The Baseball World Cup ( BWC ) was an international baseball tournament for national teams around the world, sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). First held in 1938 as the Amateur World Series ( AWS ), it was, for most of its history, the highest level of international baseball competition in the world. Even after it was supplanted in this regard in 2006 by the modern World Baseball Classic (WBC), the Baseball World Cup was still considered by the IBAF to be a major world championship, along with the WBC and the Summer Olympic Games .
24-762: After the 2011 tournament, the Baseball World Cup was discontinued in favor of an expanded World Baseball Classic; the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) – successor to the IBAF – now organizes the WBC and awards its winner the title of "World Champion." Additionally, the WBSC sanctions two new tournaments: the biennial 23U Baseball World Cup (begun as the 21U Baseball World Cup in 2014) and its quadrennial, flagship tournament,
48-508: A single federation allowed for the permanent alignment, merger and management of baseball and softball at the world level. The merger resulted in an immediate boost to the governance, universality and gender equality of baseball and softball, criteria for an Olympic sport that are heavily valued by the IOC. At the first-ever World Baseball Softball Congress—in Hammamet, Tunisia —Italy's Fraccari
72-990: A video game version of Baseball5 in the near future. The first official WBSC Coed Slow Pitch World Cup was greenlit on 9 June 2022, during a meeting by the WBSC Executive Board in Pully, Switzerland. It was to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico in December 2023, but it was cancelled in October 2023 due to logistical challenges. The WBSC is governed by the executive board, which consists of fourteen members: president, secretary general, two vice presidents, baseball executive vice president, softball executive vice president, treasurer, four members at large, athlete representative for baseball, athlete representative for softball, and global ambassador. The Baseball Division
96-968: Is governed by an executive committee, which has thirteen members: president, secretary general, 2nd vice president, 3rd vice president, treasurer, three members at large, four continental vice presidents (one each for Africa, Americas, Europe, and Oceania), and executive director. The Softball Division is governed by an executive committee that has twenty-three members: president, secretary general, 1st vice president, 2nd vice president, treasurer, twelve vice presidents (two each for Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania, and one each for North America and English-speaking Caribbean), two at-large members, two athlete representatives, immediate past president, and executive director. The WBSC has four departments: media, finance, tournaments, and marketing. It also has several commissions. Besides its worldwide institutions, there are five regional governing bodies that oversee
120-437: The 2006 World Baseball Classic was the first international baseball tournament to include active players from the top-level major leagues around the world — namely Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball — making it a closer equivalent to the world cups of other sports, which commonly include players from the most prestigious professional leagues, than to the mostly-amateur Baseball World Cup. The champions of
144-478: The Olympic Games , and WBSC-associated federations hold the right to organize and select national teams Discussions to merge the two separate world governing bodies for the sports of baseball and softball were sparked by a Memorandum of Understanding that saw baseball and softball leaders agree to form a joint bid to be added to the 2020 Olympic Games sports program. Baseball and softball were dropped from
168-621: The Summer Olympics in 2005, the IOC reclassified baseball and softball as two disciplines of the same sport. As the IOC's guidance indicated the necessity for baseball and softball to be jointly considered for reinstatement in the Olympic programme, the two independent International Federations set out on a path toward a full and complete merger. In 2012, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and
192-670: The United States and Japan ; this plan was derailed by the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War that same year. Instead, Mann wrote to John Moores , president of the British National Baseball Association (the precursor to the modern British Baseball Federation ) to organize a tournament between the U.S. and Great Britain teams. The 1938 "John Moores Cup," as it was originally called, would be retroactively recognized as
216-517: The WBSC Premier12 (starting in 2015 ), which involves the twelve best-ranked national teams in the world. The Baseball World Cup was held 38 times; the final one was in 2011 in Panama . The first tournament, held in 1938 , featured only two teams, but the last tournament included 22 participants; the previous two featured 16 and 18 teams (in 2007 and 2005 , respectively). The World Cup
240-538: The first Amateur World Series . Mann, along with Cuban sports administrator Jaime Mariné , helped turn the Amateur World Series into an annual event in 1939 , this time held in Cuba. The first and second tournaments featured only two and three national teams, respectively, but seven participants were invited to the 1940 edition and the pool would only expand from there. For much of its early existence,
264-574: The 2012 Summer Olympic program and were scheduled to be reinstated for the 2020 Olympics, but the 2020 Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 international pandemic. In August 2021, the International Olympic Committee announced that baseball and softball would not be part of the 2024 Paris Olympics . Baseball5 is still set to feature in the 2026 Youth Olympics . Following its exclusion of baseball and softball from
