It rained on all 10 days of the World Baseball Challenge but that failed to put a damper on what was unquestionably a successful tournament.
After yet another downpour soaked the field and brought a two-hour delay to the start of Cuba's 10-5 win over Chinese Taipei in the final at Citizen Field on Sunday, the sun returned and brought a huge sense of relief for the volunteers and tournament organizers who made the event happen.
"We have a lot of MVPs on our committee and on our volunteer team, from our grounds crew to the people running our volunteer program, and too many people have done too much work to deserve the weather we had," said WBC committee co-chair Jim Swanson.
"We basically lost three nights out of nine and when you lose one-third of the operational revenues you have to work hard to make that back. We had rain issues for opening night and for the Canada-Japan and Canada-Chinese Taipei games. Certainly there's been a frayed nerve or two dealing with all the rain, but I think all the teams and all the volunteers and fans have been completely impressed with how the field has been handled and taken care of during this tournament."
Swanson pointed out that Canada's national junior team went to Cuba two weeks ago to play nine games in a tournament and rain cut that down to 3 1/2 games. They can't control the weather but they can get the teams to come back and that's the plan for 2013.
"Everybody's talking like 2013 is going to be a go and we just need to get the numbers completed from Cindy Atkinson, our director of finance," said Swanson. "After some number-crunching, I don't expect we'll make any other decision than going ahead with it."
Having Cuba involved in this year's WBC made it easier to attract top-notch teams like Chinese Taipei and Toshiba-Japan. While there was some initial disappointment the United States wasn't part of the tournament, the high quality of play was evident in the 22 games that took place at Citizen Field.
"Every team wanted to know if they were coming here to play some good baseball and the Cubans were pushed significantly five times here -- they wanted good competition and they got it," said Swanson.
"The logistics, from the hotels to the meals to the transportation to the fact we have the Northern Sport Centre as a backup facility when the rain came down all those times, that's really added to the experience for them and made it an event I think they want to come back to.
"Getting the teams here and getting the teams to return is all about building relationships and working with the right people and answering all the things they are looking for in a tournament like this."
Higinio Velez, president of the Cuban Baseball Federation, was noncommittal about a possible return for Cuba to the 2013 WBC, saying his country's decision will depend on the schedule of international tournaments that year. He said Cuba will be involved in the World Baseball Classic that takes place in the spring of 2013.
But if it was up to the Cuban players and coaches, Prince George would be in their travel plans for 2013.
"The city has been good to us and the organizing committee did a good job and if the national team is invited in 2013, we will be here," said Cuban pitcher Norberto Gonzalez .
"This is a really good level of competition and Cuba is interested in having that kind of competition, it is a really important exchange," said Cuban manager Eduardo Martin.
Ting Yi Lin, the interpreter for Chinese Taipei, had nothing but positives to say about the city and the tournament and he will recommend to the Taiwanese Baseball Federation a return visit to the 2013 WBC.
"The people here are so friendly and we would like to come back again," said Lin. "Everybody got good training here and they did good job at this ballpark. With all the rain we had this last week we were still able to play here and we really appreciate that. There was really good competition here. Everybody was good to us and I think that's why we played so good."
