2006 World Baseball Classic

The 2006 World Baseball Classic was the inaugural tournament between national baseball teams that included players from Major League Baseball. It was held from March 3 - March 20 in stadiums that are in and around Tokyo (Japan), San Juan (Puerto Rico), Orlando, Phoenix, Anaheim and San Diego (United States).

Format

The first World Baseball Classic featured 16 teams in a round-robin tournament. Each team played the other three teams in their pool once. The top two teams of each letter-pool moved onto the second round, where the top two teams of Pools A and B (Pool 1) and the top two teams of Pools C and D (Pool 2) competed against each other in another round-robin. The top two teams from each pool entered a four-team single-elimination bracket, with the pool winners and runners-up facing each other in the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals then met to determine the World Baseball Classic champions.

Teams

The teams selected for the inaugural World Baseball Classic were chosen because they were judged to be the "best baseball-playing nations in the world and provide global representation for the event." [http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/about/index.jsp?sid=wbc] There was no official qualifying competition. Rosters for participating teams can be found here.

March 4, 2006

March 7, 2006

March 10, 2006

March 8, 2006

Pool D

March 9, 2006

March 12, 2006

March 15, 2006

March 12, 2006

March 15, 2006

Final Standings

Batting Leaders

(minimum 2.7 plate appearances/game) [http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_bat&lid=160&sid=wbc]

Batting Average
* Adam Stern - .667
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - .524
* Brett Willemburg - .500
* Yoandy Garlobo - .480
* Jason Bay - .455
* Nicholas Dempsey - .455
* Sidney de Jong - .455

Hits
* Nobuhiko Matsunaka - 13
* Yoandy Garlobo - 12
* Ichiro Suzuki - 12
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 11
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 11

Runs
* Nobuhiko Matsunaka - 11
* Yulieski Gourriel - 8
* Seung Yeop Lee - 8
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 7
* Ichiro Suzuki - 7

Doubles
* Jong Beom Lee - 6
* Nobuhiko Matsunaka - 4
* Frederich Cepeda - 3
* Yung Chi Chen - 3
* Justin Morneau - 3
* Miguel Tejada - 3

Triples
* 15 players tied with 1

Home Runs
* Seung Yeop Lee - 5
* Adrián Beltré - 4
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 3
* Derrek Lee - 3
* David Ortiz - 3
* Hitoshi Tamura - 3

Grand Slams
* Jason Varitek - 1

Runs Batted In
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 10
* Seung Yeop Lee - 10
* Adrián Beltré - 9
* Hitoshi Tamura - 9
* Jorge Cantu - 8
* Frederich Cepeda - 8
* Derrek Lee - 8
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 8

Total Bases
* Seung Yeop Lee - 23
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 22
* Frederich Cepeda - 19
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 19
* Adrián Beltré - 18

Walks
* David Ortiz - 8
* Albert Pujols - 7
* Bobby Abreu - 6
* Frederich Cepeda - 6
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 6
* Hitoshi Tamura - 6

Strikeouts
* Hitoshi Tamura - 9
* Ariel Prestano - 8
* Yufeng Zhang - 8
* Bobby Abreu - 7
* Frederich Cepeda - 7
* Jin Man Park - 7
* Alex Rodriguez - 7

Stolen Bases
* Tsuyoshi Nishioka - 5
* Ichiro Suzuki - 4
* Trent Durrington - 3
* Eduardo Paret - 3
* 8 players tied with 2

On-Base Percentage
* Adam Stern - .727
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - .583
* Jason Bay - .571
* Yi Feng - .556
* Yoandy Garlobo - .536

Slugging Percentage
* Adam Stern - 1.333
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 1.048
* Seung Yeop Lee - .958
* Adrián Beltré - .900
* Yung Chi Chen - .786

OPS
* Adam Stern - 2.061
* Ken Griffey, Jr. - 1.631
* Seung Yeop Lee - 1.372
* Adrián Beltré - 1.291
* Chipper Jones - 1.241

Team Pitching

"Ordered by ERA [http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_tpi&lid=160] "

Pitching Leaders

(minimum 0.8 innings pitched/game) [http://ww2.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_pit&lid=160]

Wins
* Daisuke Matsuzaka - 3
* Odalis Perez - 2
* Ormari Romero - 2
* Jae-Weong Seo - 2
* Min Han Son - 2
* Koji Uehara - 2

