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The Pan American Baseball Confederation (Confederación Panamericana de Béisbol or COPABE), is the governing body of baseball within the Americas.
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History
Talks of the need of a baseball confederation in the Americas sparked with the founding of the Confederation of European Baseball back in the 1950s, although it was not until 1984, during the World Cup played in Cuba, that 12 countries of the Americas finally voted in favor of a formation of a confederation.
The first ever Confederación Panamericana de Béisbol (COPABE) executive meeting was held on March 1985, and 11 countries participated in its first ever Congress on March 15. The Congress saw the election of Oswaldo Matias Flores (Cuba) as the first president of the organization.
On October 5, 1987, the first Pan American Championship was played (Cuba won the tournament). The day after the final game of the tournament was held, the Congress elected Edwin Zerpa Pizzorno (Venezuela) as the next president of the organization.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s COPABE concentrated on developing tournaments at the youth level all over the Americas.
Rankings
Since the rankings were first released by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) until 2014, Cuba had maintained its position as the top national baseball team in the world, and by extension the top-ranked team in the Pan American Baseball Confederation. With the teams of United States, Cuba, Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela, COPABE is the most represented confederation in the world top ten.