Baseball World Cup

Common card · No. 261807

The Baseball World Cup (BWC) was an international baseball tournament for national teams around the world, sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). First held in 1938 as the Amateur World Series (AWS), it was, for most of its history, the highest level of international baseball competition in the world. Even after it was supplanted in this regard in 2006 by the modern World Baseball Classic (WBC), the Baseball World Cup was still considered by the IBAF to be a major world championship, along with the WBC and the Summer Olympic Games. Early international baseball competition followed the strict Olympic rules on amateurism, prohibiting "professional" players from leagues such as Major League Baseball and its upper minor league teams. Because of this, the tournament was dominated by countries with strong traditions in amateur sports, such as Cuba, which dissolved its professional baseball league after the Cuban Revolution. The tournament was eventually opened to professionals...

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