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The 1984 World Baseball Championship was the 38th edition of the event and the first to be hosted in Indonesia with Jakarta as the primary host city. For the 34th time, the United States advanced into the elite eight as the Americans took Division 1 at 8-1. Colombia, France, Haiti, and Paraguay were each 6-3. China claimed Division 2 at 7-2, edging 6-3 efforts by Argentina and Venezuela. It is the 13th division title for the Chinese, who had missed the field in the prior two years. Defending world champion Germany tied with Japan atop Division 3 at 7-2 with Taiwan at 6-3. The tiebreaker went to the Japanese to end a five year division title drought. It is Japan’s 13th time advancing to the elite eight.

Division 4 saw a first-time division winner in an incredibly loaded field with Bangladesh at 6-3. Five nations were 5-4 and three were 4-5. D5 had Spain first at 7-2, beating both Mexico and Peru by one game. This is the fourth division title for the Spanish and first since 1976. In Division 6, Honduras prevailed at 7-2, one ahead of both Belgium and India. The only other time the Hondurans got out of the opening round was the inaugural 1947 WBC. Last year’s runner-up Ukraine and Canada both went 8-1 in D7. The tiebreaker moved the Ukrainians forward for the fourth time. And in Division 8, Brazil at 8-1 edged out 7-2 Cuba to advance. The Brazilians have advanced 20 times as well as three straight years.

The United States went 5-1 for first in Round Robin Group A, while both Japan and Honduras were 3-3 and Bangladesh was 1-5. The tiebreaker sent Japan forward to the semifinal for the fifth time, but first since 1964. It is the 31st final four for the Americans. Group B had China and Brazil advance with 4-2 finishes for both, while Spain was 3-3 and Ukraine was 1-5. It was the ninth time in the semifinal round for both the Chinese and Brazilians.

In the best-of-five semifinals, the United States swept China to earn a 27th finals appearance. Brazil bested Japan 3-1 to earn their fourth finals berth and first since 1976. Japan officially was third; their best finish since 1962, while China was fourth.



The 38th World Championship was the third time that the United States and Brazil had met in the finale, with the Americans winning in their 1966 and 1976 encounters. The result was the same as the US took it 4-2 for its 24th world title. Brazil is now 0-4 in their finals appearances.



Connor Neumeyer won a historic fourth tournament MVP as the 34-year old American left fielder had 25 runs, 35 hits, 7 doubles, 11 home runs, 29 RBI, and 2.0 WAR in 24 starts. Neumeyer joined the Philippines’ Jimmy Caliw as the only players with 100+ home runs in their WBC careers. Canada’s James Chretien was given the Best Pitcher. A three-time Reliever of the Year winner with Calgary, he tossed 11.2 scoreless innings with three hits allowed and 23 strikeouts.

Other notes: Belarus’s Pavel Bely threw only the second WBC perfect game, striking out 16 against Honduras. The only other perfect game was back in 1960. Uruguay’s Bruno Navarro also had a no-hitter, striking out 14 and walking five against Thailand. Norway’s Lasse Kallevik became only the third player to hit for the cycle in the WBC, doing it against Russia.