As the covid-19 pandemic continues to force sporting events across the globe to be cancelled, one event that might not get back to the field before 2023 is that of the World Baseball Classic, which Monday was cancelled for 2021. Games for the fifth World Baseball Classic were set to be held in Taiwan, Japan, and the United States.
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00:00 The World Baseball Classic reportedly will not be held in 2021.
00:05 The tournament is being pushed back to 2023, pending board approval.
00:09 I'm joined now by SIMLB writer Emma Bocciolieri.
00:12 And Emma, the 20-team tournament was originally scheduled for March 9th through 23rd next
00:18 year.
00:19 So why make the decision to postpone this now?
00:21 Yeah, it might seem a little bit early to already be postponing events for March 2021.
00:27 But given that the Olympics have also been pushed back to 2021, it really wouldn't be
00:33 feasible to hold the WBC and the Olympics in the same year because there are baseball
00:38 leagues around the world that build their schedule to accommodate each of those tournaments.
00:44 And to have leagues like NPB in Japan and KBO in Korea have two breaks in their schedules
00:52 for players to play in the WBC and the Olympics just wouldn't be feasible.
00:56 So they had to be proactive here in moving it out.
00:59 And of course, health concerns and safety issues still uncertain.
01:03 The two-year push to 2023, it's not quite clear yet if that will affect future planning
01:07 of this event, which has been held every four years since 2009.
01:10 Emma Bocciolieri, thanks so much for the insight.
01:12 Thank you.
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