World Baseball Classic 1

Host Country--Taiwan
The bid for the host country was narrowed down to China, South Korea, Taiwan, Panama, Spain, and the Colombia. In the final bid between South Korea and Taiwan, Taiwan prevailed. The four host cities are Taipei, Taichung, Kaohsiung, and Taoyuan. The finals will be played in Taichung Intercontinental Baseball stadium.

About Qualifying
The nine teams at the top of the IBAF rankings automatically made it. Also, Taiwan, the host nation, clinched a spot by winning the bid. Six other nations (Australia, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, New Zealand) were wild cards, finishing in the top 6 of the 24-nation wild card tournament. Australia defeted Germany 5-3 in the finals, and Italy and New Zealand defeated China and Israel, respectively to take the final two wild card spots.

The Nations That lost in this tournament: China, India, Israel, Brazil, South Korea, Spain, Panama, Nicaragua, Greece, South Africa, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Russia, Ecuador, Thailand, Honduras, and Argentina.

Teams
Country (Captain-Assistant Captain)

Group A (Taoyuan) Group B (Taipei) Group C (Taichung) Group D (Kaohsiung)
 * United States (Jeff Dice-Reggie Whatley)
 * Italy (Margito Pucci-Lyle Brazan)
 * Germany (Chase Vanderpleog-Valentin Essex)
 * Cuba (David Jimenez-Tristan Storment)
 * Puerto Rico (Orlando Salazar-Carlos Sanchez)
 * France (Alfredo Comeaux-Henri Gallou)
 * Mexico (Isac Garcia-Gabriel Guyano)
 * Japan (Miyoko Etsugo-Hirano Hasegawa)
 * Canada (Will Kantor-Cliff Kosar)
 * Taiwan (Jason Min-Weixiang Kwok)
 * New Zealand (Horace Cameron-Roderick Ailward)
 * Colombia (Julio McGray-Isy Roberts)
 * Australia (Alex Strong-Amos Washington)
 * Venezuela (Von Sandoval-Alonso Ramos)
 * Dominican Republic (Arnoldo Hinojos-Nico Rubio)
 * Netherlands (Jim Knaank-Tony Sczerbia)