World Baseball Classic 2009

[DirtyKash]

03/23/2008 9:00 PM ET
Venues set for World Baseball Classic

Japan, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico to host first round in '09
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com

The first-round venues are set for the second running of the World Baseball Classic, which will begin on March 5, 2009, in Japan.

As in 2006, Tokyo Dome and Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will host first-round games. In 2009, those venues will be joined for the first time by Rogers Centre in Toronto and Foro Sol Stadium in Mexico City.

Rogers Centre is the home ballpark of the Blue Jays, and Major League Spring Training exhibition games have been played at the 27,940-seat facility in Mexico City.

"The 2009 World Baseball Classic will further demonstrate the remarkable global growth of our game," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "There has been incredible demand to host the games of the second World Baseball Classic, and we are pleased to have four international destinations as our first-round venues. We are excited about the 2009 World Baseball Classic and look forward to next March."

The 16-team field is the same as '06, though an expansion of the field to 24 countries and territories with qualifying rounds as a preface to reach the main competition is under consideration for 2013.

Next year's brackets are as follows:

Pool A -- China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Korea will begin play on March 5 in Tokyo Dome, where the A's are opening the regular season against the Red Sox this week.

Pool B -- Australia, Cuba, Mexico and South Africa, from March 8-12 in Mexico City.

Pool C -- Canada, Italy, the U.S. and Venezuela, from March 8-12 in Toronto.

Pool D -- Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Panama and Puerto Rico, from March 7-11 in Puerto Rico.

Venues for the second round, plus the combined semifinals and finals are still to be determined, although San Diego's PETCO Park seems to be set for the second round and Dodger Stadium has the inside track for the semifinals and finals.

The semifinals and finals were sold out at San Diego's 45,000-seat home of the Padres in 2006. Japan vanquished Cuba, 10-6, to win the tournament and Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, who now toils for the Red Sox, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.

Attendance for the '06 tournament at its seven venues was 737,112 tickets sold, a major coup considering that the Asian bracket didn't reach the 80 percent capacity in Tokyo Dome that was originally projected.

It was the first time that Major League players were allowed to represent their native lands in an international baseball tournament. The baseball competition in the Summer Olympics, which is slated for Beijing in August, includes non-25-man roster MLB players only.

In another new wrinkle for '09, a rules change has been made in the qualifying portion of the tournament, which will now be a double-elimination format in the first two rounds.

In '06, there was round-robin play as teams with the top two records in each bracket ascended to the second round and the semifinals with a complicated formula based on runs scored used as the first tie breaker.

The semifinals remain as single-elimination games.

Also, unlike '06, there will be a crossover of brackets in the semifinals. In '06, Cuba defeated the Dominican and Japan ousted Korea in the semifinals.

"The best baseball players in the world are looking forward with great anticipation to playing in the 2009 World Baseball Classic," said Don Fehr, the executive director of the Players' Association, who is a partner with Major League Baseball in the venture. "Implementation of double-elimination and crossover games to the World Baseball Classic next year will make the games even more intense and the tournament even more exciting for both players and fans. It will be an unforgettable experience."

[catman]

Should be a good tournament. Finals to be held in San Diego? Should make for some good viewing for the fans there.

[DirtyKash]

ESPN - Daisuke Matsuzaka says he'll play in World Baseball Classic

I'm already pumped up.

[love_that_reefer]

Puerto Rico's lineup is ****ing stacked!!

[DirtyKash]

Rehab will keep Matsui out of Classic | MLB.com: News

Looks like Godzilla Matsui is out of the Classic, but Robinson Cano is hopeful that he can play for the DR if they pick him.

[love_that_reefer]

Tim Lincecum has no interest in participating in the WBC.

[DirtyKash]

A-Rod to play for the Dominican in WBC

6 hours, 58 minutes ago

Alex Rodriguez, who nearly sat out the inaugural World Baseball Classic because he did not want to choose between playing for his native United States or the Dominican Republic, the country of his parents’ birth, is changing uniforms for the 2009 Classic.

The New York Yankees’ third baseman, who was on a star-studded U.S team that failed to advance to the semifinals of the first WBC, plans to play for the Dominican Republic this spring, according to Dominican slugger David Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox.

Ortiz is hosting a charity golf tournament in the Dominican city of Punta Cana this weekend. He said Rodriguez, who is playing in the tournament, is expected to announce his decision at the function. Rodriguez and Ortiz are close friends.

“He wants to play for the Dominican team,” Ortiz said by telephone Thursday. “We’ll talk about it now after he gets here, and he’ll probably announce it here.”

Ortiz said he has not spoken recently with Rodriguez about his intentions, but that as far back as the All-Star Game last July in New York, he said A-Rod had expressed a desire to play for the Dominican Republic.

Ortiz said his own participation in the WBC is uncertain, depending on the condition of his surgically repaired left wrist. He has not yet resumed any baseball activities since the end of last season, and plans to return to Boston the week before Christmas to have his wrist examined by Red Sox medical director Thomas J. Gill.

