The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) and host USA Baseball today jointly revealed the new dates for the next WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup, with the 30th edition of the youth world championship to take place from 9-18 September 2022 in Sarasota and Bradenton, Florida.
The elite international tournament will be played at Sarasota's Ed Smith Stadium and Bradenton's LECOM Park, the respective Spring Training homes of the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball (MLB).
The
XXX WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup will include 12 national teams, whose rosters
will feature the best youth players in their respective countries.
“We are
grateful to the World Baseball Softball Confederation and the local organizing
committees in Bradenton and Sarasota, Florida, for their assistance
rescheduling the U-18 Baseball World Cup 2021 for next year,” said USA Baseball
Executive Director and CEO Paul Seiler. “Hosting this prestigious event on our
home soil is an exciting opportunity for us and we look forward to continue
working alongside them to bring a world-class event to Florida in 2022.”
“The
U-18 Baseball World Cup has grown into one of the crown-jewel international
baseball events,” said WBSC President Fraccari. “And on behalf of the WBSC, I
would like to thank USA Baseball and the cities of Sarasota and Bradenton for
their continued excitement and commitment in staging this youth world
championship event, which will showcase the game’s future superstars.”
The
U-18 Baseball World Cups, along with its continental qualifiers, have
consistently featured players who have gone on to become some of the biggest
names in the sport, such as Japan’s Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani; Canada's
Tyler O'Neill and Cal Quantrill; Korea’s Shin-soo Choo; Cuba’s Yasiel Puig and
Aroldis Chapman; and Clayton Kershaw, Bryce Harper, Francisco Lindor, Manny
Machado and Buster Posey, who all played for USA Baseball’s U-18 National Team.
Chinese Taipei won the last WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2019, defeating then-defending world champions USA in the final, in Gijang, Korea.
The XXX WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup was originally set to take place in September 2021, but was postponed to 2022 in late July, due to the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.