MIAMI – Twenty years ago, I walked into a Marshall’s on Delaware Avenue in Buffalo, New York. It was late spring, Major League Baseball’s season had begun, and the first World Baseball Classic was already in the books.
On a clearance rack in the back, I found WBC jerseys for Canada, the U.S., and Venezuela. I hadn’t watched much, if any, of that first WBC because I was working for the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League at the time, and we were in the midst of a playoff run that captivated the sports-mad city.
Holding a Team USA and a Canada jersey, each in size large, I thought, “Heck, they’re $20. If they never do another World Baseball Classic again, I’ll have a neat jersey.”
Back then, the World Baseball Classic was a neat idea, though certainly not one embraced by American fans, who are primarily focused on Major League Baseball. The World Series was, and still mostly is the first, the last, and the greatest thing to most American fans, with anything else – the Olympics, the WBC, the WBSC Premier12 – being at best a sideshow and at worst a distraction.
It seemed that way three years ago, too, when Edwin Diaz tore his patellar tendon celebrating Puerto Rico’s 5-2 win over the Dominican Republic at loanDepot Park, sidelining him for the season. Sitting in a hotel bar after the game, I heard a New York Mets fan get angrier and angrier about the event with each passing minute, his histrionics finally culminating with the words, “I just lost my f***in’ closer.” Coincidentally, the individual in question was not Mets owner Steve Cohen, so whether Diaz was really “his closer” isn’t in question.
Prior to arriving in Miami for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, I’d never experienced Latin baseball. Suddenly, on the first day of pool play, we pulled into the parking lot at 9 a.m., where we met up with Nicaragua fan Mike Soza and his friends at their tailgate as they got pumped up for their home country’s game against Puerto Rico. If David Sedaris wrote about the experience, he might have titled it “Let’s Drink Beer In the Morning and Watch Baseball With Nicaraguans.”
While I had previously been in the “sideshow/distraction” camp, I wasn’t any longer following the 2023 tournament. Seeing how seriously fans from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela viewed the WBC, as well as how joyously their fans cheered, chanted, danced, the party-like atmosphere, the national pride, I was hooked.
It’s long past time the United States took this tournament as seriously as other nations do. The storybook ending to the 2023 WBC, where Shohei Ohtani struck out Mike Trout to close out Japan’s championship game victory helped turn the tide in convincing American fans that the WBC is more than just a sideshow.
Another trip to the final game in 2026 undoubtedly helped, too. The next WBC is only three or four years away, and it’ll be the biggest international baseball party yet. See you there.
It Would Be No Small Honor – The rise of the WBC began with the vision of Jim Small and his team at Major League Baseball. Small, MLB’s Senior Vice President of International, has been part of the group behind the WBC since its inception, and is retiring this May.
Over the years, Small and his team grew this event from a novelty event split between big league parks, the Tokyo Dome, and a few spring training venues, to a worldwide phenomenon. The attendance and the attention has grown each year, and 2023’s movie script ending, which saw Shohei Ohtani come out of the bullpen for Japan and strike out his former teammate Mike Trout to end the championship game finally catapulted the WBC into the mainstream for American fans.
This year, American fans finally seem to have fully bought into the WBC as an important, world-wide competition. It took two decades, but Small and his team’s original vision had grown into what they believed it could – and possibly more.
Over the years, 40 individuals have been enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame as executives, usually commissioners, general managers, or owners. Having built the WBC into what might be the second-best worldwide, single-sport competition behind the FIFA World Cup, Jim Small should merit serious consideration for induction as an executive when he’s eligible in five years.
No Protests – Unlike 2023, there were no noticeable protests either inside or outside loanDepot Park. In 2023, there were protests outside the ballpark calling attention to Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega’s repressive actions against the Catholic church in the Central American country, protests against former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, who was captured by the U.S. military in a midnight raid on Caracas in February, and most visibly, protests both inside and outside the ballpark during the semifinal game between the U.S. and Cuba. During that game, protesters held signs that were visible on the telecast of the game, and multiple protestors ran onto the field holding signs decrying the Communist regime on the island.
Italy’s Run Inspires a Nation – Fueled by a dugout espresso machine and led by captain Vinnie Pasquantino and manager Francisco Cervelli, Italy’s run to the semifinals gave baseball heightened prominence in the European country, which has had a professional league since 1948. While multiple Italian-Americans have starred in Major League Baseball, this WBC saw the debut of Samuel Aldegheri, the first Italian-born and trained MLB player. With 29 Italian-Americans and Aldegheri, Italy upset the U.S. 8-6 and went undefeated in Pool B before falling 4-2 to Venezuela in the semifinals, with the semifinal game televised in Italy.