World Baseball Classic 2013
You have asked for it readers and now it is here! An entire page devoted to the upcoming 2013 edition of the World Baseball Classic!
After the initial WBC in 2006, the tournament returned in 2009. The decision was made to have the WBC played three years after the inaugural edition and then four years later from there. As result, after a long wait for baseball fans…the third World Baseball Classic will be back in the year 2013!
March 22, 2012: Big announcement of the day. More information became available today on the big WBC qualifying tournament to be held later in 2012. The qualifying tournament breaks down as follows:
- Four venues have been selected to host the qualifying round: Panama, Germany, Taiwan and Florida
- The winner from each group will move on to the 2013 WBC tournament
- Each qualifier group will play 6 games- modified double elimination
- In September 20-24th, taking place in Regensburg, Germany: the group of four is Canada, Great Britain, Germany and the Czech Republic. Tickets will cost between 15-75 Euros and go on sale April 27th, 2012. Click here to buy tickets
- In November, taking place in Jupiter, Florida: the group of four is France, Spain, Israel and South Africa
- Group three (dates TBD), in Taipei Taiwan, will feature a group of four: Chinese Taipei, Taiwan, New Zealand and the Philippines
- Group four (dates TBD) will face-off in Panama City, Panama, featuring a group of four: Panama, Nicaragua, Brazil and Colombia
Originally, the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009 consisted of 16 Countries. From those 16 countries, 12 of the original WBC representatives received automatic byes to play in the tournament commencing March 2013. The automatic entries into the tournament are the following 12 countries:
- Australia
- China
- Cuba
- Dominican Republic
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Puerto Rico
- United States
- Venezuela
So all the original countries will be back in the WBC…but with a twist. For the third edition of the tournament, there will now be 28 total countries that will be competing. From the original 16 WBC countries, 4 of those countries must now enter into a qualifying tournament in the fall of 2012 to gain entry to the WBC. Poor showings in the 2009 means those countries must now qualify for the WBC. Baseball then added 12 new countries for the qualifying tournament for a total of 16 teams competing in the qualifiers. From the qualifying tournament, the top 4 countries will advance to join the remaining 12 holdover teams for a complete field of 16 teams that will compete in the 2013 WBC. The 16 countries competing in the qualifying tournament are as follows:
- Brazil (new)
- Canada (holdover- needs to qualify)
- Chinese Tapai (Taiwan) (holdover- needs to qualify)
- Colombia (new)
- Czech Republic (new)
- France (new)
- Germany (new)
- Great Britain (new)
- Israel (new)
- New Zealand (new)
- Nicaragua (new)
- Panama (hold0ver- needs to qualify)
- Phillipines (new)
- South Africa (holdover- needs to qualify)
- Spain (new)
- Thailand (new)
Stay tuned for more 2013 WBC news, including the venues for the qualifying rounds and WBC tournament. Team rosters will need to be set and the competition in the qualifying tournament will be fierce to advance to the WBC. In the finals of the 2006 WBC, played on March 20, 2006, Japan beat Cuba by a score of 10-6. On March 23, 2009, Japan beat Korea 5-3 to win its 2nd straight WBC title. Will Japan three-peat in 2013? With 12 new countries on board, there will be even more competition to make it to the finals. The upcoming edition of the WBC promises to be the most exciting ever!
Aren’t the qualifying rounds to be played in Taiwan this fall?
The qualifying tournament locations not picked yet. Will keep everyone posted!
I know the venues for the 2013 WBC haven’t been announced yet what is the hearsay where the finals will be held? I’m guessing the Miami Marlins stadium has the inside track to host this. What do you think?
I can definitely see Miami getting one of the rounds in 2013. Finals may still be in California…but you never know.
TEAM USA needs to Win we own baseball
Gotta get to the WBC finals in order to win it! Hopefully USA will come out firing in 2013!
Who “owns” baseball? The USA? According to which standard? Spending the most money on players? Having the best marketing people? Funny, I always thought that excellence in baseball was determined on the diamond, not the blogosphere. Even with a disappointing finish in the most recent World Baseball Classic, Cuba has an UNPARALLELED record in international baseball competition dating back decades. If any one country can even think about saying it “owns” beisbol other than Cuba, it might be Japan based on the merits of there two WBC titles. Until the USA can put up titles and banners like Cuba and Japan, the Yanquis don’t own anything about baseball – except for tickets to the finals.
Hassan,for the last 50 plus years CUBA has mostly played against amateurs,not professional,their international achievemenst are exagerated,you cannot be the best by just beating amateurs,i was born in Cuba,so i know a little bit about their baseball history,are they good,yes,but not the best;now with reference to JAPAN,yes two WORLD titles make them the best in the world;U.S despite having the best players has yet to win its first WORLD title.
Cuba made it to the finals. I’m surprised they didnt win. There are a crapload of good baseball players in Cuba. (yonder alonso,jose conseco, jose contreras,yunel escobar,Kendrys Morales) and most of the really good ones are still there cuz of fidel.
It’s late February,and still no announcement on the WBC qualifiers,back in last December when IBAF was in Texas MLB said that in January the announcement were going to be made. Any idea when they will be made?.
Any idea on how the negotiations between MLB and NBPA is going? thanks.
Does anyone know if this will push spring training back a week or two like last time?
Trying find out where the WBC finals are going to be held in 2013 and when tickets will go on sale; anyone know?
Yesterday there was a press conference in Germany. One of the qualifiers will be held in Regensburgh on September 20 with Germany, Canada, UK and Czech Republic.
Anyone have any idea regarding the other 3 qualifiers?????
The qualifier will be played in Germany, Florida, Taiwan, and Panama City. The article gives the details. Florida will host in September and the rest will be hosted in November.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120322&content_id=27514066&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
Columbia????? is COLOMBIA!!!! Please…be thorough on your research
Go Puerto Rico!!!!
Great catch. Thanks for the message. Go Puerto Rico!
Jose Canseco came to America when he was two years old,he learned how to play baseball here in the U.S,he is an American product.
Does anyone know what the dates are for the 2013 World Baseball Classic and how it will affect the schedule for Spring Training.
Find out on Ask the Reports this weekend: http://mlbreports.com
where will the 16 teams play
anyone know what the 2013 US roster is?
Why wasnt Uganda invited? Baseball is the #1 sport there.
Is this really Pete Rose??????
12 new countries were invited to the WBC, which is no small feat. More countries will be involved as the tournament progresses. But for now, 12 new countries is a new start and more will come!
Can you give us ur projections?
WBC projections….hmmm…let me think about that one. A great question for Ask the Reports….stay tuned!
The WBC is great, and I agree that the USA needs to make a strong showing! The only thing that really irks me a little is the time it is played. The tourney is held in March when most of the US players aren’t in form because of the winter break. It would be nice to have it in July or August when the players are back to form. Obviously that isn’t going to happen so the WBC is somewhat of a spring training for the players that dont play winter ball anywhere…sad.