2009 World Baseball Classic

The 2009 World Baseball Classic will be an international baseball competition. It follows the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic, the first international tournament to feature a large number of major league players. It will be during March, also the time of MLB spring training.

Format

The 2006 tournament consisted of 16 national teams initially divided into four pools. In an attempt to avoid the kind of convoluted tiebreaking procedures the World Baseball Classic rules committee instituted for the inaugural 2006 tournament, the round-robin format will be replaced in 2009 by double-elimination to move teams beyond the first two rounds. Also unlike 2006, there will be a crossover of teams from their second-round pools to the semifinals; the winner of each second-round pool will face the runner-up of the other. The winners of the semifinals then meet to determine the World Baseball Classic champion.

Teams

All 16 nations that participated in the 2006 tournament have been invited to play in the 2009 tournament. [ [http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080219&content_id=2379216&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb World Baseball Classic field selected] ]

The winner and runner-up teams from Pools A and B will advance to the second round to play in Pool 1. The winner and runner-up teams from Pools C and D will advance to the second round to play in Pool 2.

The top two teams in each pool will head to the semi-finals at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California, and cross over with the winner of Pool 1 playing the runner-up in Pool 2, and vice versa.

=Semi Finals and Finals - Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA, USA=

4TeamBracket
RD1=Semi-Finals (March 21)
RD2=Final (March 23)
RD1-Seed1=P2RU
RD1-Team1=Pool 2 Runner Up
RD1-Score1=
RD1-Seed2=P1W
RD1-Team2=Pool 1 Winner
RD1-Score2=
RD1-Seed3=P1RU
RD1-Team3=Pool 1 Runner Up
RD1-Score3=
RD1-Seed4=P2W
RD1-Team4=Pool 2 Winner
RD1-Score4=
RD2-Seed1=
RD2-Team1=
RD2-Score1=
RD2-Seed2=
RD2-Team2=
RD2-Score2=

Venues

* First Round (March 5-March 12)
** Pool A: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan (cap. 42,000)
** Pool B: Foro Sol Stadium, Mexico City, Mexico (cap. 27,940)
** Pool C: Rogers Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (cap. 49,539)
** Pool D: Hiram Bithorn Stadium, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico (cap. 18,000)

* Second Round (March 14-March 19)
** Pool 1: PETCO Park, San Diego, California (cap. 42,685)
** Pool 2: Dolphin Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida (cap. 38,560)

* Semifinals and Final (March 21-March 23)
** Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, California (cap. 56,000)

Television

In the United States, ESPN and the MLB Network will share the rights, with ESPN carrying the semi-finals and final.

External links

* [http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060321&content_id=1358067&vkey=wbc_news&fext=.jsp&sid=wbc With Classic over, MLB looks ahead]
* [http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/wbc_09/index.jsp 2009 World Baseball Classic coverage]

References

ee also

*Baseball at the Summer Olympics
*Baseball World Cup
*World Series