New York. - For the first time in its history, the International Baseball Federation (FIB) published a World Ranking of countries in the sport sustained by scores acquired through international competition, in which no surprisingly Cuba occupies the first place.

The surprise is the Dominican Republic, which despite being by far the country with the most players in the Major Leagues per capita, was ranked only 17the.

Cuba is followed by the United States, Korea, Japan China and Taiwan.

Among the other Latin American countries, Mexico is ranked 8, Panama 9, Puerto Rico 11, Nicaragua 12, and Venezuela 15.

Brazil, Germany and South Africa occupied the last three positions.