2017 World Baseball Classic

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2017 World Baseball Classic
Tournament details
CountriesJapan
Mexico
South Korea
United States
DatesMarch 6–22, 2017
Teams16
Final positions
Champions United States (1st title)
Runner-up Puerto Rico
Third place Japan
Fourth place Netherlands
Tournament statistics
Games played40
Attendance973,699 (24,342 per game)
MVPUnited States Marcus Stroman
← 2013
2023 →

The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts were Seoul, Tokyo, Miami, and Zapopan. The second-round hosts were Tokyo and San Diego, and the championship round was played in Los Angeles.[1]

Twelve of the sixteen competing nations qualified based on their performance during the first round of the 2013 tournament; the remaining four nations were the winners of four qualification tournaments that took place in February, March, and September 2016.[2] Two of the four qualifiers, Colombia and Israel, made their first appearance in the WBC, and both have secured their positions for the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

The Netherlands, Japan, Puerto Rico, and the United States advanced to the championship round. Defending champion Dominican Republic was eliminated in the second round. The United States defeated Puerto Rico to win the championship game, 8–0. Marcus Stroman was named tournament MVP. He made three starts for the U.S. and posted a 2.35 ERA in 1513 total innings, including 6 shutout innings in the championship game.

Qualification[edit]

The top three teams from each pool of the first round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic automatically qualified.

Team World ranking[3] Method of qualification Classic appearance Previous best position
 Canada 8th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Round 1
 China 18th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Round 1
 Chinese Taipei 4th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Round 2 (2013)
 Cuba 5th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Runners-up (2006)
 Dominican Republic 13th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Champions (2013)
 Italy 10th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Round 2 (2013)
 Japan 1st 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Champions (2006, 2009)
 Netherlands 9th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Fourth place (2013)
 Puerto Rico 12th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Runners-up (2013)
 South Korea 3rd 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Runners-up (2009)
 United States 2nd 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Fourth place (2009)
 Venezuela 7th 2013 World Baseball Classic 4th Third place (2009)
 Australia 11th Qualifier 1 4th Round 1
 Mexico 6th Qualifier 2 4th Round 2 (2006, 2009)
 Colombia 19th Qualifier 3 1st
 Israel 41st Qualifier 4 1st

Format[edit]

The first and second rounds of the tournament were played in round-robin format, with each team playing each other team in their pool once, as was the case in 2006. However, in an effort to reduce the likelihood that a team would be eliminated on statistical tiebreakers, the tournament schedule allowed for a seventh game at each pool-play site.

  • If there is a two-way tie for first, since both teams advance, there would be no extra game. The team that won the original game between the teams would be declared the pool winner, and the other team the pool runner-up.
  • If there is a three-way tie for first (all three teams being 2–1, and the last team 0–3), head-to-head results would not help to break the tie. In this case, statistics would determine the first-place team, and the other two would play to determine the pool runner-up.
  • If there is a three-way tie for second (all three teams being 1–2, and the first team 3–0), statistics would determine the top two teams who would then play to determine the pool runner-up. The team ranked worst on the calculation would be eliminated.

In either of the latter cases, the statistics used to rank the tied teams were:

  1. Fewest runs allowed per inning of defense in head-to-head games
  2. Fewest earned runs allowed per inning of defense in head-to-head games
  3. Highest batting average in head-to-head games
  4. Drawing of lots[4][5]

Rosters[edit]

Venues[edit]

Six stadiums were used during the main tournament:

Pool A Pool B & E Pool C
South Korea Seoul, South Korea Japan Tokyo, Japan United States Miami, United States
Gocheok Sky Dome Tokyo Dome Marlins Park
Capacity: 16,813 Capacity: 42,000 Capacity: 36,742
Pool D Pool F Championship
Mexico Zapopan, Mexico United States San Diego, United States United States Los Angeles, United States
Estadio Charros de Jalisco Petco Park Dodger Stadium
Capacity: 16,000 Capacity: 40,162 Capacity: 56,000

Pools composition[edit]

