The Championship Trophy for the inaugural World Baseball Classic was unveiled for the first time today at a press conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The trophy, which will be presented to the winner of the World Baseball Classic after the tournament’s Final at PETCO Park in San Diego, California on Monday, March 20, was created by Tiffany & Co. (see photo attached).
World Baseball Classic Tournament Ambassador Tommy Lasorda displayed the trophy in San Juan, the only city with the distinction of hosting two rounds of tournament pool play. “I am pleased to unveil this award for the first time in such a great international baseball city like San Juan,” said Lasorda, who has helped to spread awareness and promote the tournament globally. “I am anxious to see which team will take home this fine piece of hardware and very excited to get the World Baseball Classic started in Tokyo next week.”
The sterling silver trophy stands 25-inches tall and weighs thirty pounds. It took Tiffany & Co. master artisans more than 200 hours to create the piece. The design, inspired by the World Baseball Classic logo, features a ‘global baseball,’ with longitude and latitude lines and vermeil stitching of a baseball, as its centerpiece. The ball grows from a four-tiered diamond-shaped base, representing the four rounds of the tournament, and broadens into the signature logo collar, comprised of four separate elements, representing the four pools made up of the 16 teams participating in the inaugural event.
Tiffany & Co. also has the distinction of creating the Commissioner’s Trophy (given annually to the World Series Champion), the World Series MVP Trophy, the All-Star Home Run Derby Trophy, and the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award.
Maury Brown
Posted: February 22, 2006 at 08:49 PM |
72 comment(s)
Login to Bookmark
Tags:
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Maury Brown Posted: February 22, 2006 at 08:53 PM (#1871593)Heh.
I think it's really pretty. The explanation is dumb, but what can you expect?
http://wch2004.com/trophy/
I totally disagree. That's a beautiful trophy.
Is it me, or is it somewhat Gehry-esque?
That is far too much work for a trophy that will be used exactly once.
Yeah. More than somewhat. Good thing Portugal's not in the WBC, because if they won and put the trophy somewhere inside the Guggenheim Bilbao -- no one would ever find it again.
Most digestive tracts work faster than that.
Best Regards
John
I wish they'd have made it a pentagon-shaped base that represents the 5 bases on a baseball field.
Yeah, I know they meant that the "four-tiered base" represents the four rounds of the tournament. But the wording they ended up with is comical.
I loved the jpeg, I was just adding the caption!
Best Regards
John
It's not as pointy as the WS trophy, though.
So I guess we should just never every do anything new then. Only things with "history" count.
Everything was contrived some time.
Which of the many international baseball trophies with storied histories do you feel they should have chosen?
Not bad. Though I kinda like the trophy.
It'd be beautiful if it had some history. But it doesn't, so it's just a contrived piece of overpriced junk.
So I guess we should just never every do anything new then. Only things with "history" count.
Everything was contrived some time.
True, but I doubt that they were commissioning Tropies By Tiffany back when the Pilgrims pasted the Pirates. And Tiffany predates Abner Doubleday.
Cool! My wife just told me I'm history! I count!
Waitaminit....
Best Regards
John
Look at it for 30 seconds without blinking and Bud's face appears.
I say Aragon. I never trusted those Castilians.
Well before the Pilgrims pasted the Pirates, major league baseball teams were dreaming up brand-new configurations of championship competitions, and awarding gaudy expensive hardware to the winners.
The Temple Cup, which cost $800 (a lot of money in those days), was awarded in the 1890s. It was patterned after the Dauvray Cup, which dated to 1887.
And the Yankee fans keep whining about it, no surprise.
So I guess we should just never every do anything new then. Only things with "history" count.
Everything was contrived some time.
It was just a parody of the main argument against the WBC. I'm looking quite forward to it, actually.
The trophy seems like something M.C. Escher would've designed. I can't tell what's in front and what's in back.
I've moderated my stance on the WBC - I still think it's silly, and I don't care who wins, but for the sake of those who do care, I'm not opposed to its existence anymore.
I still think that an international baseball tournament is redundant - the best players in the world already play one another six months out of the year.
They do, but the organizational and team eligibility structure of the WBC could hardly be more different than that of MLB. The WBC may be many things, but a redundant replica of the MLB configuration is hardly one of them,
I'll second that. It kind of makes my head hurt.
Just a distorted reflection of the base.
Yes, but one has got to ask oneself, why re-organize the players in this fashion? What purpose does it serve, other than jingoistic chest-beating?
I can understand the Olympics. The best athletes from around the world come and compete, and for many events, the Olympics represents the top level of competition. I don't really care about the Olympics, but I can see why others do.
The WBC will not be the top level of competition, not even close.
I can understand the World Cup and Champions League. Soccer has more than one league of comparable quality, so these international events represent the only time that the world's top players will take the same pitch. I'm not a soccer fan, but I understand why soccer fans dig international soccer.
There are no foreign leagues of comparable quality to Major League Baseball. The WBC actually represents a watering down of the available talent - the talent pool in the WBC will be much, much less than MLB's talent pool.
