Orlando to host WBC first round 

Orlando to host WBC first round

Orlando to host WBC first round
By Barry M. Bloom
MILWAUKEE -- The venues for next year's inaugural World Baseball Classic were settled on Wednesday when it was announced that six first-round games have been scheduled for Cracker Jack Stadium at Disney Wide World of Sports in the Orlando area on March 8-11.

The other first-round pools are scheduled for the Tokyo Dome (March 3-6), Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, P.R., and Chase Field and Scottsdale Stadium in the Phoenix area. Both the latter pools will be played concurrently with the pool in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The second round runs from on March 13-15 in Puerto Rico and Angel Stadium in Anaheim, with the semifinals and finals at San Diego's PETCO Park from March 18-20.

"The Orlando area is one of the nation's top international tourist destinations, and we are very pleased that the World Baseball Classic will be a part of that landscape," Commissioner Bud Selig said. "Baseball historically has been a major attraction in Florida each spring, and we are confident that Disney's Wide World of Sports will serve as an excellent host for the World Baseball Classic."

Pool D in Lake Buena Vista is made up of the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy. The top two finalists there will meet the two winners among Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama and the Netherlands in the second round at San Juan.

MLB International officials were at organizational meetings in Orlando earlier this week, followed by owners meetings here on Wednesday and Thursday. Last week in Indian Wells, Calif., Paul Archey, MLB's vice president of international business operations, addressed general managers about their WBC concerns.

A technical committee, to be chaired by Sandy Alderson, MLB's former vice president of baseball operations and now the chief executive of the Padres, is expected to review pitch counts among other rules issues in the tournament that boasts 15 nations and the territory of Puerto Rico. It's the first international baseball tourney to include Major League players in international competition.

Sixty-man rosters have to be submitted 45 days before the WBC begins. An estimated 270 Major League-affiliated players are expected to be involved in the tourney.

Don Fehr, the union's executive director, said the tournament was a great first-round addition to the Florida landscape. Cracker Jack Stadium, which was opened in 1998, is the spring home of the Atlanta Braves. The Disney Wide World of Sports complex hosts 170 events a year.

"Our agreement with Disney to host the opening east coast round of the World Baseball Classic is another important step towards making these inaugural games the success we envision," Fehr said. "It's a great venue, which has played host to a number of world class events, and I know the fans, as well as the teams playing in the Disney round, will have a great experience."


Barry M. Bloom is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.