Note: Numbers in parentheses indicate positions in the WBSC World Rankings at the time of the tournament.[3]

Pool A Pool B Pool C Pool D
 South Korea (3) (hosts)  Japan (1) (hosts)  United States (2) (hosts)  Mexico (6) (hosts)
 Chinese Taipei (4)  Australia (11)  Canada (8)  Italy (10)
 Netherlands (9)  China (18)  Colombia (19)  Puerto Rico (12)
 Israel (41)  Cuba (5)  Dominican Republic (13)  Venezuela (7)

First round[edit]

Pool A[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Israel 3 3 0 21 10 +11 1.000 Advance to second round
2  Netherlands 3 2 1 13 9 +4 .667 1
3  South Korea (H) 3 1 2 12 15 −3 .333 2
4  Chinese Taipei 3 0 3 20 32 −12 .000 3
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 6, 2017 18:30 Israel  2–1  South Korea 10 Gocheok Sky Dome 4:11 15,470 Boxscore
Mar 7, 2017 12:00 Israel  15–7  Chinese Taipei   Gocheok Sky Dome 3:54 3,287 Boxscore
Mar 7, 2017 18:30 South Korea  0–5  Netherlands   Gocheok Sky Dome 3:03 15,184 Boxscore
Mar 8, 2017 18:30 Chinese Taipei  5–6  Netherlands   Gocheok Sky Dome 3:21 3,606 Boxscore
Mar 9, 2017 12:00 Netherlands  2–4  Israel   Gocheok Sky Dome 3:12 2,739 Boxscore
Mar 9, 2017 18:30 South Korea  11–8  Chinese Taipei 10 Gocheok Sky Dome 4:40 12,000 Boxscore

Pool A of the First Round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic was held at Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul, South Korea from March 6 to 10, 2017, between Team Israel, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Taiwan. Pool A was a round-robin tournament. Prior to the start of the tournament, ESPN considered Team Israel, ranked 41st in the world, to be the biggest underdog in the tournament, referring to them as the "Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC".[6][7]

Team Israel (3–0) and Team Netherlands (2–1) qualified for the second round, in Japan.[8] Israel became the first baseball team to go undefeated in the first round of the WBC's main draw after entering the main draw by winning in a qualifying round.[9][10] In what NBC reported was thought to be the tallest batter-pitcher matchup in baseball history, the Dutch team's 7-foot-1-inch (2.16 m) Loek van Mil walked Israel's 6-foot-8-inch (2.03 m) Nate Freiman.[11] Israel's catcher, Ryan Lavarnway, was named Pool A MVP, after going 5-for-9 (.556/.692/.889), with four walks, a home run, and three RBIs.[12][13]

Pool B[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Japan (H) 3 3 0 22 8 +14 1.000 Advance to second round
2  Cuba 3 2 1 16 14 +2 .667 1
3  Australia 3 1 2 15 8 +7 .333 2
4  China 3 0 3 1 24 −23 .000 3
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 7, 2017 19:00 Cuba  6–11  Japan   Tokyo Dome 3:56 44,908 Boxscore
Mar 8, 2017 12:00 China  0–6  Cuba   Tokyo Dome 3:14 39,102 Boxscore
Mar 8, 2017 19:00 Japan  4–1  Australia   Tokyo Dome 3:18 41,408 Boxscore
Mar 9, 2017 19:00 Australia  11–0  China 8 Tokyo Dome 2:59 3,013 Boxscore
Mar 10, 2017 12:00 Australia  3–4  Cuba   Tokyo Dome 3:36 38,050 Boxscore
Mar 10, 2017 19:00 China  1–7  Japan   Tokyo Dome 2:41 40,053 Boxscore

Two-time champion Japan concluded Pool B with a 3–0 record. Cuba defeated Australia to advance to the second round.[14] In the first round, after batting .364, Japanese outfielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh was named the Pool B MVP.[15]

