Source: Canada must qualify for 2013 WBC
Posted May 24, 2011 8:45 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NEW YORK – Canada will have to play its way into the 2013 World Baseball Classic through a qualifier tentatively set for the fall of 2012, sportsnet.ca has learned.
Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because the changes have yet to be announced, say the next edition of the best-on-best tournament staged by Major League Baseball and the players union is expanding from 16 to 28 teams.
The format was approved during a meeting of the event’s 15-man steering committee last week.
The top 12 teams from the 2009 event, won by defending champion Japan, receive automatic berths to the ’13 event.
The other four teams – Canada, Panama, South Africa and Taiwan – will each serve as the top seed in one of four qualification groups featuring four teams apiece.
The four group winners from that event advance to the main tournament the following spring.
It wasn’t immediately clear which eight countries will be invited to join, although Nicaragua and Colombia seem like obvious choices.
Canada must take the long road into the WBC after going 0-2 – including an embarrassing 6-2, do-or-die loss to lowly Italy – in the first round of the 2009 tournament, despite hosting the group at the Rogers Centre.
Venues for the four qualification rounds – which will not necessarily be held concurrently – remain to be determined.
It is believed organizers would like Canada, Panama, South Africa and Taiwan to each host a group, although the timing may be problematic for Canada due to weather considerations in the fall.
Requests for proposal for both the play-in and main Classic events will be issued soon.
The main tournament in 2013 is expected to retain the double-knockout format used in ’09, with some tweaks.
The schedule may be condensed to about 16 days, with the first-round seeding game eliminated, in order to shorten the tournament and get players who go the distance back to their teams quicker.
