The WBSC Premier12 is the international
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...
tournament organized by the
World Baseball Softball Confederation
World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC; french: Confédération internationale de baseball et softball) is the world governing body for the sports of baseball, softball, and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by the merger of the Inter ...
(WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held by
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and
Japan in November 2015. The second tournament,
2019 WBSC Premier12
The 2019 WBSC Premier12 was an international baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world, held by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It was the second WBSC Premier12 event. The championship ...
, was held in November 2019, and served as a
qualifier
In linguistics, a modifier is an optional element in phrase structure or clause structure which ''modifies'' the meaning of another element in the structure. For instance, the adjective "red" acts as a modifier in the noun phrase "red ball", provi ...
for two teams for
baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Overview
From 1938 to 2011, the
International Baseball Federation
The International Baseball Federation (IBAF; Spanish: ''Federación Internacional de Béisbol'', French: ''Fédération internationale de baseball'') is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as over ...
(IBAF), then the
governing body
A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...
of baseball, considered the
Baseball World Cup
The Baseball World Cup was an international tournament where national baseball teams from around the world competed. It was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). Along with the World Baseball Classic, it was one of two acti ...
to be the sport's major world championship.
Following the
2011 version of the event, the IBAF chose to discontinue the tournament in favor of the
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...
.
In 2005 the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
(IOC) announced that baseball and
softball
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...
would be removed from the
Summer Olympics beginning in 2012. Thereafter, the IOC also officially reclassified baseball and softball as two different disciplines of the same sport.
In 2013, the IBAF merged with the
International Softball Federation to create the
World Baseball Softball Confederation
World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC; french: Confédération internationale de baseball et softball) is the world governing body for the sports of baseball, softball, and Baseball5. It was established in 2013 by the merger of the Inter ...
(WBSC).
On 27 November 2014, the WBSC announced the creation of the Premier12 tournament, calling it "the new flagship pro baseball nations championship," which would be held every four years.
It was viewed as a event to fill-in the calendar in place of the Baseball World Cup, since the
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...
took its place and an attempt to boost baseball's bid for inclusion in the
2020 Summer Olympics
The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July.
Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...
in
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
.
The WBSC proposed that, if baseball did return to the Olympics for 2020, the 2019 WBSC Premier12 be used as a qualifying tournament.
Participants
The field of the tournament consists of the 12 best national teams in the world according to the most recent
WBSC World Rankings
The WBSC World Rankings is a ranking system for national teams in baseball and softball. The teams of the member nations of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), baseball's world governing body, are ranked based on their tournament re ...
.
Results
Medal table
Theme music
* Heroic Charge (
Bryce Jacobs
Bryce Jacobs (born Bryson Kenneth Jacobs) is an Australian composer, producer and musician, most famous in the composing world for his style that uses classical orchestral techniques and electronica elements, but highly infused with guitar and vo ...
)
See also
*
*
World Baseball Classic
The World Baseball Classic (WBC) is an international baseball tournament sanctioned from 2006 to 2013 by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and after 2013 by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in partnership with Major Lea ...
*
Women's Baseball World Cup
*
Women's Softball World Cup
*
Baseball at the Summer Olympics
Baseball at the Summer Olympics unofficially debuted at the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, and was first contested as a demonstration sport at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. It became an official Olympic sport at the 1992 Summer Olymp ...
References
External links
IBAF Congress approves new Format of International TournamentsOfficial IBAF Website
‘Premier12’ Elite Baseball World Championship to be Launched in 2015Official IBAF Website
Mundial de Béisbol Premier 12Resultado de los juegos y estadísticas.
{{Main world championships
Premier 12
Quadrennial sporting events
Recurring sporting events established in 2015
Premier12
The WBSC Premier12 is the international baseball tournament organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), featuring the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world. The first tournament was held by Taiwan and Japan i ...