Prince George, B.C. - Cuba has been confirmed as one of the six teams that will play in the World Baseball Challenge in July 2009 at Citizen Field.

 

Jim Swanson, the Chairman of the 2009 WBC Committee, was in Cuba for three days and attended the Jose Antonio Huelga Pre-Olympic Tournament which featured two Cuban teams, Venezuela and Puerto Rico.  Swanson and Mr. Higinio Velez, the president of the Federacion Cubana de Beisbol, met on three occasions which helped seal the deal for Cuba’s attendance in Prince George.

 

Swanson says everyone wants to play Cuba to measure themselves, “The Cuban teams have never failed to rise to the challenge. This is a country that once sported a 129-game winning streak in international baseball, and has appeared in the final in the last 52 tournaments it has entered. They are skilled, they are well-trained, and they are disciplined. There is no question they will come to Prince George as the favourite, and that the other five teams will have to be at their best to dethrone them. I know people here understand how exciting this is, and I hope our players here grasp how special this is and the level of preparation needed to be on the same field with Cuba and the other teams in the tournament.”

 

Mr. Velez managed Cuba to three World Cup championships, Olympic gold in 2004 in Athens, and to second place in the 2006 World Baseball Classic.  In his role as president, Mr. Velez has spent the last few weeks leading the Cuban team at the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing.

 

Cuba was one of 12 teams in the inaugural World Baseball Challenge, founded by Larry Seminoff in Grand Forks in 2002. The Prince George Axemen, who will be the host team in 2009, also played in that tournament. Cuba won the 2002 event, beating the Seattle Studs in the final. Prince George lost to Seattle in preliminary action, leading 5-4 after seven innings before falling 7-5.

 

The tournament will start Saturday, July 18, at Citizen Field, with a home run derby now being tentatively planned for Friday, July 17. Ticket information will be released as soon as seating planning/logistics are finalized. The round-robin event will also feature the host Axemen, Team Canada, USA (Reno Astros) and Taiwan, and talks continue with Japan to have that country, among the best in the world, round out the field, and tournament sponsorship partnerships are now being put in place.

 

A tentative tournament schedule has been posted at www.worldbaseball.ca