Amid the hullabaloo surrounding Manny Ramirez’s trade to the Dodgers on Thursday, a press conference took place in L.A. to announce further details about the 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC).  Following the overwhelmingly positive response to the inaugural staging of the competition in 2006, the organizers are keen not only to repeat the success next year, but also to build on it.

The main news at the press conference confirmed that Dodger Stadium will be the host for the semi-finals and the final, set to take place on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd of March.  This news had been rumoured for a while, to the extent that many onlookers (including this one) thought it had already been announced.  Such an iconic venue should be a fitting setting for these important games and they promise to be fantastic spectacles. 

It was also announced that Pecto Park in San Diego (the host for the final and semi-finals last time) and Dolphin Stadium in Florida will each stage one of the two second round pools, while the first round is split over four locations outside of the States: Tokyo, Mexico City, Toronto and San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The nineteen-day tournament begins in Japan on the fifth of March.

In addition to the new venues, the 2009 WBC will follow a slightly different format this time around.  The main change that has been implemented is the ‘double elimination’ format, as explained in this diagram.  It has been introduced on the basis that the tie-breaker system used in 2006 was deemed to be too confusing, even though it was the same system used in most IBAF tournaments.  The round-robin format has been scrapped and there will now be a simple ‘two losses and you’re out’ rule instead.  This means that some of the minnows will only get to play two games instead of three, which will suit the TV execs but is a shame for the players who will probably miss out on a chance to play one of the bigger teams in their pool. 

Under this new format, the team that wins its first two group games will get the advantage of only having to play three times, while the second team to make it out of the group would have had to play four times.  The final game in each group will see the two qualifiers face each other to decide who wins the group and who is the runner-up.  It’s an interesting concept, although it’s debatable whether there will be much of advantage in qualifying first or second when it comes to your opponents in the second round and the semi-finals (on the basis that they will all be good teams in any case).  That creates the potential for the final group games to become dead rubber affairs used to give the main stars a day off.  I’m playing devil’s advocate here though.  The round-robin format isn’t perfect either, so I’m more than happy to see this new concept being put in place and we shall see how it plays out.

However, I still do not understand why the tournament is structured using ‘brackets’.  It seems to be far from the best way to organize the competition and I will put my argument forward for an alternative structure in another post.  They have at least decided to split the winner and runner-up from the two Round 2 pools for the semi-final stage, which is a start.

On a more positive note, it was stated that the intention is to expand the 2013 tournament to include more teams (24 is the number being thrown around at the moment).  This would presumably mean creating a preliminary round involving some of the developing baseball nations.  Maybe we could see a Great Britain side competing in the WBC in 2013?  That would certainly make the absence of any baseball at the 2012 Olympic Games in London more bearable.

Despite my gripes about the ‘bracket’ system, my enthusiasm for the WBC is not dampened at all.  It was a fantastic event in 2006 and it promises to be even better this time around, not least because more of the top players will undoubtedly want to be involved after sitting out last time and quickly realising that they were missing out on a unique experience.

After snoring through Spring Training games this year, March in 2009 is going to be a completely different proposition.  Passion, excitement and intense competition: the World Baseball Classic provides them all in abundance.  It should be a real treat for baseball fans across the globe.

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