The World Baseball Classic, or WBC, has been seen as a tournament that didn’t really matter. It’s been viewed by countries only competing for the title of the “Best Baseball Nation,” but many didn’t take this title seriously. Especially since team USA often treated the tournament like a warm up before the MLB season began.
Even though the United States didn’t always prioritize the tournament, other countries treated it as the biggest tournament of their careers. Their biggest stars played, entire nations tuned in to every game, and many MLB players even said they would rather win a WBC for their country than a World Series.
Despite the United States claiming to have the best baseball players in the world they have only won the tournament once. Japan has won three of the five WBCs, and the Dominican Republic won the other one.
There are many reasons why team USA struggled to bring the biggest stars in past tournaments. The main issue has been injury risk. MLB managers and team owners don’t want their franchise players getting hurt right before the season starts. They would much rather have those players stay with their teams during spring training to build chemistry and prepare for the final goal of winning the World Series.
This isn’t that big of an issue for the other countries competing. Japan, to name one, has its own pro league and can take all of their top players to compete with them without worrying about injury as much with this being their “end all be all.” The Japanese MLB players are often allowed to participate because the tournament means so much to their country and their managers understand.
The Dominican Republic is similar as many players are either in the minors or training in the MLB systems at a very young age. They do not have to commit to a college the way American players do, so participating in the WBC is less complicated for them. For many Dominican and Japanese players, playing for their country’s chance at a championship is just as important, if not more important, than winning a World Series.
The 2017 USA team was made up of Boster Posey, Nolan Arenado, Andrew McCutchen, and Marcus Stroman, which on paper seems like a solid lineup, but just these four players can’t win a whole tournament. If people were to look at the roster today, they would see so many players that are well known now or had bright flashes of potential in the past, but at the time of this game all players were past their prime or just moving into the spotlight.
Despite not having the same star power as some of these other countries, they still won the WBC, which is what made the 2017 USA team so impressive. This finally gave American WBC fans hope to see their favorite players representing the USA.
That moment finally came in 2023. After the 2020 tournament was canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the WBC returned to TV’s all over the world and delivered one of the best tournaments in the classics history. The United States finished second after a heartbreaking loss to Japan.
This game was highlighted by the storybook ending of two Los Angeles Angels teammates, also the two best players in baseball Mike Trout and Shoehei Ohtani, facing off against eachother for the title. The two had never faced eachother in a sanctioned game which made it even more memorable.
This 2023 WBC crushed viewership records. In Japan, every game drew over 30 million viewers, and the Championship game brought in 62 million. About 42 percent of Japanese households watched this game, despite starting at 8 A.M. local time.
In the United States, the tournament averaged 5.2 million viewers, and the championship peaked at 6.5 million. This beat out every game in the 2022 MLB regular season besides one between the Cubs vs. Reds Field of Dreams game that had everyone watching for the classic baseball cornfield from the movie.
“I was younger during the 2017 WBC so I don’t really remember that but this last WBC I watched every single game,” said sophomore Hayden Koesters. “I thought it was a great tournament but I still could really tell the difference in effort from country to country. I also didn’t see as many posts on social media on it like other pro tournaments get. I can’t imagine how little it was talked about before we convinced the stars to play.
The USA lineup is believed to be the best USA team in WBC history. The pitching staff includes highly praised arms in Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal leading the rotation, with relievers such as David Bednar, Clay Holmes, Mason Miller, and Griffin Jax, anchoring the very strong bullpen.
On the offensive side of the time they are led by AL MVP Aaron Judge, who will play the captain role this year. The starting lineup could also have stars like Cal Raeigh, Bryce Harper, Brice Turang, Gunnar Henderson, Bobby Witt Jr., Corbin Carrol, Bryon Buxton, and Kyle Schwarder.
Even the bench is stacked with elite talent: Pete Crow-Armstrong, Alex Bregman, Paul Goldschmidt, and Will Smith. This lineup shows how talented this team is, with them all combining for 14 All-star Games, six Silver Sluggers, and five World Series rings. This displays how the USA is finally taking this tournament seriously unlike previous years, all also being MLB all-stars.
The thing that separates the international teams and the USA in this tournament is the emotional depth and how much it really means to them.
The folloiwng quotes come from past international players talking about the WBC compared to the World Series:
“It would mean just as much, (to win the WBC over a World Series) if not more,” said Yadier Molina.
Yadier Molina has 2 World Series during his 19 year career while being an elite catcher for all of these years and he would still eather win a WBC Championship over a World Series.
“I was a World Series champion with the Red Sox, and this experience just has no comparisons. I get goosebumps just thinking about it,” said Christian Vázquez.
Another international catcher that feels the same way as Molina is Christian Váquez while not being an hall of fame catcher like Molina, Váquez still has a lot of impressive awards like a World Series win and would still take a WBC Championship over a World Series.
“Everything you do for your country has a bigger significance,” said Nelson Cruz.
For many countries, the WBC represents pride for the players’ country, family, and fans that spend their time and money watching. The United States has failed every year to reach the emotional depth that these other countries thrive in. The fans view it as a joke tournament to watch when they’re bored. Players and Coaches use it as warm ups, and they all fail to view it as what it was made for, to put their country’s name on their jersey and win for the love of the game and the love of your country, with the title of “best baseball country” being a shared victory for their nation.
