S. Korea ranks second in world baseball tally

SEOUL, Jan. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's baseball squad has been recognized as
the world's second-strongest team in the latest global rankings released
Wednesday.

The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) for the first time ranked 45 nations
based on points scored by each team in international games managed by the
organization since 2005.
South Korea earned 779.82 points, second only to Cuba which received 941.50
points. The South Korean team won the gold medal in the Beijing Summer Olympics
last year and finished third in the inaugural World Baseball Classic (WBC) in
2006. Cuba, whose non-professional teams excel in the sport, won the IBAF
Baseball World Cup in 2005 and finished second at the 2008 Olympics and the WBC.
The United States, which took the championship at the 2007 World Cup and finished
with a bronze at the Beijing Olympics, came in third in the rankings.
Japan, which hasn't put in an impressive performance since winning the WBC
tournament in 2006, ranked fourth. Taiwan, the Netherlands, Canada and Mexico
were ranked behind Japan.
Winning teams in tournament competition are awarded 50 points, while second and
third place finishers receive 40 and 30 points, respectively, according to the
IBAF. The scores are multiplied in accordance with the size of the competition,
it added. The Olympic Games, the WBC and the IBAF Baseball World Cup carry
four-fold weight in the ranking system.
"The level of competition worldwide grows stronger every year, and we need to
begin to recognize the federations that are fielding teams and performing well,
whether it is in an intra-continental tournament or a World Cup," IBAF President
Harvey Schiller was quoted as saying in a statement posted on its Web site.
"We are confident that our rankings accurately reflect the performance of our
federations over a four-year period."
The IBAF will publish new rankings after every IBAF-led baseball event, the
organization said.
brk@yna.co.kr
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