By Erwin Quiñonez
26 Sep 2023, 16:48 PM EDT
The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) officially presented the ‘Baseball Champions League’, an international tournament that will pit the champions of the different leagues in the world against each other, but which in its first edition will have participants only from the American continent.
During a press conference held in Mexico City, representatives of the WBSC announced that the first edition of this tournament will be held from September 28 to October 1 in the State of Yucatán and will feature the participation of four teams.
The organizations that will participate in this first tournament will be the local and current champions of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB), Leones de Yucatán, the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks (champions of the American Association league in the United States), the Alazanes de Granma (champions of the Cuban Baseball League) and the Caimanes de Barranquilla (champions of the Colombian Baseball League).
The tournament will be played in a round robin format in which the top two teams will advance directly to the final and the other two teams will compete in the third place game. There will be a total of eight matches played in four days.
In addition to this, it was announced that the second edition will expand its number of participants to a total of eight and the Baseball Champions League Europe will be played, while in 2025 the Baseball Champions League Asia Pacific will be played.
Once this tournament is underway on the three continents (America, Europe and Asia Pacific), it is planned that the champions of each region will face each other to define an absolute world champion.
It should be noted that Willi Kaltschmitt, Vice President of the WBSC, was present at the presentation of the Baseball Champions League (America); Carlos Sáenz, Director of the Sports Institute of the State of Yucatán; Joshua Schaub, Commissioner of the American Association; Josh Buchholz, Deputy Commissioner of the American Association; Erick Arellano, Executive President of the Yucatán Lions; and Horacio de la Vega, Executive President of the Mexican Baseball League.
It is important to note that, by 2023, the WBSC has 210 affiliated federations that recognize it as the highest governing body of international baseball and softball.
The main objective with the creation of the Baseball Champions League is to position this sport as one of the most important in the world. In addition, they trust that once it is done regularly, they will be able to count on the participation of at least 140 teams. the three continents mentioned above.
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