1Baseball was included into the 2020 Olympics during the IOC session on 3 August 2016. 2The WBSC Premier12 was played in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan, with the final in Tokyo.
qualified to play baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics by winning a two-continent qualifying tournament for Europe and Africa. The tournament was a round robin, and was held in Parma and Bologna, Italy, on September 18–22, 2019. It featured six teams: the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Israel, and the Czech Republic, and South Africa. Petr Čech of the Czech Republic led the tournament in batting average, and Danny Valencia of Israel led in runs, home runs, RBIs, walks, and slugging percentage. Pitchers Orlando Yntema of the Netherlands and Joey Wagman of Israel tied for the lead with two wins, and Wagman led in complete games and strikeouts. As the winner of the tournament, Israel qualified to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. The second-place team in the event, the Netherlands, will receive another qualification opportunity in the Final Qualifying Tournament.
Standings
Team
Pct.
4
1
.800
34
11
4
1
.800
26
15
3
2
.600
27
17
2
3
.400
16
20
2
3
.400
23
26
0
5
.000
8
46
---- ---- ---- ---- 1 game postponed 4–4 in 6th inning; continued September 20.
2019 Premier12
The top 12 teams on the WBSC men's baseball ranking list at the end of 2018 qualified for the 2019 Premier12 competition, which was held in November 2019. Only teams from the Americas, Asia, and Oceania were able to qualify for the 2020 Olympics through this tournament. Mexico earned a quota spot as the top finisher from the Americas, and South Korea earned a spot as the top finisher from Asia or Oceania.
Teams
Americas Qualifying Event
One quota spot will be allocated to the winner of the eight-team Americas Qualifying Event. All six American teams that competed in the 2019 Premier12 but did not qualify for the Olympics in that tournament will receive another opportunity at this Qualifying Event. In addition, this event will include the top two finishers at the 2019 Pan American Games that did not qualify for the 2019 Premier12. The event was originally scheduled to be held March 22–26, 2020, in Arizona but was postponed to a date to be determined due to the coronavirus pandemic. The teams that finish in second and third place in this event will receive another qualifying opportunity, in the Final Qualifying Tournament.
The Final Qualifying Tournament will take place in Taichung and Douliu, Taiwan, with the winner earning the final qualification spot for the 2020 Olympics. Six teams will take part: the runner-up from the Africa/Europe Qualifying Event, the runner-up and third-placed teams from the Americas Qualifying Event, the top two finishers from the 2019 Asian Baseball Championship that have not already qualified for the Olympics, and Australia, which was chosen to represent the Oceania region. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held from April 1–5, 2020, but was later initially postponed to June 17–21 in order to protect the health & safety of players and spectators against the spread of the coronavirus. Following the decision to postpone the 2020 Olympic Games to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WBSC announced the tournament was again postponed with the new dates to be announced sometime in the near future.