“I would love to,” Ortiz said of playing again for a Dominican team that in 2006 lost in the WBC semifinals. “It all depends on how I’m feeling.”

Ortiz said the Red Sox have not indicated they do not want him to play in the WBC.

“They haven’t talked to me about it,” he said. “The Red Sox know I’m a mature player. They know I won’t do anything that would affect my game with the Red Sox.

“If the doctor tells me to chill out (not play), I will. If he tells me fine, start swinging and let me know how it feels, then I’ll go for it.”

Ortiz said he believes that Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladimir Guerrero, who missed the 2006 Classic after his cousins were killed in a car accident, would like to play this spring. And what about Manny Ramirez, his former Red Sox teammate who bowed out of the Classic after showing up to Sox spring camp well after his teammates did?

Ortiz laughed. “I have more of a chance to talk to Obama than Manny,” he said.

Rodriguez’s participation in the initial WBC was not assured until just hours before the U.S. team submitted its provisional roster in January 2006, about two months before the tournament, and came only after personal appeals from baseball commissioner Bud Selig and union officials.

Rodriguez, who was born in New York City in 1975, moved with his family in 1979 to Santo Domingo, but moved back to Miami when he was 8. He initially had expressed an interest in playing for the Dominican Republic when the inaugural tournament was first announced, and as late as December, 2005, he told one radio station he was “leaning” toward playing for the Dominican, the birthplace of his parents Victor and Lourdes

But days later, he informed Yankees general manager Brian Cashman that he planned to sit out the tournament. “After thoughtful deliberation with my family,” he said in an interview, “when faced with the decision to choose between my country, the United States of America, and my Dominican heritage, I decided I would not dishonor either.”

Union lawyer Gene Orza, who jokingly said at the time that Rodriguez had asked if he could play for both teams, did not consider that decision final, and both he and Selig lobbied him to change his mind and play for the U.S. Both the union and the commissioner felt that the tournament needed the presence of arguably the game’s best player to legitimize the event.

“He loves all things Dominican,” Orza said at the time, “but was raised in America.”

Rodriguez’s name was listed on the initial roster submitted by Dominican officials, but was not added to the U.S. roster until a couple of hours before the deadline.

“In the end,” said Rodriguez’s agent, Scott Boras, “Alex thought it was important to honor his citizenship.”

Under the rules of the WBC, a player can play for a country in which he, his parents, or grandparents were citizens. Catcher Mike Piazza, for example, elected to play for Italy, the country of his grandparents’ birth. Other players with big-league experience were on Italy’s roster, including Frank Catalanotto, Dan Miceli, Lenny DiNardo, and Frank Menechino.

Rodriguez was criticized for his indecision the first go-round, and is likely to catch more flak in the U.S. if he does indeed announce that he will flip-flop teams in 2009. But because of Rodriguez’s highly public divorce and an affair with pop singer Madonna, MLB may be inclined to shift its marketing focus for the U.S. team to young stars such as Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies, Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins.

The 2009 WBC, a 16-country event, is scheduled to begin on March 5 with first-round action in four venues: Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The championship game is scheduled for March 23 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

[nyjunc]

As if we need more reasons to hate ARod. I wish he'd go play in the Dominican republic for good. WHY did we re-sign this overrated choker?

[love_that_reefer]

Because no one else was willing to pay his contract and because of Hal's awesome negotiating skills. Hal really stuck by his guns on that one Arod, pick a ****ing nationality and stick with it!!

[Kingdom]

He has to love being hated, that's the only logical explanation. At least he didn't pick a random country to represent, like South Africa.


Vinny Castilla is Mexico's coach. That's cool.

[Kingdom]

Rodriguez was criticized for his indecision the first go-round, and is likely to catch more flak in the U.S. if he does indeed announce that he will flip-flop teams in 2009. But because of Rodriguez’s highly public divorce and an affair with pop singer Madonna, MLB may be inclined to shift its marketing focus for the U.S. team to young stars such as Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies, Evan Longoria and B.J. Upton of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins.

Well if they should pursue Howard, they should also go for his teammates Chase Utley and Cole Hamels. Rays could offer up Lonoria, Upton, Crawford, Price, Shields.. Mauer would be nice. Mauer-Russell Martin-Brian McCann as the C's?

[ljshorty89]

They could also ask David Wright, Pedroia, etc

[love_that_reefer]

Well if they should pursue Howard, they should also go for his teammates Chase Utley and Cole Hamels. Rays could offer up Lonoria, Upton, Crawford, Price, Shields.. Mauer would be nice. Mauer-Russell Martin-Brian McCann as the C's?

Upton had surgery and will not participate. Price is a terrible idea and as is Longoria. Rays have already stated Price will not be available.

[DirtyKash]

Uh...why would Price and Longoria be terrible ideas? They're young, they can handle it.

[love_that_reefer]

Put yourself in the shoes of the Rays GM and please ask why it would be dumb again. I'm glad Sabean is not allowing Lincecum to participate.