Leaders at the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) were predicting the 2019 WBSC Premier12 would be the “the biggest and most important international baseball event in recent history” and it didn’t disappoint.
2019 Series: Year in Review
Development - Africa Dev Programme & Women’s Baseball lead impressive year of growth
Premier12 - The “biggest int’l baseball event in recent history”
WBSC - Huge year sets up foundation for bright future
Baseball5 - Continues to spread like "wildfire"
President Fraccari: “2019 - The biggest year in int’l baseball, softball history”
Men’s Softball World Championship - Argentina clinch historic title as Europe hosts for first time
Chinese Taipei wins U-12, U-18 Baseball World Cups, Asian Championship, Fed of the Year
With over 300,000 fans in attendance over 32 games, the second edition of the major international baseball tournament, which brings together the world’s 12 best-ranked baseball nations every four years, saw Japan cement their status as the top-ranked baseball nation in the world.
Record Media Coverage
Samurai Japan, a National Team powered by Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) stars and MVP Seiya Suzuki, topped rivals and defending champions Korea in the final at the Tokyo Dome before a crowd of 44,960. The star-power of the NPB players and viral moments on the field helped to generate record coverage, including 45,000 news articles in Super Round host nation Japan (almost double of the inaugural 2015 Premier12).
The announcement of Japan as the new Premier12 champions smashed the record for WBSC’s most viral tweet, surpassing the previous record set in 2016 when WBSC tweeted that Olympic baseball and softball would make a history return at the Tokyo 2020 Games (approximately 10k retweets).
Japan wins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🇯🇵 JPN 5-3 KOR 🇰🇷#侍ジャパン 4年前の屈辱を晴らし、プレミア12で初優勝🏆を飾る!🙌🏅🙌#プレミア12 #Premier12 @SamuraiJapan_pr @NPB #KBO pic.twitter.com/XxCANgqLh3
— WBSC ⚾ #Premier12 (@Premier12) November 17, 2019
Several front-page headlines and thousands of news articles were also generated in Korea, as the Korean National Team and Korea Baseball Organization's (KBO) biggest players secured a silver medal and a spot in the Tokyo 2020 Games. Korea will be able to defend their 2008 Olympic gold medal.
The WBSC Premier12 gave birth to the biggest win in Mexican baseball history, as described by media and officials in the country. Mexico’s 10th inning, bronze medal walk-off win against USA booked the nation’s first-ever ticket to the Olympic Games in the sport of baseball.
Following the historic win, the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (“AMLO”) tweeted his congratulations to the players and the leaders of the Mexico professional baseball leagues.
México le ganó a Estados Unidos en 10 entradas ¡un juegazo! Ya pasamos a las Olimpiadas de Tokio. Felicidades a los beisbolistas y a los directivos de las ligas que trabajaron de manera coordinada. Se unieron y ahí están los resultados. pic.twitter.com/fbUBoQ6n2t
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) November 17, 2019
There was also a media buzz generated in Taiwan, with Opening Round (Group B) host Chinese Taipei advancing to the Super Round, shutting out rivals Korea, 7-0, and finishing for the first time in recent history with a positive overall win-loss record (4W-3L) at a major international baseball event.
Growing the Game Globally
In addition to the worldwide exposure generated, over 5 million USD in prize money was distributed to the 12 teams/national federations, which had a global footprint spanning the North, South and the Caribbean (Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, USA and Venezuela), Asia (Chinese Taipei, Korea and Japan), Europe (Netherlands) and Oceania (Australia).
💰 Official Prize Money!! @WBSC awards a record total of $5.2 million dollars (USD) for #Premier12!!! (40% increase from 2015)
— WBSC ⚾ #Premier12 (@Premier12) November 22, 2019
📰 https://t.co/JIGSBrgnzC #プレミア12 #프리미어12 #世界12強 pic.twitter.com/DBpK4Y0Psp
WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari stated that one of the main objectives of launching a new major international baseball event “was to redistribute the revenue...to grow our sport globally.”
There’s a lot of anticipation for the future editions of the WBSC Premier12. NPB Commissioner Atsushi Saito praised the success of the tournament: “We enjoyed very exciting games during the Premier12. All the participants did an excellent job and the fans enjoyed it very much. Global baseball is a lot of fun.”
Saito added: “We discussed together with President Fraccari how to make baseball even more global. I think the globalization of soccer needs to be our benchmark.”
The concept was enforced by Atsunori Inaba, a former star player and the current Samurai Japan manager: “I’m looking forward to seeing the Premier12 develop into a real World Championship and become the number one priority of baseball players.”