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#1732779676886288-474: The Americas and Europe, as well as having been implemented in some schools in various countries. It is due to feature in the 2026 Youth Olympic Games , and has two World Cups for youth and senior players alternating each year starting in 2022, with both of these international events being played in a mixed-gender format. The WBSC is also planning to, as part of its general push into E-Sports , introduce
312-437: The IBAF and ISF serve as the confederation's baseball and softball divisions, respectively. Each division is governed by an executive committee, while the WBSC is governed by an executive board. The WBSC has 208 National Federation members in 141 countries and territories across Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Oceania. Professional baseball organizations as well as youth organizations are also included and form an arm of
336-710: The International Softball Federation (ISF) laid out the essential ground rules for partnership and began working on a constitution that would guide the merger and provide a framework for governance, ethics and operations. At a historic IBAF Congress in Tokyo in April 2013, the Constitution was ratified and since it had already been approved by an ISF working group empowered to do so, the WBSC was officially formalized and empowered. The creation of
360-725: The United States withdrew from the AWS in 1942 , and the trophy was apparently not awarded after that. When Jaime Mariné succeeded Leslie Mann as president of the IBF during the 1940 Amateur World Series , he renamed the trophy the Copa Presidente Batista , after Fulgencio Batista , the president of Cuba. Mariné had participated in the Cuban Revolution of 1933 that brought Batista to power and had organized
384-553: The WBSC as associate members. Headquartered in Pully, Switzerland , the WBSC was granted recognition as the sole competent global authority for both the sports of baseball and softball by the International Olympic Committee in 2013 . As the recognised governing body of baseball, softball, and Baseball5, the WBSC is charged with overseeing all international competitions. It holds the exclusive rights of all competitions, tournaments and world championships featuring national teams, including
408-452: The competition was limited to strictly amateur players. After 1998 , professional minor league players competed, but Major League Baseball did not allow its players to participate. In the months leading up to the high-profile first World Baseball Classic in 2006 , many commentators heralded it as a "Baseball World Cup", perhaps not realizing that a tournament of that description already existed and had for almost seventy years. However,
432-527: The competition was limited to the nations of Central America and the Caribbean; the United States withdrew early from the 1942 series , and would not return until 1969 . The next edition, in 1970 , saw two European national teams ( Italy and the Netherlands ) participate for the first time; in 1972, Japan became the first Asian country to participate in the global baseball tournament. Until 1998
456-517: The dictator's Military Intelligence Service in 1935. World Baseball Softball Confederation The World Baseball Softball Confederation ( WBSC ) is the world governing body for the sports of baseball , softball , and Baseball5 . It was established in 2013 by the merger of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and International Softball Federation (ISF). Under the WBSC's organizational structure,
480-638: The first several Amateur World Series tournaments were presented the John Moores Trophy, named in honor of John Moores , a sponsor of the British Baseball Federation and future Everton F.C. executive. Like the Stanley Cup , it was a single trophy passed from winner to winner, with the names of the world champions engraved; however, only the winners of the 1938, 1939, and 1940 editions are engraved ( England and Cuba );
504-466: The game in the different continents and regions of the world. In total, WBSC recognizes 198 national associations, with 132 national baseball teams as well as 122 women's national teams. Unlike the ICC , the WBSC identifies associate members as those who particularly endorse international baseball and softball with their own leagues in partnership with the WBSC. These leagues support baseball and softball to
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#1732779676886528-499: The world. The WBSC introduced it to aid its ultimate goal of having a billion-strong baseball-softball community by 2030. A major difference between B5 and baseball/softball is that the game is played without a pitcher , with the batter starting each play with the ball. It was inspired by various Latin American street games, such as "cuatro esquinas" ( four corners ) in Cuba, and has been played in some international tournaments in
552-474: Was elected to a seven-year term as the first president of WBSC, along with a fully elected Executive Board. In 2017, the WBSC introduced a third discipline to be played at an international level, Baseball5 (B5), which is a five-on-five, five- inning game designed to be played with only a rubber ball on a small field. It is targeted at underserved communities, as well as offering a low-cost and fast-paced entry point to baseball and softball in new places around
576-458: Was originally called the Amateur World Series, until the tournament in 1988 . The idea of a baseball competition for national teams was championed by International Baseball Federation (IBF) president Leslie Mann . After managing to include baseball as a demonstration sport at the 1936 Berlin Olympics , Mann sought to organize an international tournament in 1937 between the national teams of
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