In January 2009 the
IBAF, in releasing the first edition of the
world rankings, announced the classifications of various tournaments that contributed to the rankings themselves. In doing so, they identified that of the "world" tournaments, there were different levels with differing levels of weighting towards the ranks: major world championships, minor world championships, world qualifying tournaments and continental championships/qualifying tournaments.
World Baseball Classic Australia has competed in all four editions of the
World Baseball Classic. All sixteen teams that played in the
2006 edition were invited to compete in the second in
2009. By virtue of their third-place finish in their first-round pool, Australia qualified compete at the
2013 edition of the WBC.; however, they were eliminated with an 0–3 record and finished in last place overall. Australia, which has not progressed beyond the first round of competition, achieved its highest finish, 9th, in the 2017 tournament. Unusual for international competition in baseball, the squads selected in the World Baseball Classic tournaments featured players active in
Major League Baseball in addition to
Minor League,
Nippon Professional Baseball and local players. Generally players in the Major Leagues are unavailable for international representative teams due to their contracts with the respective clubs.
2006 (United States) Prior to formally starting their campaign, Australia played an exhibition game, which they lost, against a
Boston Red Sox squad at
City of Palms Park in
Fort Myers, Florida. This was also the site of their training camp. Australia competed in Pool D—along with
Dominican Republic,
Italy and
Venezuela—in the first round at
Cracker Jack Stadium in
Orlando, Florida. The other three teams were able to field a large number of
Major League players. Of players born outside the United States on 2006 Major League Opening Day rosters, the Dominican Republic (85) and Venezuela (43) had more than all other countries and between them accounted for more than 57% of foreign-born players in the leagues. Italy is among the top nations in Europe and had access to Italian-American players under the
eligibility rules for the tournament. Thus, Australia was considered the
underdog in the pool. Having failed to win any of their
round-robin pool games, they finished last in their pool, and were eliminated with
Canada,
China,
Chinese Taipei, Italy,
Netherlands,
Panama and
South Africa. The eventual champions were
Japan.
2009 (Mexico) Australia was based in
Peoria, Arizona—the site of the
Seattle Mariners spring training camp—for their preparation for the formal start of their 2009 campaign. Unlike 2006, in which they had one exhibition game, they competed against three different
Major League clubs: the Seattle Mariners, the
Milwaukee Brewers and the
Chicago White Sox. Their game against Seattle was
Ken Griffey Jr.'s first game playing for the Mariners since October 1999, and was also their first victory as part of a World Baseball Classic tour. Australia was drawn in Pool B for the 2009 tournament, along with
Cuba,
Mexico and
South Africa, competing at
Foro Sol Stadium in Mexico City. they lost their next two games to Cuba and Mexico, and were eliminated from the tournament. The Australians set a WBC record against Mexico: 22 hits in a single game is more than any other team has achieved in either tournament.
2013 (Taiwan) In June 2011, it was announced that the field for the 2013 WBC would be expanded to include an additional 12 teams and that a qualifying round would be several months prior to the main tournament. The qualifying tournament involved the 12 newly invited teams, as well as the four lowest-placed teams from the 2009 tournament; all teams who did not win a game. The qualifying tournament broke the teams into four pools of four teams each, which competed in a six-game, modified
double-elimination format, similar to the first round of the 2009 tournament, with the winners of the sixth game in each pool proceeding to the main tournament. Australia, having finished 12th after beating Mexico in their first game in 2009, automatically qualified for the main tournament. Australia was drawn into Pool B, which was held at the
Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taiwan. In their opener, they fell to host and qualifiers
Chinese Taipei, 4–1. They followed up with a 6–0 loss to
South Korea before finishing with a 4–1 defeat to the
Netherlands. Pool B Game 1 Game 4 Game 5 :* – Player has not played for Australia in international competition prior to 2013 WBC :† – Player did not play for Australia in WBC prior to 2013
2017 (Japan) Australia went 1–2 in pool play, losing to Cuba for a chance to advance to the second round of the
2017 WBC.
2023 (Japan) Australia advanced to the WBC quarterfinals for the first time in
2023, defeating the
Czech Republic in an elimination game in its final pool game. Cuba defeated Australia in the quarterfinals, 4–3.
