Venezuela national baseball team explained

Venezuela National Baseball Team
Federation:	Federación Venezolana de Béisbol
Confederation:	COPABE
Manager:	Omar López
Wbsc Max:	6
Wbsc Min:	11
Wbc Apps:	5
Wbc First:	2006
Wbc 3Rd Times:	1
Wbc 3Rd Most Recent:	2009
Wc Apps:	18
Wc First:	1940
Wc 1St Times:	3
Wc 1St Most Recent:	1945
Ic Apps:	2
Ic First:	1973
Ic Best:	6 (1 time, in 2002)
Pag Apps:	3
Pag First:	1955
Pag 1St Times:	1
Pag 1St Most Recent:	1959
H Pattern Cap:	_venezuela_2023wbc_h
H Leftarm:	FBC311
H Body:	0059B1
H Pattern B:	_baseball
H Rightarm:	FBC311
H Pants:	FFFFFF
H Socks:	0059B1
A Pattern Cap:	_venezuela_2023wbc_a
A Leftarm:	FBC311
A Body:	981C1F
A Rightarm:	FBC311
A Pants:	C0C0C0
A Socks:	981C1F

The Venezuela national baseball team (Spanish: Selección de béisbol de Venezuela^[1] or Selección de Venezuela)^[2] is the national team of Venezuela.^[3] It is currently ranked sixth in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, behind Chinese Taipei and ahead of the Netherlands.

History

Venezuela debuted in international competition at the 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games in Panama City, finishing sixth. The country first participated in what was then the top level of international baseball competition, the Amateur World Series (later to be known as the Baseball World Cup), in 1940.

Venezuela won its first international baseball title the following year, defeating defending champions Cuba at the 1941 Amateur World Series in Havana. The championship team, with illustrious names from the country's amateur circuits like Héctor Benítez, Daniel "Chino" Canónico, and José Antonio Casanova, was hailed as "Los Heroes del '41" ("Heroes of '41"). The victory of the 1941 AWS is cited as the catalyst for baseball's exploding popularity in Venezuela,^[4] ^[5] Venezuelan President Isaías Medina Angarita declared October 22, the day of the championship game, a national holiday.

World Baseball Classic era

Venezuela competed in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, playing its opening games in Pool C, in Toronto, Ontario. The Venezuelans secured advancement out of Pool C with a pair of resounding wins over Italy. Along the way, Venezuela also lost a 15–6 slugfest against the United States, but won twice against the same team.^[6]

In the 2013 World Baseball Classic, Venezuela was eliminated by Puerto Rico, who went on to eliminate Italy, the United States and two-time defending champion Japan. Their placing as the third team in Pool C after defeating newcomers Spain was sufficient to secure direct qualification to the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

The team competed against Team Israel, Team Puerto Rico, Team Dominican Republic, and Team Nicaragua in the 2023 World Baseball Classic in March 11–15, 2023 in Miami, Florida.^[7]

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of professional baseball match results currently active in the latest version of the WBSC World Rankings, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.^[8]

Legend

2023

Tournament record

World Baseball Classic

In June 2005, Major League Baseball announced the formation of the World Baseball Classic, a sixteen nation international competition to be held in March 2006 for the first time. The team Venezuela sent to the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic included Venezuelan players from Major League Baseball. A player is eligible to participate on a WBC national team if:

The player is a citizen of the nation the team represents.
The player is qualified for citizenship or to hold a passport under the laws of a nation represented by a team, but has not been granted citizenship or been issued a passport, then the player may be made eligible by WBCI upon petition by the player or team.
The player is a permanent legal resident of the nation or territory the team represents.
The player was born in the nation or territory the team represents.
The player has one parent who is, or if deceased was, a citizen of the nation the team represents.
The player has one parent who was born in the nation or territory the team represents.^[9]

							Qualification record
Year	Round	Position
2006	Round 2	7th	3	3	22	20	No qualifiers held
2009	Semifinal	4th	6	2	45	36	No qualifiers held
2013	Round 1	10th	1	2	17	21	Automatically qualified
2017	Round 2	8th	2	5	28	55	Automatically qualified
2023	Quarterfinal	5th	4	1	30	18	Automatically qualified
Total	Semifinal	5/5	16	13	142	150	-	-	-	-

WBSC Premier12


Year	Result							Squad
2015	Group stage	10th	5	2	3	26	36	Squad	10th
2019	Group stage	7th	3	1	2	11	12	Squad	9th
2024	To be determined
Total	0 Title	3/3	17	10	7	77	73	—	—

Baseball World Cup (1938–2011)


Year	Result	Position
1938	Did not enter							IBF
1939	Did not enter
1940	Single-table tournament	4th	12	5	7
1941	Single-table tournament	1st	9	8	1
1942	Single-table tournament	3rd	12	7	5
1943	Did not enter
1944	Single-table tournament	1st	12	9	3			FIBA
1945	Single-table tournament	1st	10	10	0
1947	Single-table tournament	5th	8	5	3
1948	Did not enter
1950	Single-table tournament	3rd	11	9	2
1951	Single-table tournament	2nd	13	11	2
1952	Single-table tournament	6th	10	5	5
1953	Single-table tournament	2nd	10	9	1
1961	Single-table tournament	3rd	9	6	3
1965	Did not enter
1969	Single-table tournament	4th	10	7	3
1970	Single-table tournament	5th	11	7	4
1971	Did not enter
1972	Did not enter
1973	Single-table tournament	3rd	14	10	4
1973	Did not enter	FEMBA
1974
1976	AINBA
1978
1980	Single-table tournament	7th	11	4	7
1982	Did not enter	IBAF
1984
1986	Single-table tournament	7th	11	5	6	63	73
1988	Did not qualify
1990	Group stage	12th	8	1	7	33	63
1994	Did not qualify
1998
2001
2003
2005
2007	Group stage	12th	7	2	5	33	37
2009	7th place game	7th	15	9	6	70	58
2011	7th place game	7th	12	6	6	52	91
Total	4 Titles	24/38	249	177	80	—	—