World Baseball Classic

The World Baseball Classic is an international baseball tournament, featuring Major League players, to be first held in March 2006 and in 2009, as well as every four years thereafter. It is the first international baseball tournament to feature major-league players; the Summer Olympics regularly features college and minor-league players, since it conflicts with the MLB season.

Announcement

The tournament was announced in May of 2005. MLB had been attempting to create such a tournament for at least two years; negotiations with the players union and with the owners had held the plan back. Owners, notably Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, had been concerned about their star players being injured in professional play before even spring training begins. This was a concern for the union as well, but their primary objection was in the question of drug testing: MLB wanted the more strenuous Olympic standards in place for the tournament, while the union wanted current MLB standards in place. Eventually the Commissioner's office won out on both issues, with a deal being reached on insurance for player contracts and a fairly tough drug testing standard. MLB teams will not be able to block their players from participating.

Related Topics:
May - 2005 - Players union - Yankees - George Steinbrenner - Spring training - Drug - Olympic

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Similarly, Nippon Professional Baseball and its players' association had a disagreement about participating the tournament. While the owners initially agreed to the invitation, the players' union was concerned about the time of year the tournament was scheduled to take place as well as their right to be better represented when the next tournament is (presumably) held in 2009. After four months of negotiations, NPB officially notified MLB they were accepting the inviation on September 16, 2005.

Related Topics:
Nippon Professional Baseball - September 16 - 2005

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