Daisuke Matsuzaka, a Nippon Professional Baseball veteran who was little-known outside Japan at the time, was crowned the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

In the first two rounds, ties were to be broken in the following order of priority: Each participating national federation initially submitted a 45-man provisional roster.

If a player on the submitted roster was unable to play, usually due to injury, he could be substituted at any time before the start of the tournament.

(Netherlands pitcher Shairon Martis used exactly 65 pitches to throw the only no-hitter of the tournament, a 10–0 win over Panama[5] that was stopped by the mercy rule [see below].)

Other international sporting competitions, such as the FIFA World Cup, are formatted so as to make it impossible for teams to play each other three times.

The World Anti-Doping Agency criticized IBAF's drug testing program and threatened to withdraw sanction of the event under claims the MLB was attempting to "brush the issue under the carpet.

"[7] South Korean pitcher Myung-hwan Park tested positive for a banned substance during the event, and he was subsequently kicked out of the WBC.[1].

Numerous MLB players pulled out of the competition for various reasons, such as Barry Bonds,[8] Vladimir Guerrero,[9] and Manny Ramírez,[10] among others.

The event proved to be quite popular, however, providing many memorable moments including a first round game between Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

Attendance was higher than expected at several sites, including the 18,000-seat Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, which was sold out for every Puerto Rico game in the first two rounds.

In addition, there were 4,000 media credentials issued — more than the World Series — which bodes well for the stated goal of internationalizing the sport.

Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci reported that "more merchandise was sold in the first round than organizers projected for the entire 17-day event."

[2] Archived February 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine He also reported that, at one point, jerseys for the Venezuelan team were selling at the rate of one every six seconds.