OTTAWA – Baseball Canada has announced its 24-man roster for the IBAF Baseball World Cup which begins on September 9th in Europe. Team Canada has revealed 23 names with one roster decision still pending.
The roster will feature members of the 2009 World Baseball Classic team which opened the tournament in Toronto this past March. Included are the highest drafted Canadian position player 2B Brett Lawrie (Langley, BC), 3B Shawn Bowman (Port Moody, BC), OF Adam Stern (London, ON), RHP Chris Begg (Uxbridge, ON), LHP Bryan Dumesnil (Nanaimo, BC) and RHP Brooks McNiven (Vernon, BC).
Also, members of Canada’s 2008 Olympic Team are featured, including Iowa Cubs MVP and 2009 Triple-A All-Star C Chris Robinson (Dorchester, ON), 1B/C Emerson Frostad (Calgary, AB), Stern, Begg, LHP RJ Swindle (Vancouver, BC), 1B/OF Jimmy Van Ostrand (Richmond, BC) and McNiven.
Also on the roster is former Major Leaguer Adam Loewen (Surrey, BC) as he continues his transition from pitcher to outfielder, as well as the 2009 All-Star Futures Game MVP Rene Tosoni (Coquitlam, BC).
Leading the charge once again will be Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Whitt, who has managed Team Canada for both the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic, as well as the 2004 Olympics and the 1999 Pan-Am Games. He will be joined on the staff by Canada’s all-time Major League hits leader and fellow Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Larry Walker. Also on the staff will be Pitching Coach Denis Boucher, Third Base Coach Tim Leiper and Coach and Director of National Teams for Baseball Canada Greg Hamilton.
Team Canada will first make their way to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina for a brief training camp and exhibition series against the United States from September 1st – 7th. They will then make their way to Stockholm, Sweden, where Canada will be in Pool C for the Baseball World Cup along with Korea, Netherlands Antilles and host Sweden with action beginning on September 9th.
The Baseball World Cup will feature 22 teams in seven different countries across Europe. The first round will be five pools of four teams in five different cities, namely Barcelona, Spain; Regensburg, Germany; Zagreb, Croatia; Prague, Czech Republic and Stockholm, Sweden. The Netherlands and Italy automatically advance to the second round as they will be the host countries in the round of 16.
The top two teams in each Pool plus the top four third place finishers will advance to the second round of the tournament in the Netherlands and Italy beginning on September 13th. The top four teams in each pool in the second round will advance to the medal round, which will take place in Italy starting on September 22nd, with the finals taking place on September 27th.
