'World Baseball Classic' gets green light

Baseball's first World Cup-style tournament will be played in the US, Asia, and Latin America next year.

The 16-nation, 18-day event, called the World Baseball Classic, opens on March 3 in Tokyo or Taiwan, where Group A will include Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China.

The US, Mexico, Canada and South Africa will be in Group B which starts first-round play on March 8 with the other groups.

Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and the Netherlands are in Group C, which will be in Latin America, and the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy are in Group D, which will be based in Florida.

Major League Baseball has spent more than a decade discussing the tournament and hopes the event will gain in prestige, such as soccer's World Cup. The International Olympic Committee voted on Friday to kick baseball out of the Olympics following the 2008 Beijing Games. IOC president Jacques Rogge cited MLB's refusal to allow players on 40-man MLB rosters to participate and the sport's drug-testing rules, which do not meet the World Anti-Doping Agency's standards.

"I don't know if frankly I consider it a blow," MLB commissioner Bud Selig said. "I'm sorry they made the decision, but we're moving on in a very dramatic way to internationalize this sport."

While Nippon Professional Baseball has agreed to participate, the Japanese players' association has not yet given its approval and has objected to having the tournament during spring training. It also is unclear whether Cuba, which might fear defections, will accept its invitation.

Gene Orza, the chief operating officer of the players' association, said the obstacles could be overcome.

"Cubans compete and play against Americans all the time," he said.

Several players who agreed to participate attended a news conference on Monday, the day before the MLB All-Star Game: Miguel Tejada (Dominican Republic), Carlos Beltran (Puerto Rico) Andruw Jones (Netherlands), Dontrelle Willis (United States), Jason Bay (Canada), Carlos Lee (Panama), Hee-Seop Choi (South Korea) and Justin Huber (Australia).

"I just hope I make the team," Willis said.

Tejada said fans back home would look forward to the event, which MLB hopes will be played a second time in 2009.

"They're going to be really excited to see all the players on one team," he said.

Lee was happy just to get a chance.

"Panama getting invited to this kind of tournament, that's a big accomplishment for us," he said.

Each team plays three first-round games, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the second round, where each team plays three more games starting on March 13.

Four teams advance to the single-elimination semifinals on March 18, and the semifinal winners go on to a one-game championship on March 20. The second round will be split between the US and Latin America, and the semifinals and final will be played in the United States. No specific sites were announced.

Each team will have 27 players, including at least 12 pitchers, and there will be pitch-count limits. Players must be citizens of the nation they play for.

"We're aware of the issue of country jumping," said Tim Brosnan, an executive vice president in the MLB commissioner's office, "but we haven't adopted a hard-and-fast rule."

Teams agreed not to block players from participating, but Orza acknowledged some clubs would try to sway players against playing.