Aug. 25, 2016

2017 World Baseball Classic: Canada joins USA, Colombia and Dominican Republic in Pool C

By Adam Morissette
Baseball Canada
OTTAWA- The World Baseball Classic, Inc. (WBCI) has decided on the North American venues and pools for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Canada will play in Pool C in Miami along with defending champion Dominican Republic, Colombia and the United States.

The venue for Pool C games in Miami is Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins, with competition set to take place from March 9-12, 2017.

The first-round and second-round format will be round-robin pool play, with each team playing the other in their pool once.  The top two teams in each of the four first-round pools will advance to the second round.

WBCI also announced that San Diego (Petco Park) will host one of two second round pools from March 14-18, while Los Angeles (Dodger Stadium) will host the championship round from March 20-22.

Canada went 1-2 during pool play at the last World Baseball Classic in 2013 with a win over Mexico in between losses to Italy and the United States who both advanced to the second round.

Canada holds a 3-5 record all-time over three World Baseball Classic events with wins over South Africa (’06), the United States (’06) and Mexico (’13), while suffering losses to Mexico (’06), the United States (’09 & ’13) and Italy (’09 & ’13). Canada has yet to advance to the second round in each of the first three World Baseball Classic events.

Australia, China, Cuba and Japan will compete at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo.

Chinese Taipei, The Netherlands, the final qualifier and host South Korea, will play at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, South Korea. Pakistan, Brazil, Great Britain and Israel will play at MCU Park, in New York Sept. 22-25.

And in the other grouping Italy, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and host Mexico will play at Estadio Charros de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mex.