Pool C[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Dominican Republic 3 3 0 26 10 +16 1.000 Advance to second round
2  United States (H) 3 2 1 16 9 +7 .667 1
3  Colombia 3 1 2 9 14 −5 .333 2
4  Canada 3 0 3 3 21 −18 .000 3
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 9, 2017 18:00 Canada  2–9  Dominican Republic   Marlins Park 3:14 27,388 Boxscore
Mar 10, 2017 18:00 Colombia  2–3  United States 10 Marlins Park 3:25 22,580 Boxscore
Mar 11, 2017 12:00 Colombia  4–1  Canada   Marlins Park 2:54 17,209 Boxscore
Mar 11, 2017 18:30 United States  5–7  Dominican Republic   Marlins Park 3:38 37,446 Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 12:30 Dominican Republic  10–3  Colombia 11 Marlins Park 4:44 36,952 Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 19:00 Canada  0–8  United States   Marlins Park 3:01 22,303 Boxscore

After falling behind 5–0 in the sixth inning, Dominican Republic rallied to defeat the U.S. 7–5 in their second game. On the last day of the pool, Colombia tied their game against Dominican Republic 3–3 in the eighth on a Jorge Alfaro home run, and had a chance to win in the ninth inning, but Oscar Mercado was called out at home trying to score on a sacrifice fly. The game continued into extra innings, where Dominican Republic scored 7 runs in the 11th to win and finish the pool undefeated. The U.S. then took an early lead on Canada, winning 8–0 to claim the second berth in San Diego. Manny Machado of the Dominican Republic was named MVP for the first-round Pool C bracket of the WBC, after batting .357.[16]

Pool D[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Puerto Rico 3 3 0 29 7 +22 1.000 Advance to second round
2  Venezuela 4 2 2 24 35 −11 .500 1.5
3  Italy 4 1 3 26 33 −7 .250 2.5
4  Mexico (H) 3 1 2 24 28 −4 .333 2
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 9, 2017 20:00 Mexico  9–10  Italy   Estadio Charros de Jalisco 3:39 14,296 Boxscore
Mar 10, 2017 20:00 Venezuela  0–11  Puerto Rico 7 Estadio Charros de Jalisco 2:43 14,806 Boxscore
Mar 11, 2017 14:00 Venezuela  11–10  Italy 10 Estadio Charros de Jalisco 4:43 12,187 Boxscore
Mar 11, 2017 20:30 Puerto Rico  9–4  Mexico   Estadio Charros de Jalisco 3:40 15,647 Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 13:30 Italy  3–9  Puerto Rico   Estadio Charros de Jalisco 2:42 11,924 Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 20:00 Mexico  11–9  Venezuela   Estadio Charros de Jalisco 4:44 15,489 Boxscore
Tiebreaker game
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 13, 2017 19:00 Venezuela  4–3  Italy   Estadio Charros de Jalisco 3:26 1,783 Boxscore

While Puerto Rico cruised in all three of its games, the fight for the other three places was extremely tight. Italy scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning to shock Mexico in the first game, then lost an extra-inning slugfest against Venezuela. In the final game, Mexico defeated Venezuela in another slugfest and thought they had scored enough runs to advance on tiebreakers,[17] though this turned out not to be the case.

The first tiebreaker criterion is fewest runs allowed per defensive inning played (RA/IPD) in the games among the tied teams. Although Mexico allowed the fewest runs in those games (19, to Italy's 20, and Venezuela's 21), Mexico played fewer defensive innings (17, while the other two teams had 19) and thus had the highest average RA/IPD (1.117, to Italy's 1.053 and Venezuela's 1.105). This occurred for two reasons: the Italy-Venezuela game went 10 innings, and Mexico was the road team while losing to Italy. In fact, the Mexico-Italy game did go into the bottom of the 9th, in which Italy scored runs that were charged against Mexico but Mexico failed to record an out. There was confusion during and after the Mexico-Venezuela game, with an initial calculation showing that Mexico had advanced. Mexico filed a formal protest of its elimination, but the protest was denied.[17][18]

As specified in the rules, Mexico was eliminated by the tiebreaker calculation and a tiebreaker game was played between Italy and Venezuela, which Venezuela won with a 9th-inning rally.

