During the 3rd WBSC Congress, the WBSC Events Manager Mr Joan Garcia made a review of the baseball and softball events over the past two years and announced the global tournaments to be held in 2020, highlighted by the return of both disciplines to the Olympic Programme.
The Olympic softball event will officially open the competitions on 22 July. The six-team competition will be played from 22-28 July in Fukushima and Tokyo, while the baseball competition will be played from 29 July to 8 August. Six teams will participate in each event.
Mexico will host a total of four events next year, including three baseball World Cups. The first will be the U-15 Baseball World Cup, slated to be played in July in Tijuana. Besides, the U-23 Baseball World Cup, which will take place from 2-11 October in Hermosillo, Ciudad Obregon and Los Mochis, Mexico has also been named as host of the Women’s Baseball World Cup, to be played in Monterrey in October.
One of the best novelties of the 2020 tournament season will be the first-ever Baseball5 World Cup and the U-15 Baseball5 World Cup. Both events will be played simultaneously in Mexico, in a city to be confirmed at a later stage.
For softball, 2020 will also be a historic year, not only for the Olympic return but also because WBSC will organize the first-ever U-18 Softball World Cups, both for Men and Women. The U-18 Men’s Softball World Cup will be held in New Zealand, from 22 February to 1 March, with the participation of 12 teams. Meanwhile, the U-18 Women’s Softball World Cup will be played in Lima, Peru, marking the first-ever softball World Cup held in the South American nation.
Mr Garcia also made a quick review of the 17 events held in 2018 and 2019, pointing out the challenges of organizing so many tournaments.
The highlight of these two years was the Premier12 2019, which was played for the first time in four different countries, including Mexico, the first-ever American country to host a Premier12 game or group. This demonstrates the growth and globalization of the tournament, just in its second edition," Mr Garcia said.
A lot of changes were introduced during the past two years, including the inclusion of the technical commissioner role for softball events, the video replay system for baseball World Cups and the introduction of the pitching and warm-up clocks in baseball competitions. All of them with the objective to modernize and improve the game.
Finally, Garcia thanked and praised all the local organizing committees for the hard work and efforts hosting a baseball softball World Cup last year.