Again, the only purpose that I can see to this whole thing is jingoism. But a lot of people from a lot of different countries are jingoistic, so I guess the tourney has potential as a way to appeal to them.
The Temple Cup, which cost $800 (a lot of money in those days), was awarded in the 1890s.
With a bit of quick arithmetic and CPI googling, that Cup would cost about $15,000 today. What did this thing cost?
But this Yankee fan isn't whining about it at all. As I said above, I kind of like it.
On the contrary, it'll be very interesting to see what Cuba brings to the table.
I don't know, I think you're kinda tossing the words "jingo," "jingoistic" and "jingoism" around a little too loosely. You can root for your country without being jingoistic.
Because many fans from many countries are clearly interested in watching/following the games?
What purpose does it serve, other than jingoistic chest-beating?
Um, to be fun and entertaining to its fans? To make a buck for its promoters and sponsors?
There are no foreign leagues of comparable quality to Major League Baseball. The WBC actually represents a watering down of the available talent - the talent pool in the WBC will be much, much less than MLB's talent pool.
Maybe, although the number of teams competing has to be factored into the talent pool equation. And at any rate, the quality of teams formed to represent just about every country outside of the US and Japan will be clearly better than the quality of teams that customarily play in those countries. Not every baseball fan in the world has the opportunity to follow MLB that US fans have. And moreover, even though the quality of talent might be less than is seen in typical MLB play, it won't be vastly less; it still promises to be a very high level of baseball. It's essentially a bunch of all-star teams, after all.
Again, the only purpose that I can see to this whole thing is jingoism. But a lot of people from a lot of different countries are jingoistic, so I guess the tourney has potential as a way to appeal to them.
One can deplore jingoism and still see that other motivations can exist for WBC fans beyond jingoism. It might be that there are many thousands of fans in many countries who really take enjoyment from watching baseball, especially with teams structured in this manner that's so different from that of MLB. I fully agree that there is a jingoistic angle to the thing that's highly distasteful, but that doesn't mean it's the only meaningful angle.
Standup,
Keep in mind that the folks who hate the WBC -- see above -- also hate puppies, chocolate, and Thanksgiving. Hating is their pastime.
Which is why I'm no longer actively opposing the WBC. If this prompts some kid from Capetown to start playing baseball so that he can lead the South African team to victory in the WBC, then it's not a bad thing.
But let's not kid ourselves - the WBC is not the same as other forms of international competition. International sport should be about creating the very top level of competition - a place where the world's best compete. If it's not doing that, then all it's doing is pandering to patriotic sentiment.
Hey, I don't hate chocolate.
Not a fan of chocolate, but I do like puppies and Thanksgiving.
You know, Jerry, there is this new color that's in between black and white ... I think they call it "gray." ;-)
What fun is that?
I acknowledge that some of my issues are purely perspectival. I'm not a fan of "All-Star" competitions, and I prefer my sports to have season-to-season continuity as opposed to temporary teams put together for tourney play. I can't get behind a team that has no "history" to it. But I admit, this is personal preference.
Really, I'm not against the existence of the tourney. I just can't imagine a set of circumstances that would get me to care about its outcome. Others will care, and more power to them. But while I can understand the appeal of some sporting events that I don't care about (see my comments above), I can't, for the life of me, see the appeal of the WBC.
I heard that if they had put another 25 hours or so into it, you'd be able to do the same thing and Anna Benson's face would appear.
That's an entirely reasonable perspective to have. Personally, I'm not all that excited about it, but I think it might be fun.
I can completely understand someone not taking an interest in it. What I don't get is the level of outright hostility to it, bitterness, even anger, that so many have expressed. WTF?
I was sort of hostile to the idea until I saw the pitcher workload limits. I was mainly worried about injury, but it seems that they're being pretty careful about that.
Yet.
Interleague play, contrived since 1998.
I thought about this for a few minutes, and other than certain parts of an attractive woman's anatomy, I couldn't really think of anything I WOULD like to be hit in the face with. Including this trophy.
Okay, but why start the WBC if and when there's a need for it, rather than before?
<strike>Interleague play</strike> The DH, contrived since <strike>1998</strike> 1973.
There, fixed.
"Need?"
These are baseball games we're talking about here. Not one yet has ever been necessary.
I say Aragon.
And I say that's pretty Aragont of you. <Rat-a-tat-tat>
I have stopped watching the Olympics because the jingoism just gets to be too much for me. Does Al-Jazeera's cover the games? Maybe after watching those guys the US coverage won't make me want to vomit any more.
Heresy! Burn him at the stake! Where Torquemada when you need him?
These are baseball games we're talking about here. Not one yet has ever been necessary.
I guess by "need", I mean some that the games exist as some sort of logical follow-through on existing history.
The World Series was a logical conclusion of a new league coming into existence, paying competitive salaries, and poaching some of the best players. The Series was mainly a money-making operation, yes, but there was at least a perceived need there.
I don't see the WBC as answering some sort of burning question, the way other tournaments purport to do.
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main