International Baseball Federation

Internationally, Baseball started by being governed by the International Baseball Federation (IBF), which was founded in 1938, with Mexico, Spain, Egypt, China, Japan, Peru, the Philippines, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany joining as the founding nations. By then, men’s baseball had already appeared at the Olympics four times, the first of them at Paris 1900, but always as a demonstration sport. The 1938 Amateur World Series was the inaugural Amateur World Series, the first edition of the tournament that would eventually become the Baseball World Cup. The organization was then known as the Federación Internacional de Béisbol Amateur (FIBA) from 1944 onwards, appearing at the Olympics two more times, but still just as demonstrations.

In 1973, a separate group was formed, called the Federación Mundial de Béisbol Amateur (FEMBA), but FIBA and FEMBA merged in 1976 to become the Asociación Internacional de Béisbol Amateur (AINBA). Baseball returned as a demonstration sport at Los Angeles 1984, and Robert Smith, the President who led baseball back into the Olympics, changed the name of the world governing body to the International Baseball Association (IBA). Baseball returned to the Olympics with the same demonstration status at Seoul 1988, but became a medal sport officially at Barcelona 1992.

Aldo Notari of Italy succeeded Smith as president. In 2000, he changed the name of the organization back to its original name, International Baseball Federation, but now with the acronym IBAF.

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) later also classified Baseball and Softball as disciplines within one sport, the IBAF merged with the International Softball Federation (ISF) to become the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) on 14 April 2013, in Tokyo, Japan.