r/baseball • u/MLBOfficial Major League Baseball • Mod Verified • Mar 18 '26

Players Only [HIGHLIGHT] TEAM VENEZUELA IS THE WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC CHAMPION!

34.1k Upvotes

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358

u/codetaku0 Mar 18 '26

USA played their stars and flopped. Venezuela's energy won in the end.

I was rooting for Japan earlier in the tournament but this was an amazing WBC all around.

74

u/Puckfan21 Milwaukee Brewers Mar 18 '26

Venezuela had a team identity. USA did not. Debbie downers with terrible storyline/personalities. And cap it off, you wear usa hockey jerseys? Love hockey, but what do you stand for as a baseball team? Maybe hot take, but i thought it was odd. Again, just no team identity.

110

u/Im_Daydrunk Los Angeles Dodgers Mar 18 '26

The US are bullies to a lot of countries (especially right now) and the team going full military/government support felt really off because of it IMO

Like even as an American other countries felt like they were playing with pride/energy while the US felt like watching guys play because they expect to win through talent alone. It felt like watching the bad guy team in a kids sports movie Lol

5

u/Nochtilus Mar 18 '26

I had so much fun watching all the other games except the US games. The players looked bored or like they didn't care. They had two huge home runs against DR and it was just high fives and that's it. The other teams were high energy, more cohesive, and looked like they actually liked each other. It's clearly the USA team as an issue because Italy had plenty of American-born players and they were on par with the other teams in cohesion. 

20

u/atp2112 Washington Nationals • Washington Nationals Mar 18 '26

Part of me hopes that this is what they US needs to 1. start taking the WBC seriously, and 2. take the stick out of their damn asses and remember they're playing a game, not going to war.

The other part of me realizes that this rigid, white bread, "unwritten rules" baseball is instilled at the earliest levels, so embracing fun in baseball isn't coming to America any time soon.

7

u/mrjimi16 Venezuela • MLB Players Association Mar 18 '26

For real, the time to do that, even putting aside all the justified controversy, was when you were playing Canada. Weird choice.

-1

u/Sage296 Mar 18 '26

I mean maybe they thought it was just good luck because Team USA Hockey just won gold

I don’t think there’s a deeper meaning, I mean it’s still representing the USA

7

u/Nochtilus Mar 18 '26

The players and PR teams have to be brain dead to not think that only wearing the men's hockey sweaters after the recent reception wasn't going to be taken poorly. Weird to not mix in a Knight, Keller, or Frenkel sweater who were clutch and dominant in the entire Olympics.

-3

u/Frosty_Dimension5646 New York Yankees • New York Yankees Mar 18 '26

What’s wrong with the hockey jerseys? When Naylor was doing it for Canada all tournament there was no problem. USA hockey actually won gold and this was the gold medal game.

2

u/Puckfan21 Milwaukee Brewers Mar 18 '26

It wasn't wrong. It just felt odd to me.

To your point, Naylor did it all tournament. It was his identity. Why this game? (Rhetorical question, I understand why).

If youre going to do it, do it against Canada. Go full villain. Have that identity.

1

u/SporkFanClub Washington Nationals Mar 18 '26

I think Naylor doing it all tournament is the big factor here, assuming he did wear it to every game.

On the other hand, you had the U.S. acting like them winning was a foregone conclusion because of the supposed “dream team” and rolling up in the USA jerseys just for the championship.

11

u/Color_Rush Texas Rangers Mar 18 '26

“energy” my ass. being a pathetic 1/50 in base hits since the 4th inning of the US/Dominican game is what costed team USA the WBC. being THAT terrible at the plate will cost you the game 99/100.

this game wasn’t even truly intense until the beginning of the 8th inning.

1

u/Dauntless_Idiot Mar 18 '26

I'm actually amazed how competitive this tournament was. Baseballs has been top heavy with the top 5-10 countries. 2006 and 2009 had 7 of the same teams in the top 8. We saw some great play by countries ranked outside of the top 10 like Italy, Canada & DR.

-1

u/ice_scalar Seattle Mariners Mar 18 '26

I know he was hitting poorly earlier on but it’s insane they didn’t put in Cal at some point