According to the rules as announced at the time, Mexico's last-place finish would have required it to participate in a qualifying tournament in order to re-qualify for the 2021 World Baseball Classic. However, MLB announced in 2020 that the field of teams for the 2021 WBC would be expanded, with all 2017 WBC participants qualifying automatically and four new teams coming from qualifying tournaments.[19]

Second round[edit]

Pool E[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Japan (H) 3 3 0 24 14 +10 1.000 Advance to championship round
2  Netherlands 3 2 1 32 11 +21 .667 1
3  Israel 3 1 2 9 21 −12 .333 2
4  Cuba 3 0 3 7 26 −19 .000 3
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 12:00 Cuba  1–4  Israel   Tokyo Dome 3:14 43,153 Boxscore
Mar 12, 2017 19:00 Japan  8–6  Netherlands 11 Tokyo Dome 4:46 44,326 Boxscore
Mar 13, 2017 19:00 Netherlands  12–2  Israel 8 Tokyo Dome 3:04 5,017 Boxscore
Mar 14, 2017 19:00 Cuba  5–8  Japan   Tokyo Dome 3:25 32,717 Boxscore
Mar 15, 2017 12:00 Netherlands  14–1  Cuba 7 Tokyo Dome 2:19 40,680 Boxscore
Mar 15, 2017 19:00 Israel  3–8  Japan   Tokyo Dome 3:28 43,179 Boxscore

Undefeated Japan (3–0) and the Netherlands (2–1) advanced to the semi-final round, as Israel (1–2) came in third, and Cuba (0–3) fourth.[20]

Pool F[edit]

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  Puerto Rico 3 3 0 22 8 +14 1.000 Advance to championship round
2  United States (H) 3 2 1 15 11 +4 .667 1
3  Dominican Republic 3 1 2 7 9 −2 .333 2
4  Venezuela 3 0 3 4 20 −16 .000 3
Source: [citation needed]
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers
(H) Hosts
Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 14, 2017 18:00 Dominican Republic  1−3  Puerto Rico   Petco Park 3:16 16,637 Boxscore
Mar 15, 2017 18:00 Venezuela  2−4  United States   Petco Park 3:13 16,635 Boxscore
Mar 16, 2017 19:00 Venezuela  0−3  Dominican Republic   Petco Park 4:05 16,390 Boxscore
Mar 17, 2017 19:00 United States  5−6  Puerto Rico   Petco Park 3:09 32,463 Boxscore
Mar 18, 2017 12:30 Puerto Rico  13−2  Venezuela   Petco Park 3:24 20,778 Boxscore
Mar 18, 2017 19:00 United States  6−3  Dominican Republic   Petco Park 3:40 43,002 Boxscore

Pool F started with Puerto Rico handing the Dominican Republic its first loss since the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Puerto Rico ended Pool F still undefeated and Venezuela was eliminated, going 0–3. The final game of the pool was a rematch between the United States and Dominican Republic to advance to the championship round. The DR took an early 2–0 lead in the first inning, but the United States came back to win 6–3 to eliminate the defending champions.

Championship round[edit]

Semifinals Final
      
ER  Netherlands 3
FW  Puerto Rico 4
SF1W  Puerto Rico 0
SF2W  United States 8
FR  United States 2
EW  Japan 1

Semifinals[edit]

Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 20, 2017 18:00 Netherlands  3–4  Puerto Rico 11 Dodger Stadium 4:19 24,865 Boxscore
Mar 21, 2017 18:00 United States  2–1  Japan   Dodger Stadium 3:12 33,462 Boxscore

Final[edit]

Date Local time Road team Score Home team Inn. Venue Game duration Attendance Boxscore
Mar 22, 2017 18:00 United States  8–0  Puerto Rico   Dodger Stadium 3:30 51,565 Boxscore

Final standings[edit]

The final standings were calculated by the WBSC for inclusion in the WBSC Men's Baseball World Rankings system.[21]

