Riccardo Fraccari, the president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation, was in Sapporo for the Premier 12 opening game between Japan and South Korea on Nov. 8 before returning to Europe to attend an IOC summit in Lausanne. The Italian then traveled back to Japan for the final phase of his federation's flagship baseball championship in Tokyo on Wednesday night.
So Fraccari wasn't able to see the first and quarterfinal rounds in Taiwan in person, but he's pleased that the WBSC has had success and received favorable reviews during the inaugural event, which will close with the gold medal and third-place contests on Saturday. What's more, Japan and Taiwan games have drawn high TV ratings, with tournament action trending on Twitter.
"The feedback are very positive from the participating teams and fans," Fraccari told The Japan Times at the Big Egg before Thursday's Japan-South Korea seminal game. "In terms of the attendance and in terms of the success of the event, I'm very happy.