Losses
* Rodrigo Lopez - 2
* Johan Santana - 2
* Dontrelle Willis - 2
* 31 plyers tied with 1

Saves
* Chan Ho Park - 3
* Yadel Martí - 2
* 14 tied with 1

Innings Pitched
* Koji Uehara - 17
* Jae-Weong Seo - 14
* Bartolo Colón - 14
* Shunsuke Wantanabe - 13.2
* Daisuke Matsuzaka - 13

Hits Allowed
* Koji Uehara - 17
* Bartolo Colón - 13
* Pedro Luis Lazo - 12
* Esteban Loaiza - 10
* Carl Michaels - 10
* Dontrelle Willis - 10

Runs Allowed
* Carl Michaels - 10
* Barry Armitage - 9
* Adiel Palma - 8
* Dontrelle Willis - 8
* Tao Bu - 7
* Vicyohandry Odelin - 7

Earned Runs Allowed
* Carl Michaels - 10
* Dontrelle Willis - 8
* Barry Armitage - 7
* Jeff Francis - 6
* Calvin Maduro - 6
* Vicyohandry Odelin - 6

ERA
* Yadel Martí - 0.00 "(in 12.2 innings)"
* Chan Ho Park - 0.00 "(10.0)"
* Kelvim Escobar - 0.00 "(7.2)"
* Shairon Martis - 0.00 "(7.0)"
* Carlos Silva - 0.00 "(5.2)"
* Jason Grilli - 0.00 "(4.2)"
* Erik Bedard - 0.00 "(4.0)"
* Wei-Lun Pan - 0.00 "(4.0)"
* Adam Loewen - 0.00 "(3.2)"
* Po-Hsuan Keng - 0.00 "(3.0)"

Walks
* Dontrelle Willis - 6
* Kelvim Escobar - 5
* Yulieski Gonzalez - 5
* Esteban Loaiza - 5
* Peter Moylan - 5
* Adiel Palma - 5
* Carlos Zambrano - 5

Strikeouts
* Koji Uehara - 16
* Freddy Garcia - 11
* Yadel Martí - 11
* Roger Clemens - 10
* Daisuke Matsuzaka - 10
* Johan Santana - 10

WHIP
* Shairon Martis - 0.14
* Jason Grilli - 0.20
* Jose Santiago - 0.63
* Po-Hsuan Keng - 0.67
* Chenhao Li - 0.67

No-hit no-run
* Shairon Martis - 1

Controversies

Team Cuba
In an effort to enforce the United States Government's embargo on Cuba, the Cuban team was initially denied a license to play in the United States. [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2259278] Puerto Rico threatened to pull out as hosts, [http://www.primerahora.com/noticia.asp?guid=869CC20D05F8467F93BC93B8D1FF81C4] IBAF said they would rescind its sanctioning of the tournament, [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/john_donovan/01/06/cuba.wbc/] and the IOC suggested that such a development would influence the ability of American cities to successfully bid to host future Olympic Games. [http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9099373/2] Financing was restructured and the U.S. government relented. [http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/worldclassic2006/news/story?id=2299485]

Republic Of China (Taiwan)
The Republic Of China baseball team was originally listed as "Taiwan" and bearing the ROC national flag (flagicon|ROC), but following pressure from the People's Republic of China the listing was later changed to Chinese Taipei with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Flag (flagicon|TPE).

Participation
A number of Major League baseball players chose not to participate, some backing out at the last minute. Without players such as Barry Bonds, Vladimir Guerrero (who pulled out because 3 cousins died in a car accident right before World Baseball Classic), Manny Ramírez, Hideki Matsui, and Jose Vidro, some questioned whether the event would be credible. Cuba barred from its team players such as Orlando Hernández, his half-brother Liván Hernández, and José Contreras, Cubans who had previously defected. Italy was criticized for a roster made up almost entirely of second-generation Italian Americans such as Mike Piazza.

Format
South Korea completed the first two rounds undefeated (6-0) but was still forced to play Japan, a team it had already beaten twice, in the semifinal round. Other international sporting competitions, such as the FIFA World Cup, are formatted so as to make it impossible that teams play each other three times. They can only face twice at most - in round robin group play and then again for the championship or 3rd-place match. In addition, the regional grouping of teams was called into question, for the groups were perceived to be unevenly distributed.

