MLB Committed To Stage 2021 World Baseball Classic, Manfred Says

The 2021 World Baseball Classic is a go, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Saturday before Game 1 of the London Series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at revamped London Stadium.

It’s the first time that Manfred has committed publicly to another run at the international tournament that is played during MLB’s spring training.

“The WBC we’re all in on,” Manfred said during a short media conference. “We think it’s an important part of our  international program and we’re looking forward to the next go around. The last one was a real step forward for us and we’re looking to build on that momentum.”

Baseball is also back in the 2020 Summer Olympics slated for Japan. The sport was voted out of the last few summer games by the International Olympic Committee, essentially because of MLB’s refusal to send Major League players to the tournament.

Japan, as host country, can designate a couple of sports for its games and baseball is one of them.

In the past, Nippon Professional Baseball has opted to send two players from each team to stock the Japanese Olympic team. MLB has been locked into its stance of sending only minor leaguers who aren’t on the 40-man rosters of any Major League team.

Manfred gave no indication that the position has changed.

“I did talk about the 2020 Olympics with the owners two weeks ago at the meetings we had in New York,” Manfred said. “It’s the general sense of the group that we will be as cooperative as we possibly can with USA Baseball to put together a team that gets through the qualifiers.

“And obviously, we’d like to have an American team in the Olympics.”

Major League players are allowed in the WBC, and it’s great news for the growth of baseball around the world that MLB and the MLB Players Association is committed to the tournament for the fifth time.

The 2017 tournament drew a record 1,086,720, a 23-percent increase from 2013, which was attended by 885,212.

MLB is committed to return to England next June 14-15 with the second London Series between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals already on the docket. The sport is eyeing other thus far undetermined European cities to play regular-season games, Manfred said.

With the current Basic Agreement expiring after the 2021 season and now open for re-negotiation, Manfred said that collective bargaining with the union would determine when and where games would be played in Europe in 2021 and beyond.

“My own view is that I would like to have sustained play in Europe,” he said. “I’m thrilled to be in London. I’m glad we’re coming back next year. I’d like to be back after that. But I’m also interesting in having us play in other cities in Europe. All of that will have to be worked out with the MLBPA.”

The WBC, of course, is a big element of all of that.   

The inaugural was staged in 2006, and after ’09, like the Olympics, it has run every four-years. Japan won the first two, the Dominican Republic ran through the third tournament without losing a game, and Team USA finally owned the 2017 affair, trouncing Puerto Rico in the title game at Dodger Stadium in front of 51,565, the second largest crowd in tournament history.

With Olympic qualifying next year, the logistics of the WBC and hosting venues are still to come and could be announced by the end of MLB’s regular season.

Thus far, San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles (twice) have hosted the semifinal and final rounds.

No question, baseball has grown exponentially around the world since the advent of the tournament, with each country that participates earning funding for their local baseball federations.

Manfred said that 20 European players were under contract either in the major or minor leagues, and German-born Max Kepler of the Minnesota Twins is the first European star. The lefty hitter has 19 homers and 51 RBIs already for the first-place Twins, in this his breakout season.

The game is catching on in London where 60,000 tickets for the two weekend games sold out in 15 minutes, and are a hot commodity on secondary markets.

“It’s a very difficult ticket, which is a good thing for us,” Manfred said. “London is a great event city and we think we have a great event.”

Manfred went on to say that 70% of the tickets were sold locally with the other 30% swept up by baseball fans in the U.S.

“Obviously, we’re trying to bring baseball to the U.K. so that 70% number is important to us,” he said. “I do want to make the point, however, that that 30% is our most loyal, interested, devoted fan base. The fact that those people want to travel from Boston or New York to see a Yankee-Red Sox game, that’s not bad news for us, either.”

Source: Forbes.com

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