When Is the Next World Baseball Classic?
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The World Baseball Classic is one of the most hotly-anticipated sporting events of the year. Here’s everything you need to know about when the next one is taking place.
Introduction
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). The tournament is contested by national teams composed of professional players from across the globe. It is currently scheduled to take place every four years, with the most recent edition being held in 2013.
The next edition of the World Baseball Classic is set to take place in 2017. The tournament will be hosted by multiple countries, with the first round taking place in Asia and the Pacific Region. The semifinals and finals will be held in the United States.
History of the World Baseball Classic
In 1933, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis established a committee to broadly discuss the game’s future. Among the topics addressed were international competitions. baseball. In 1936, after competition among several countries, an international baseball tournament was held in Barcelona, Spain. Participation included teams from Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico and the host country. Additional tournaments were held sporadically over the next three decades. The United States participated in some of these tournaments but not others.
In 1986, for instance, an international baseball tournament was held in Seoul, Korea to commemorate that country’s hosting of the 1988 Summer Olympic Games. The field of teams included Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. None of the countries that would eventually participate in the World Baseball Classic were represented in that event.
The concept of a World Baseball Classic began to take shape in 1999 when Major League Baseball (MLB) embarked on a joint venture with other professional baseball organizations around the world to create a tournament similar to soccer’s FIFA World Cup or basketball’s FIBA World Championships. The idea for such a tournament had been discussed for years but it wasn’t until MLB International Vice President Robert Manfred Jr., who would later become MLB Commissioner, led a feasibility study that serious momentum began to build for the event.
The 2017 World Baseball Classic
The 2017 World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament that will take place in March of 2017. It will be the fourth edition of the World Baseball Classic, and it will be contested by sixteen national teams.
Future World Baseball Classics
The next World Baseball Classic is scheduled for March 20-April 2, 2017.
Conclusion
The next World Baseball Classic is scheduled for 2021. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the tournament may be postponed or canceled.
