2023 World Baseball Classic
The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international professional baseball tournament originally scheduled to be the fifth iteration of the WBC, was canceled in May 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is unlikely to be played until 2023.[2][1] The tournament was to be expanded to accommodate 20 national teams from 16 teams of the 2017 edition.[3]
Tournament details | |
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Host countries | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Dates | Canceled[1] |
Teams | 20 |
Defending champions | ![]() |
← 2017 |
Qualification
In January 2020, the WBC announced the 16 national teams which participated at the 2017 World Baseball Classic will automatically qualify for the tournament.[4]
A qualifying tournament was scheduled for March 2020 in Tucson, Arizona, United States to determine the last four teams.[4] Twelve teams were split into two pools, and the top two teams in each pool will qualify.[3] On March 12, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that the qualifying tournaments were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[5]
Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings as of December 31, 2021.[6]
Venues
Four stadiums were planned to be used during the main tournament.[7]
Pool A | Pool B & Quarterfinals | Pool C | Pool D, Quarterfinals & Championship |
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Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium | Tokyo Dome | Chase Field | LoanDepot Park |
Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 45,600 | Capacity: 48,686 | Capacity: 36,742 |
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See also
References
- "2021 World Baseball Classic canceled; event may not return until 2023, report says". cbs sports. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
- "Tebow's baseball journey comes to an end". MLB.com. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
- "Qualifiers set for expanded 2021 World Baseball Classic". Agence France-Presse. 28 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
- Nelson, Adam (30 January 2020). "World Baseball Classic to expand to 20 teams for 2021 edition". Sportbusiness.com.
- "Major League Baseball to delay 2020 Opening Day by at least two weeks". MLB.com Press Release. March 12, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.
- "WBSC Rankings - Men's baseball on 28/06/21". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
- "2021 World Baseball Classic venues revealed". MLB.com. Retrieved 2021-03-10.