In the final standings, ties were to be broken in the following order of priority:

  1. The team with the highest Team's Quality Balance (TQB=(RS/IPO)–(RA/IPD)) in all games;
  2. The team with the highest Earned Runs Team's Quality Balance (ER–TQB=(ERS/IPO)–(ERA/IPD)) in all games;
  3. The team with the highest batting average (AVG) in all games;

When the 2017 WBC was played, it was assumed that the field for the following 2021 WBC would remain 16 teams. Under the qualification format in use at the time, the bottom four finishers from 2017 (Canada, China, Mexico, and Chinese Taipei) would've been forced to re-qualify for 2021.[22] However, in January 2020, MLB announced it was expanding the field for the 2021 WBC from 16 teams to 20 and that all 16 participants from 2017 would receive automatic bids for 2021, thus sparing the bottom four nations from relegation to the qualifiers.[19]

Awards[edit]

Most Valuable Players[edit]

First round[edit]

Second round[edit]

Championship round[edit]

2017 All-World Baseball Classic team[edit]

Players named to the All-WBC Team (from left to right);
Third baseman – Carlos Correa of Puerto Rico
Outfielder – Christian Yelich of the United States
Pitcher – Kodai Senga of Japan
Pitcher – Marcus Stroman of the United States
Position Player
C Puerto Rico Yadier Molina
1B United States Eric Hosmer
2B Puerto Rico Javier Báez
3B Puerto Rico Carlos Correa
SS Puerto Rico Francisco Lindor
OF Netherlands Wladimir Balentien
Dominican Republic Gregory Polanco
United States Christian Yelich
DH Puerto Rico Carlos Beltrán
P Japan Kodai Senga
United States Marcus Stroman
Israel Josh Zeid

Source: [23]

Attendance[edit]

973,699 (avg. 24,342; pct. 72.3%)

First round[edit]

508,830 (avg. 20,353; pct. 74.3%)

  • Pool A – 52,286 (avg. 8,714; pct. 51.9%)
  • Pool B – 206,534 (avg. 34,422; pct. 82.0%)
  • Pool C – 163,878 (avg. 27,313; pct. 74.3%)
  • Pool D – 86,132 (avg. 12,305; pct. 76.9%)

Second round[edit]

354,977 (avg. 29,581; pct. 72.0%)

  • Pool E – 209,072 (avg. 34,845; pct. 83.0%)
  • Pool F – 145,905 (avg. 24,318; pct. 60.5%)

Championship round[edit]

109,892 (avg. 36,631; pct. 65.4%)

  • Semifinals – 58,327 (avg. 29,164; pct. 52.1%)
  • Final – 51,565 (avg. 51,565; pct. 92.1%)

Statistics leaders[edit]

Broadcasting[edit]

Television[edit]

Territory Rights holder
 Australia ESPN Australia
 New Zealand
 Brazil ESPN Brazil
 Canada Sportsnet/RDS
 Colombia Telecaribe/Win Sports[24]
 Cuba Tele Rebelde, Digital Channels: HD 1 y HD 2.
 Dominican Republic CDN Sports-Max[25]
 Cyprus Fox Sports Greece
 Greece
 Turkey Fox Sports Turkey
 Italy Fox Sports Italy [it][26]
 Malta
 San Marino
 Israel Fox Sports Israel
 Japan J Sports, TBS, TV Asahi
Latin America DirecTV Sports (es)[27]
Southeast Asia Fox Sports Asia
 Hong Kong
 Macau
 Taiwan
 Mexico Televisa Deportes
 Netherlands Fox Sports Netherlands
 Philippines Sports5
 Puerto Rico Wapa 2 Deportes[28]
 Russia Viasat Sport (semifinals and final)[29]
 South Korea JTBC, JTBC3 Fox Sports
 Taiwan Eleven Sports/PTS
 United States MLB Network/ESPN Deportes[30]
 Venezuela Direct TV/IVC/TLT/TVes

[24]

Radio[edit]

