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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 the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It was proposed to the IBAF by Major League Baseball (MLB), the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA), and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world. It is the main baseball tournament sanctioned by the WBSC, which grants to the winner the title of "World Champion".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=IBAF introduces new Format of International Tournaments )〕 It previously coexisted with Olympic Baseball (until 2008) and the Baseball World Cup (until 2011) as IBAF–sanctioned tournaments, but baseball has not been on the Olympic program since 2008, after it was voted out by the International Olympic Committee in 2005. The final men's Baseball World Cup was held in 2011, and was discontinued to streamline the international calendar. The 2013 Classic, the third edition of the event, was won by the Dominican Republic in an all-Caribbean World Baseball Classic Final.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Domi-nation: DR runs table en route to title )〕 The tournament is the first of its kind to have the National Teams of IBAF's member federations feature professional players from the major leagues around the world including Major League Baseball. In addition to providing a format for the best baseball players in the world to compete against one another while representing their home countries, the World Baseball Classic was created in order to further promote the game around the globe. After a 3-year gap between the first two installments of the tournament, plans were made for the World Baseball Classic to be repeated every four years following the 2009 event. The third installment of the Classic was held in 2013, and the next is scheduled for 2017. ==History== Modeled after the FIFA World Cup and organized in large part as a response to the International Olympic Committee's decision to remove baseball as an Olympic sport in 2005, the WBC has grown into a major sporting event worldwide, though to a lesser extent in the United States. In fact, the final series in 2006 and 2009 rank among the highest-rated sporting events in Japanese television history.〔(Attendance and Television Ratings Shine for '09 World Baseball Classic ). Bizofbaseball.com (2009-03-15). Retrieved on 2013-07-23.〕 In the 2006 tournament, a surprising South Korea advanced to the semifinals with an undefeated 6–0 record but was defeated by Japan (which had lost twice to South Korea in the earlier rounds) for a berth in the final game. Meanwhile, Cuba defeated the Dominican Republic for the other berth in the final game. Japan then defeated Cuba 10–6 to be crowned the first champion of the World Baseball Classic. In the 2009 tournament, the controversial round-robin format from 2006 was replaced by a modified double-elimination format for the first two rounds (the semifinals and final game remained single-elimination). The eight teams advancing from the first round were the same as in 2006, except for a "Cinderella" performance by the Netherlands, which twice defeated the Dominican Republic to reach the second round. In the semifinals, South Korea defeated Venezuela while Japan defeated the United States, and Japan then emerged victorious for the second straight Classic, winning the final game over South Korea 5–3 in 10 innings. Although the 2006 and 2009 editions of the WBC were contested by the same pre-selected field of 16 teams, for the 2013 tournament only the 12 teams that won at least one game in 2009 were guaranteed a berth. The other four contested a qualifying round in late 2012, along with 12 additional teams. As a result, two new teams competed for the first time: (Brazil and Spain, respectively replacing Panama and South Africa). The main tournament took place in March 2013, and ended with the Dominican Republic defeating Puerto Rico in the final. The Dominican Republic also became the first team to win the tournament with a perfect record (8-0). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「World Baseball Classic」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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