Drug Testing
The World Anti-Doping Agency criticized IBAF's drug testing program and threatened to withdraw sanction of the event. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11863168/] One athlete, South Korean pitcher Myung Hwan Park, tested positive for a banned substance during the event, and he was subsequently kicked out of the WBC. [http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/baseball/20060404-1313-bbi-worldclassic-drugtesting.html]

Umpires
WBC organizers were unable to reach an agreement with the MLB umpires' union and so the tournament was overseen by umpires from the minor leagues. American umpire Bob Davidson made two questionable calls at critical moments in two different games that each directly benefited the American team.

Additional rules

There were several rule changes from normal major league play. Pitchers were held to a pitch count of 65 pitches in the first round, 80 pitches in the second round, and 95 in the semifinals and championship rounds. (Netherlands pitcher Shairon Martis used exactly 65 pitches to throw the only no-hitter of the tournament, a 10-0 win over Panama that was stopped by the mercy rule [see below] .) If a pitcher reached his maximum pitch count in the middle of an at-bat, he could continue to pitch to that batter, but was required to be replaced once that at-bat ended. A 30-pitch outing needed to be followed by one day off, and a 50-pitch outing by four days off. No one would be allowed to pitch on three consecutive days.

A mercy rule came into effect when one team lead by either fifteen runs after five innings, or ten runs after seven innings in the first two rounds. In addition, ties could be called after fourteen innings of play.

The designated hitter rule was in place for all games.

uccess of tournament

Many members of the United States press were skeptical of the Classic since its inception. The event proved to be quite popular, however, providing many memorable moments including a first round game between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Attendance was higher than expected at several sites, including the 18,000-seat Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, which was sold out for every Puerto Rico game in the first two rounds. Though international ratings figures are not yet available, viewership is expected to be high, ESPN spokeswoman Diane Lamb said. In addition, there were 4,000 media credentials issued — more than the World Series and the Olympic Games — which bodes well for the stated goal of internationalizing the sport. "Sports Illustrated" writer Tom Verducci reported that "more merchandise was sold in the first round than organizers projected for the entire 17-day event." [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/tom_verducci/03/14/wbc.classic/1.html] He also reported that, at one point, jerseys for the Venezuelan team were selling at the rate of one every six seconds.

The US television ratings on ESPN were stronger than initially expected, drawing in more than one million television sets for some games, more than almost any other ESPN program in the month of March. This occurred despite less than stellar airing times for the games. Most were not aired live but taped, and sometimes with innings cut, as the WBC was organized well after ESPN had committed to much of its programming. These ratings all but assure the next WBC, in 2009, will be awarded more live broadcasts during prime time.

However, outside US, the tournament was very successful. In Latin America, a first round game between the United States and Mexico, was the third most watched game in the history of ESPN Dos, one of the three Spanish-language channels of ESPN in Latin America.

The allocation of earnings

The total earnings of WBC is divided into net profit (53%) and prize money (47%). [http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?bicode=070000&biid=2006030606428]

Net profit (53%)

* World Baseball Classic Inc.: 17.5%
* Baseball Players Union: 17.5%
* Japanese Baseball Organization: 7%
* Korean Baseball Organization: 5%
* International Baseball Federation: 5%
* Miscellaneous expenses: 1%

Prize money (47%)

* Japan (Champions): 10%
* Cuba (Runners-up): 7%
* Korea and Dominican Republic (Semifinalists): 5% each
* The 4 teams that drop out of the Round 2: 3% each
* The 8 teams that drop out of the Round 1: 1% each

External links

* [http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com World Baseball Classic]
** [http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/rosters/index.jsp?sid=wbc Rosters]
* [http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/2006/schedule/index.jsp?sid=wbc Video and Audio - 2006 World Baseball Classic]
* [http://www.vicasting.com/Contents.aspx?pid=9088 ESPN Podcast Coverage of the WBC]
* [http://68.142.83.226:80/abcrad_wepn WEPN New York Live streaming radio coverage of the final]

References

* [http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060118&content_id=1297939&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb MLB.com: DuPuy reacts]
* [http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=Am.Y0QSRBJlrzkI1JF1PyhgRvLYF?slug=ap-classic-cuba&prov=ap&type=lgns Yahoo!: Cuba allowed to play]
* [http://www.thebaseballclassic.com Unofficial chat forum of The World Baseball Classic]

ee also

* 2006 World Baseball Classic rosters
* Baseball at the Summer Olympics
* Baseball World Cup
* World Series