Riccardo Fraccari, the president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, was in Sapporo for the Premier 12 opening game between Japan and South Korea on Nov. 8 before returning to Europe to attend an IOC summit in Lausanne. The Italian then traveled back to Japan for the final phase of his federation¡¯s flagship baseball championship in Tokyo on Wednesday night.
So Fraccari wasn¡¯t able to see the first and quarterfinal rounds in Taiwan in person, but he¡¯s pleased that the WBSC has had success and received favorable reviews during the inaugural event, which will close with the gold medal and third-place contests on Saturday. What¡¯s more, Japan and Taiwan games have drawn high TV ratings, with tournament action trending on Twitter.
¡°The feedback are very positive from the participating teams and fans,¡± Fraccari told The Japan Times at the Big Egg before Thursday¡¯s Japan-South Korea seminal game. ¡°In terms of the attendance and in terms of the success of the event, I¡¯m very happy.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.