[FuzzyRussianHat]

The 35^th World Baseball Championship was the first to be hosted by India with Mumbai chosen as the top site for the 1981 WBC. In Division 1, China took the top spot at 8-1, beating both Argentina and Colombia by two games. This gives the Chinese five consecutive division titles and their 12^th in WBC history. After a rare elite eight miss the prior year, the United States advanced for the 31^st time by dominating Division 2 at 9-0. D3 narrowly went to the Netherlands at 7-2 beating Bolivia and defending runner-up Taiwan each by one. This was the third-ever division title for the Dutch (1957, 1968). South Korea claimed D4 at 7-2, finishing one ahead of Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, and Nigeria. The Koreans now have 12 division titles to their name.

There was a three-way tie for the Division 5 crown at 7-2 between Mexico, Spain, and India. The tiebreaker favored the Mexicans for their 16^th division title, fourth most of any country behind the US, Canada, and Brazil. D6 saw a first-time division champ in Paraguay at 8-1, who were two ahead of Australia and Ukraine. Last year’s WBC champ the Czech Republic struggled to 4-5. D7 also had a three-way tie at 7-2 with Russia, Honduras, and Canada. The Russians took the tiebreaker for their 10^th division title. And in D8, it was the Philippines and Brazil even at 7-2 for first while Puerto Rico was one back. The Filipinos had the tiebreaker and earned a ninth division title.

In the Double-Round Robin Group A, the United States and Mexico both moved forward at 4-2, while the Netherlands was 3-3 and Russia went 1-5. This sent the Americans to the semifinal for the 29^th time and the Mexicans for the tenth time. In Group B, the Philippines prevailed at 5-1 and advanced along with 4-2 South Korea. China missed at 3-3 and Paraguay was 0-6. This gave the Filipinos their sixth semifinal berth and the ninth for the Koreans.

The semifinal best-of-five series saw Mexico defeat South Korea 3-1 and the United States sweep the Philippines 3-0. SK officially took third and the Philippines fourth. This set up the 25^th championship appearance for the Americans and the eighth for the Mexicans. It was the fourth time the neighbors had met in the final, although the most recent one was back in 1961.



The US would reclaim its spot at the top, taking the World Championship series 4-2 over Mexico. This gave the Americans their 22^nd title in the WBC’s 35-year history and ended their longest title drought (granted it was only four years). The Mexicans are now 4-4 all time in the championship.

Tournament MVP was American DH Joziah Perry. A two-time American Association MVP with San Francisco, the 27-year old Californian had 25 runs, 29 hits, 12 home runs, 28 RBI, and 2.2 WAR in 23 tournament starts. The US as a team had a .316 batting average, third best in WBC history. Best Pitcher went to Kendrick Zenden, a Sint Maartener who played for the Netherlands team. A 15-year veteran reliever in MLB, Zenden tossed 18.1 scoreless innings with 30 strikeouts.



Other notes: Paraguay became the 54^th different nation to advance to the WBC elite eight at least once. Below are the all-time tournament stats. Their third place finish in 1981 allowed South Korea to move into fourth for most tournament points, just ahead of Brazil and China.