks like MLB will send over a playoff-level coverage team to broadcast the Regensburg qualifier.

For those that don't speak German, a short summary:
A production crew comprising of everyone from feed production to baseball experts will be on hand for the six games to produce an international broadcast. Eight cameras, plus handheld cameras, will cover the game and fan shots. Behind the scenes workers will provide stats and pop-ups for the commentators. The organizers are also in talks with US and European channels for broadcasting rights, which will be announced soon.

[NewEnglandAmazins]

http://www.baseball-softball.de/worl...-tv-produktion

Looks like MLB will send over a playoff-level coverage team to broadcast the Regensburg qualifier.

For those that don't speak German, a short summary:
A production crew comprising of everyone from feed production to baseball experts will be on hand for the six games to produce an international broadcast. Eight cameras, plus handheld cameras, will cover the game and fan shots. Behind the scenes workers will provide stats and pop-ups for the commentators. The organizers are also in talks with US and European channels for broadcasting rights, which will be announced soon.

I hope that MLB extends that same courtesy to the other qualifier sites.

[desslok]

The Asian Round...in the Little League.
http://www.littleleague.org/series/2...siapacific.htm

[NewEnglandAmazins]

Town Hall Meeting at the 2012 All-Star Game

Selig said that next year's third edition of the World Baseball Classic should be bigger and better than ever. A new qualifying round is scheduled for later this year and determining a venue for the finals and semifinals is in the final stage. One thing is certain: They won't be in San Diego or Los Angeles, where the first two Classics were held.

When asked what the expectations are for the upcoming tournament, Selig responded:

"Big. Huge. This sport has a chance to do things internationally that five or 10 years from now will stun you. The whole point of it is the World Baseball Classic, it's grown. We're up to 28 countries, everybody wanting in. I want to go to different parts of the world that we haven't gone to. So my expectation is it's going to be huge and really meaningful.

"Joe Torre is going to manage the USA team. We're going to put a lot of emphasis on it. It's a point of genesis for a huge revenue-sharing program."

State of the game address: Michael Weiner

Weiner said that Japan has committed to participating, though there have been some tenuous negotiations between Japan Professional Baseball and WBC organizers. Weiner said that he does not expect Team USA to have any problem attracting top-level talent to participate and that he believes the 2013 event will be the best yet.

Sources:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...s_mlb&c_id=mlb
http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/stor...dh-interleague