Territory Rights holder
 United States ESPN Radio (semifinals and finals)/ESPN Deportes Radio
SiriusXM

References[edit]

  1. ^ "2017 World Baseball Classic schedule released".
  2. ^ Morosi, Jon Paul (September 17, 2015). "Source: Brooklyn among four WBC qualifying sites to be named". Fox Sports. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "WBSC Rankings – Men's baseball on 12/31/2016". World Baseball Softball Confederation. Retrieved May 2, 2021.
  4. ^ "Rules – World Baseball Classic". Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  5. ^ "2017 World Baseball Classic Rules and Rule Modifications" (PDF). March 7, 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 7, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  6. ^ "Team Israel – and its mascot, Mensch on a Bench – is the Jamaican bobsled team of the WBC" Archived March 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, ESPN.
  7. ^ "World Baseball Classic: Israel's Cinderella Run Forges Ahead After Upsetting Taiwan" Archived March 10, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Haaretz.
  8. ^ "Israel clinches berth in World Baseball Classic quarterfinals." Archived March 10, 2017, at the Wayback Machine The Jerusalem Post
  9. ^ "Israel Goes to 3–0 at World Baseball Classic" Archived March 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times, March 9, 2017.
  10. ^ . Archived March 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times.
  11. ^ Calcaterra, Craig (March 9, 2017). "Video: 7'1" vs. 6'8" — the tallest pitcher-batter matchup ever". Archived from the original on March 11, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  12. ^ "Israel's Lavarnway named MVP of Pool A" Archived March 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, mlb.com.
  13. ^ "Israel beats Netherlands to win WBC '17 Pool A," Archived March 9, 2017, at the Wayback Machine mlb.com
  14. ^ "World Baseball Classic: Cuba, Japan advance to 2nd round". Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  15. ^ "Yoshitomo Tsutsugoh is MVP of WBC '17 Pool B". Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  16. ^ "United States puts away Canada early, advances to second round of WBC". Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  17. ^ a b Venezuela eliminates Mexico from World Baseball Classic after tiebreaker mixup Archived June 15, 2017, at the Wayback MachineSports Illustrated, March 13, 2017
  18. ^ Mexico files protest after beating Venezuela, losing World Baseball Classic tiebreaker Archived September 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine – USA Today, March 13, 2017
  19. ^ a b "Qualifying Round brackets set for '21 Classic". MLB.com. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  20. ^ "Japan beats Israel 8-3 to advance to World Baseball Classic semifinals". japantoday.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  21. ^ "New WBSC World Rankings revealed following World Baseball Classic 2017". WBSC. Archived from the original on April 1, 2017. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  22. ^ Normandin, Marc. "Canada and Mexico now need to qualify for the 2021 World Baseball Classic". SBNation.com. Retrieved February 19, 2020.
  23. ^ "World Baseball Classic: Previous champs, results, medal count, MVPs, All-WBC teams". cbssports.com. Archived from the original on June 27, 2018. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  24. ^ a b "International Broadcast Partners". World Baseball Classic. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2017.
  25. ^ "CDN Sports-Max presenta su oferta para el 2017" (in Spanish). listindiario.com. January 20, 2017. Archived from the original on February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2017.
  26. ^ "WBC 2017: tutte le partite dell'Italia in diretta su Fox Sports" (in Italian). baseball.it. February 17, 2017.[permanent dead link]
  27. ^ Gonzalez, Juan Fernandez. "DirecTV wins World Baseball Classic rights for LATAM". Archived from the original on March 13, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  28. ^ "Wapa 2 transmitirá el Clásico Mundial de Béisbol en Puerto Rico" (in Spanish). PrimeraHora.com. November 30, 2016. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2017.
  29. ^ "едем в Лос-Анджелес на первый полуфинал Мировой Бейсбольной Классики!" (in Russian). Viasat-sport.livejournal.com. March 20, 2017.
  30. ^ "ESPN Deportes to air exclusive Spanish-language coverage of 2017 World Baseball Classic". Produ. October 23, 2012.

External links[edit]