2026 (Japan) Australia will compete against Japan, South Korea, and the Czech Republic in the
2026 WBC in Toyko.
Olympic Games Australia was the third nation, after the
United States and
Sweden, to participate in baseball at the
Summer Olympics, making their first appearance at the
1956 Games in
Melbourne, and again as part of its
demonstration at the
1988 Games in
Seoul. Since baseball was first included as a medal sport at the
1992 Games in Barcelona, Australia has participated in three of the five tournaments. The best result achieved was in the
2004 Games in Athens, where Australia lost the
gold medal match to Cuba to receive
silver. Their medal tally puts them at 5th, equal to
Chinese Taipei. Australia did not send a team to the
2020 Olympics qualifiers.
World Cup Australia participated in ten
IBAF World Cup tournaments. Its best result was fifth, achieved in the two most recent tournaments held—
2009 and
2011. At the
2007 tournament,
Trent Oeltjen became the first Australian player to be named in a World Cup All Star team, in recognition of his tournament-leading hitting and base-running statistics. Until
1986, the World Cup was known as the "Amateur World Series". The Amateur World Series only made use of
round-robin fixtures, with teams ranked at the end of the tournament. Australia's first appearance was in Italy in
1978. Out of the ten teams to compete, Australia finished 9th ahead of the other
debuting team,
Belgium. Beginning with the
1988 tournament, it used the "World Cup" name, with the IBAF recognising the past Amateur World Series winners as World Cup winners. With the change of name came a change in format for the tournament: a round-robin phase, followed by a knockout phase for the top four teams. (Later tournaments would see two pools used in the first phase, and an expanded
knockout phase including the top four teams from each pool.) In the "World Cup Era", Australia has reached the final phase four times, finishing 7th in
1998, 6th in 2007 and most recently 5th in 2009 and 2011. It was the first time Australia had won an international baseball tournament, and through 2009 the only win outside of the
Oceania Baseball Championship. The team enjoyed several individual successes as well: •
Dave Nilsson named tournament
MVP, to go along with leading the tournament for
runs batted in (12) and being named in the tournament
all-star team (as
catcher) •
Shayne Bennett led the tournament pitching with the best
win–loss record (3–0) •
Adam Burton led the tournament batting with the most
runs scored (9) •
Michael Moyle shared the lead in the tournament with
Oscar Macias (Cuba), with the most
home runs (3) • two other Australians were selected along with Dave Nilsson in the all-star team:
Adrian Meagher (right-handed
pitcher) and
Michael Moyle (
designated hitter) It was only the third time Cuba had been beaten in the gold medal match in the tournament's history, having reached the tournament decider every time they have participated. Australia also shares another honour with Cuba: of the nine nations to have hosted the tournament, only Australia and Cuba have won as hosts, combining for five tournament wins from five times hosted. (Cuba in
1979,
1987,
1995 and 2002, Australia in 1999.) Australia first participated in the tournament at the
1981 Intercontinental Cup, managing only one win out of their seven games, finishing 8th. Missing the
1983 Intercontinental Cup, they returned in
1985 to repeat their previous performance: 1 win, 8th-place finish. They would not reappear at the tournament until
1993 where they improved to a 5–4 record to finish in 6th position. Australia's first medal performance at the Intercontinental Cup (and their first medal at a world tournament) was at the
1997 tournament. In their best performance through the preliminary round, they put together a 6–1 record losing only to eventual silver-medalists Cuba, and beating eventual gold-medalists
Japan. They lost to Japan in the semi-final, but beat the
United States for the second time in the tournament to secure the bronze. Australia also competed in the most recent tournament in
2006. There they finished in 5th position, compiling a 3–4 record. This is likely to be the last edition of the tournament for the foreseeable future.
Asian Baseball Championship Australia is one of thirteen nations to have participated in the
Asian Baseball Championship since the tournament was first held in
1954. The last time they contested the championship was in
1993, as a result of joining the newly formed
Baseball Confederation of Oceania. Though their best result was a bronze medal in the
1975, the only teams to consistently finish ahead of Australia were
Japan,
South Korea and
Chinese Taipei—the top three teams in Asia, and all in the top five in the world.
Oceania Baseball Championship Though scheduled to participate on three separate occasions, Australia has only contested the
Oceania Baseball Championship once in
2003. The two other times, Australia's scheduled opponents—
Guam in 2004 and
New Zealand in 2007—withdrew from competition in the lead up to each series, both times scheduled to be held in Sydney. Australia was awarded the championship both times, and as a result represented Oceania at the
2004 Summer Olympics and at the
2007 Baseball World Cup respectively. Held during late April 2003, Australia won its first continental championship, beating hosts Guam , and to win the best of five series three games to one. (Guam won the third game .) == See also ==