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.
It was originally scheduled to take place in 2021, four years after the previous event, but was canceled in May 2020, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] It was later announced that qualifications for the Classic would start in September 2022, as agreed by World Baseball Classic Inc. (WBCI)[3] The tournament expanded from 16 to 20 national teams, with all teams that participated in the 2017 edition automatically qualifying, plus four additional spots.[4] Unlike in 2009, 2013 and 2017, the U.S. lineup attracted some distinguished players and attracted significant attention for the tournament.[5]
Participated in the qualifier but failed to qualify
In January 2020, the WBC announced that the 16 national teams which participated at the 2017 World Baseball Classic would automatically qualify for the 2023 tournament.[7]
A qualifying tournament was scheduled for March 2020 in Tucson, Arizona, United States, to determine the last four teams.[7] Twelve teams were split into two pools, and the top two teams in each pool would qualify.[4] On March 12, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that the qualifying tournaments were being postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] The qualification tournament ended up postponing to September 16–21, 2022, for the Africa/Europe qualifiers and September 30 – October 5, 2022, for the Americas/Asia/Oceania qualifiers.[9]
The Czech Republic, Great Britain, and Nicaragua made their first appearance in the World Baseball Classic, while Panama returned after having missed out on two World Baseball Classic appearances. This was the third consecutive time that South Africa, the only African team, did not qualify for the World Baseball Classic, and the second consecutive time that both Brazil and Spain did not qualify. With Panama qualified for the World Baseball Classic for the first time since 2009, South Africa now has the longest active WBC appearance drought at 14 years, having not qualified since 2009.
The pool draw was announced by World Baseball Classic Inc. (WBCI) on July 7, 2022.[11] Organizers prioritized placement in separate pools of the four nations which reached the semifinals of the 2017 WBC (Japan, the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, and the United States) and the three hosts (Japan, the United States, and Taiwan). Remaining pool assignments were made based on WBSC World Rankings, competitive balance, and commercial and geographic interest.[12]
Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the draw.[13]
The first round of the tournament drew 1,010,999 fans across all four venues, nearly double the previous record for the WBC.[16] This included 361,976 fans in Tokyo for Pool B and 295,850 fans in Miami for Pool D. Total attendance for the tournament across all rounds was 1,306,414, the highest in WBC history.[17]
Participating nations had to submit their final 30-man rosters no later than February 7, 2023. WBC rules required teams to carry at least 14 pitchers and two catchers on their rosters.[25]
The prize money allocation was released by Major League Baseball and the World Baseball Softball Confederation on March 7, 2023. Teams collected prize money for each stage they qualifed in. The champions could collect a maximum of $3 million if they were a pool winner.[27]
Stage
Prize money (US$)
No. of Teams
Total (US$)
Champions
$1,000,000
1
$1,000,000
Finalists
$500,000
2
$1,000,000
Semifinalists
$500,000
4
$2,000,000
Quarterfinalists
$400,000
8
$3,200,000
Pool winners
$300,000
4
$1,200,000
Participants
$300,000
20
$6,000,000
Total
$14,400,000
Group stage
Scheduled locations and dates are as follows:[1][28]
Tiebreakers
The ranking of teams in the group stage is determined as follows:[29]
Win percentage
Head-to-head record
Lowest quotient of runs allowed by defensive outs between tied teams
Lowest quotient of earned runs allowed by defensive outs between tied teams
The top two teams from each pool advanced to the single elimination bracket. These games were contested from March 15–21, 2023. Tokyo hosted two of the quarterfinals, while the other two quarterfinals, the semifinals, and the championship game took place in Miami.[1][28]
The Japan-South Korea pool B game drew a household viewership of 44.4% in Japan[32][33][34] and 11.7% in South Korea.[35][36] The broadcast averaged 29.9 million Japanese viewers[37][38] (28.9% individual viewership[32][33][34]) and 2.7 million Korean viewers.[39] Rating indicated that 62.343 million Japanese watched at least one minute of the game.[37][38] The Korean rating in that game was the second-most-watched WBC game in South Korea, after the 2009 Japan-South Korea final.[39]
The Japan-Italy quarterfinal game broke the Japanese WBC viewership record. It drew an average 48.0% household viewership in Japan and averaged 38.2 million viewers.[37][38]
In the United States, the World Baseball Classic was carried by Fox Sports for the first time, with games split among six Fox networks. The championship game drew 5.2 million average viewers in the US,[40] peaking at 6.5 million viewers in the final 15 minutes, a new American record for a WBC game.[41]
In Puerto Rico, the Pool D game between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic was viewed by 62% of households.[40]
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