The Baseball World Cup was an international tournament where national
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
teams from around the world competed. It was sanctioned by the
International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Along with the
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...
, it was one of two active tournaments considered by the IBAF to be a major world championship.
The
baseball tournament at the
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...
was also considered a major world championship while baseball was an Olympic sport.
After the 2011 tournament, the Baseball World Cup was discontinued in favor of an expanded World Baseball Classic tournament. The
World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) – successor to the IBAF – now sanctions two new tournaments: the biennial
23U Baseball World Cup (begun as the 21U Baseball World Cup in 2014) and WBSC's quadrennial, flagship tournament – involving the twelve best-ranked national teams in the world – called the
WBSC Premier12 (starting in
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...
).
The Congress approved a new format of International tournaments
/ref>
History
The Baseball World Cup was held 38 times; the final one was in 2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...
in Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
. The first tournament, held in 1938
Events
January
* January 1
** The new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the authoritarian regime.
** State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France ...
, featured only two teams, but the last tournament included 22 participants; the previous two featured 16 and 18 teams (in 2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple Inc., Apple's first iPhone (1st generation), iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakis ...
and 2005
File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; " Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discover ...
, respectively). The World Cup was originally called the Amateur World Series, until the tournament in 1988. Until 1988, the Amateur World Series was held in intervals of one to four years, except for the eight-year period from 1953 to 1961. From 1988 to 2001, the Baseball World Cup was held in intervals of two to four years. After 2001, the tournament was held every two years.
Until 1998 the competition was limited to amateur players. After 1998, professional minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...
players competed, but Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...
did not allow its players to participate. In the months leading up to the high-profile first World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...
in 2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...
, many commentators heralded it as a "Baseball World Cup", perhaps not realizing that a tournament of that description already existed and had for almost seventy years. However, the 2006 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 that are in and around Tokyo, Japan; San Juan, Puert ...
was the first international baseball tournament to include players from the major leagues, making it a closer equivalent to the world cups of other sports—which include players from the most prestigious professional leagues—than to the Baseball World Cup.
Tournament results
Medal table
See also
*Women's Baseball World Cup
The Women's Baseball World Cup is an international tournament in which national women's baseball teams from around the world compete. Through its 2012 edition, it was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation; following the 2013 merger ...
* Baseball awards#World
* Baseball at the Summer Olympics
* Intercontinental Cup (International Baseball Federation (IBAF))
* WBSC Premier12
*World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Leagu ...
References
External links
2009 Baseball World Cup
{{Main world cups
Cup
A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cl ...
Recurring sporting events established in 1938
Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2011
World Baseball Softball Confederation competitions