Skodnick: Some Final Thoughts And Notes From The Inaugural Baseball United Series

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The inaugural Baseball United championship has been won by the Mid East Falcons, who dominated the United Series from the mound in all three games, got crafty managing from Dennis Cook, and exploded for eight runs in Game 3 to take home the hardware.

The Ball They Did Not Use – If you watched or read about Baseball United this season, you know that the league created some unique rules, most notably, the “moneyball” and the “fireball” rules.

When a manager calls for a moneyball, if the batter hits a home run, the number of runs scored is doubled. When the moneyball rule is invoked, a special yellow baseball is put into play for that at-bat, and stays in play if the moneyball is carried over to the next at-bat should the batter draw a walk or get hit by a pitch.

Baseball United originally planned to use red baseballs when the fireball was invoked – I explain why they didn’t in the video below. pic.twitter.com/qKd77ThAmk

— @leifskodnick.bsky.social (@LeifSkodnick) December 14, 2025

When a manager calls for a fireball, the inning ends if the pitcher strikes out the batter. There was going to be a special red baseball used when the fireball rule was called, but it did not happen. Why? Well, the special balls, which were made by Japan’s Icono Sports, were a deep red with gold stitches, similar to a test cricket ball. Unfortunately, the balls were difficult for batters to pick up off the batter’s eye (the backdrop in center field designed to give a contrast to a white baseball to make it easier to hit the ball), nor could the batters read the spin as easily, so the idea was shelved. Baseball United had several of the red balls left at the merchandise stand, and you can see what one looks like in the X post embedded above.

An Anything-But-Homogenous Crowd – Two years ago at the first Baseball United draft at Union Hall in Cincinnati’s Over the Rhine neighborhood, former Seattle Mariners manager John McLaren told me, “One thing that I love about baseball, it brings people together.”

The games at Baseball United Ballpark last weekend certainly brought people together, drawing a diverse crowd that included American, Japanese, Australian, and British expats, curious Emiratis and members of the local South Asian population, and a Dominican diplomat posted in Abu Dhabi.

Among the jerseys spotted in the stands over the three games of the United Series, there was, of course, a Yankees jersey, but there were also fans wearing jerseys from Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hiroshima Toyo Carp, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Hanshin Tigers, the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional’s Navegantes de Magallanes, and the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico’s Caneros de Los Mochis.

Representation Matters – As I noted in the story on Game 3, it was fitting that the Falcons won a championship, given that they had players representing eight different countries on the roster.

There were also players who had ties to the Philippines, Great Britain, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Germany, Curacao, Aruba, Sweden, Cuba, Hungary, and Poland on the Arabia Wolves and Karachi Monarchs, the two teams which did not qualify for the finals.

What We Ate – Baseball United Ballpark had plenty of great food. Multiple American chains were represented at the little ballyard in the desert, including Shake Shack, KFC, and Pizza Hut. There was also a stand selling Japanese a delicious Yakuniku (sliced steak) bento with rice and pickled vegetables.

The 2025 All-United Team – On Wednesday, Baseball United announced the 2025 All-United Team, naming one player at each position to the squad. The roster is listed below.

2025 All-United Team Roster
* – The Designated Runner can come in to run for any player in the lineup without the player they are replacing having to leave the game
IF – Brantley Bell, Mumbai Cobras
IF – Taylor Darden, Arabia Wolves
IF – Munenori Kawasaki, Mid East Falcons
IF – Shuhei Fukuda, Mid East Falcons
OF – Lou Helmig, Mumbai Cobras
OF – Alejandro de Aza, Mid East Falcons
OF – Jacob Teeter, Arabia Wolves
C – Miguel Ojeda Jr., Mumbai Cobras
DH – Hiroyuki Nakajima, Mid East Falcons
DR – Yo Kanahara, Mid East Falcons*
SP – Kazuki Yabuta, Mid East Falcons
RP – Brandon Kaminer, Mumbai Falcons

Photo: A look at Baseball United Ballpark in Ud Al-Bayda, United Arab Emirates prior to Game 3 of the 2025 United Series. (Photo: Leif Skodnick/World Baseball Network)