2023 Year in Focus

Another exciting year for the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) and the global baseball/softball community with a number of firsts highlighting the year of 2023.

First editions of the U-23 Men's Softball World Cup, U-15 Women's Softball World Cup, Youth Baseball5 World Cup and Baseball Champions League as well as the inaugural WBSC/KONAMI eBaseball Series headlined another action packed WBSC events calendar.

Add in new tournament formats, new baseball and softball leagues around the world, a first World Ranking for Baseball5, Türkiye hosting a WBSC World Cup for the first time - Youth Baseball5 World Cup, a first annual WBSC Governance Report and an Integrity Unit annual report as well as a first On-Site Safeguarding Workshop and WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari summed it up well in his end of year message saying: "The WBSC continued to make giant strides in 2023 and I am incredibly proud of everything that we have achieved together this year." 

Los Angeles 2028

One other cause for celebration in 2023 was the confirmation by the IOC Session 141 of baseball/softball as part of the Los Angeles Games programme.

"The WBSC firmly believes that baseball and softball will help millions of fans engage with the Olympic Games," commented Fraccari, "especially with the US being home to many of the sport's best players and biggest stars worldwide. It will be an electric atmosphere in LA where the best baseball and softball athletes in the world will have the opportunity to play on the biggest stage in front of a global audience of billions."

Men's Baseball will feature at an Olympic Games for the seventh time, having first been played at the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992, while it is the sixth time that softball is included on the programme, having made its debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

The last edition at Tokyo 2020 saw Japan beat the United States in both the baseball and softball finals, creating global media coverage and record TV viewing figures for the baseball final.

The WBSC family is also looking forward to Baseball5 making its debut at the Youth Olympic Games 2026. In 2023, the WBSC launched the inaugural Youth Baseball5 World Cup. The second edition will serve as a Youth Olympics qualifying tournament.

New tournaments making baseball/softball richer

The Kukulkan Alamo Park in Merida, Mexico, hosted the inaugural Baseball Champions League Americas.

It was the season's final men's baseball event but marked a significant milestone. During the pre-tournament press conference, Commissioner Guillermo Ramirez and the host, Mexican Baseball League Executive President Horacio de la Vega, said straight: The tournament "will change international baseball forever".

The tournament involved four leagues (the Mexican Baseball League, the American Association, the Colombian Professional League and Cuba's National League), but plans for the future include a league format. Launching a Champions League Asia and a Champions League Europe would represent the following step.

In 2023, the WBSC introduced its new two-stage format for the Women's Softball and the Women's Baseball World Cups.

Not only has the new format been a great success from a participation standpoint, with an increased number of opportunities for more teams and athletes to participate on the global stage, but it has also allowed more host cities to welcome the stars of international baseball and softball, with a shorter, high-quality competition schedule and only one venue needed to host. 

Ireland, Italy, and Spain hosted the three Women's Softball World Cup groups.

Canada and Japan were the host nations for the Women's Baseball World Cup Groups.

Softball launched in 2023 two new events with the U-23 Men's Softball World Cup and the U-15 Women's Softball World Cup enjoying their historic first editions.

WBSC partners with Konami, the future is now

In February, the WBSC attracted new audiences to the sport through the launch of the WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS, the latest title in the PAWAFURU PUROYAKYU (Powerful Pro-Baseball) series, a Japanese baseball video game series created by Konami Digital Entertainment Inc. (KONAMI). 

Downloads of the game exploded as it reached 140 countries less than two months after its publication.

The WBSC official game’s most significant exposure was at the finals of the Olympic Esports Series 2023, which took place in Singapore and where it was one of the ten virtual sports in the programme.

The WBSC eBASEBALL™: POWER PROS competition amassed nearly two million views when it was live streamed on the YouTube platform of the Olympic channel.

The WBSC followed that up with the launch of another big concept together with KONAMI, revealing the WBSC eBASEBALL™ Series and the WBSC ePremier12™ at the Tokyo Game Show 2023, one of the biggest gaming Expos in Japan.

National Federations and partners are featured in the weekly tournaments, where the in-game stadium is decorated with the stakeholders’ branding.

This year, the USA Finals, which was one of the qualifiers, was one of the highlights with a physical event at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, which is the home of Major League Baseball’s Triple-A affiliate Tampa Bay Rays and one of the most iconic minor league ballparks in the United States.

WBSC Day celebrates united global baseball/softball community

The WBSC Congress in December approved, as part of a number of updates to the WBSC Statutes, one combined Executive Board to lead the WBSC with the support of two additional permanent Commissions for Baseball and Softball to ensure the best interests of each discipline continue to be represented. The Executive Vice Presidents for Baseball and Softball on the WBSC Executive Board will chair the respective Commissions.

The Executive Board will also include an increased representation of Continental Associations with 10 members. Each Continent will elect one representative for Baseball and one for Softball. The WBSC Commissions, which were appointed in 2022, will continue to serve as support to the Executive Board.

With the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) celebrating its 10th anniversary on 10 May 2024, the key motive behind the statutes changes, which come into force by the 2025 World Congress, is to reflect the unity of Baseball/Softball as one sport with various disciplines.

"The WBSC has continued to make giant strides since our last Congress in Taipei City in June 2022, and I am incredibly proud of everything we have achieved in this time," wrote President Riccardo Fraccari in his Report to the Member Federations. "Everything we do is to ensure the continued progress of our sport and our athletes."