OTTAWA - Baseball Canada has now filled all 30 spots on its World Baseball roster Classic after adding Ottawa outfielder Sébastien Boucher to the Canadian team late Monday.
Out of Bethune-Cookman College, Boucher kicked off his professional career in a big way in 2005, quickly moving up from the Single-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers of the Midwest league to the Double-A Inland-Empire 66ers of the California League. A contact hitter, with great speed, Boucher can ignite a team in a hurry. In 2005, Boucher had three hitting streaks of 11 games or more (11, 13, 15) as well as 44 multi-hit games.
A seventh round draft pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2004, Boucher also represented Canada at the 2005 World Cup and the 2005 CONCEBE Baseball Regional Olympic Qualifier.
THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
The World Baseball Classic, a 16-team tournament sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), will run from March 3* - 20. The inaugural event will feature many of the best players in the world competing for their home countries and territories for the first time ever. The 16 teams invited to participate have been divided into four pools of four teams for the first round of play. The four Round 1 pools will be play in a round robin format at venues in Japan (Tokyo Dome - Tokyo), Puerto Rico (Hiram Bithorn Stadium - San Juan) and the United States (Chase Field - Phoenix, Arizona; Scottsdale Stadium - Scottsdale, Arizona; The Ballpark at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex - Orlando, Florida). Round 2 will feature two pools of four teams in a round robin format and is scheduled to be played in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Hiram Bithorn Stadium) and Anaheim, California (Angel Stadium). The Semi-Finals and Final will be played at PETCO Park in San Diego, California on March 18 and 20, respectively.
The World Baseball Classic will feature a bracket-style format with the 16 teams competing in four groups: Pool A - China, Chinese Taipei, Japan and Korea; Pool B - Canada, Mexico, South Africa and United States; Pool C - Cuba, Netherlands, Panama and Puerto Rico; Pool D - Australia, Dominican Republic, Italy and Venezuela.
World Baseball Classic, Inc. is a company created at the direction of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) to operate the World Baseball Classic tournament. The tournament, which is sanctioned by the International BAseball Federation (IBAF), is supported by MLB, the MLBPA , Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), their respective players associations and other leagues and players from around the world.
