The 2023 World Baseball Classic ended just the way everybody fantasized it might. Well, maybe with one minor adjustment.
With Team USA trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth inning, Mike Trout, possibly the greatest baseball player of the last decade stepped into the batter’s box as his team’s last hope. Standing on the mound opposite him was Shohei Ohtani, the 2021 American League MVP and baseball unicorn who is both an All-Star caliber hitter and pitcher.
He also happens to be Mike Trout’s teammate with the Los Angeles Angels.
After Ohtani challenged Trout with four triple-digit fastballs in a row, blowing two of them right by his teammate, the Japanese right-hander went into his bag of tricks and spun a slider that fooled Trout, getting the strikeout and the win for Team Japan. Ohtani launched his hat and glove with a roar that could only be matched by the enthusiasm of the commentators calling the game for Japanese TV.
大谷 翔平#WorldBaseballClassic
Via: TV Asahi pic.twitter.com/q221l14WVl— Cut4 (@Cut4) March 22, 2023
While the USA was unable to complete another epic comeback, as they did in their quarterfinal win over Venezuela, the disappointment for some fans in the United States was balanced by the unquestionable success of the 2023 World Baseball Classic.
Some, like vocal political commentator Keith Olbermann, claimed that the tournament was “meaningless” and called for it to be shut down after Mets closer Edwin Diaz suffered a potentially season-ending knee injury after Puerto Rico eliminated the Dominican Republic. A later injury to Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve added some fuel to the fire that this was the wrong time for the event to take place.
However, during Spring Training games, Mets centerfielder Brandon Nimmo sprained his knee, Dodgers infielder Gavin Lux tore his ACL, and Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly fractured his forearm, so the sad reality is that injuries will always be a risk whenever players are on the field, whether it’s in Spring Training exhibition games or a global tournament.
Despite the injury controversy, the overwhelming sentiment was just how meaningful this tournament was.
After the loss to Japan, Mike Trout tweeted: “It’s hard to sum up into words what these last couple of weeks have meant to me. I had the time of my life representing that USA on my chest! The energy was electric and made the WBC a moment I’ll always cherish. So thank you all so much. It was an honor to be your captain.”
San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Alex Wood also took to Twitter to express the envy he felt for the players who were able to represent their countries, and Mexican manager Benji Gil said after his team’s semifinal loss to Japan that “baseball won tonight.”
“These two weeks are going to attract so many young players in Mexico, and Mexicans that live abroad,” he added. “For that reason, I believe this was a victory even though we didn’t win today.”
However, it wasn’t just the players and managers who felt the significance of the event. Fans from around the world tuned into the World Baseball Classic in record-breaking numbers.
Team USA’s opening game against Great Britain on FOX averaged 1.592 million viewers. That made it the most-watched first-round game in America since 2009. Japan’s games set TV records for the island nation, outpacing even coverage of their own Olympics hosted in Tokyo. This year’s semifinals on FS1 and Fox Deportes averaged 2.4 million viewers, up 96% from the semis in 2017, when the tournament was televised by MLB Network and ESPN Deportes.
The records were set in person too. This year’s games drew 1,010,999 fans, which is up 98% versus the previous record of 510,056 in 2017. The average game attendance of 25,275 was also up 24% from 2017. Pool B, which was held at the Tokyo Dome, broke records for the most fans in any round in the history of the World Baseball Classic (361,976) with an average attendance of 36,198 fans.
In Phoenix, more than 47,000 fans turned out to watch Mexico beat the U.S. in pool play and nearly 36,000 showed up in Miami to see the U.S. beat Cuba in a semifinal game that 17-year MLB veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright, pitching for the U.S. in that game, called as wild an environment as he’d ever pitched in.
That kind of fan involvement is exactly what baseball has been in dire need of. As the NBA and NFL have grown globally, baseball has continued to do a poor job of marketing its star players and has had issues with blackout restrictions for local games. The World Baseball Classic gave the sport an ideal platform to let its biggest stars show out and do so with the passion of playing for their home country. Including Trea Turner, whose game-winning Grand Slam against Venezuela led to an outpouring of emotion most have never seen from the usually reserved shortstop.
Those who haven’t been as tuned into Major League Baseball over the last two years or don’t stay up late to watch West Coast games finally got to see the brilliance that is Shohei Ohtani.
An impending free agent after this year, Ohtani is likely to break all MLB records with his next contract, and rightfully so. In the World Baseball Classic, he hit .435/.606/.739 across seven games while also pitching in three games (two starts), recording a cumulative 1.86 ERA with 11 strikeouts and just five hits allowed in 9 2/3 innings. He collected two wins and one save.
Fans also got to learn about new stars like flame-throwing 21-year-old Japanese starter Roki Sasaki, the best young pitcher in the world, and Jacob Steinmetz, a 19-year old Arizona Diamondbacks prospect who was playing for Israel and struck out Manny Machado, Jeremy Pena, and Gary Sanchez in a game against the Dominican Republic.
For some players, the World Baseball Classic was a life-changing platform that allowed them an opportunity to showcase their talents against the best. Like 21-year-old Nicaraguan pitcher Duque Hebbert who stepped on the mound against the Dominican Republic and had to face Juan Soto, Julio Rodriguez, Machado, and Rafael Devers. “I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Hebbert told MLB.com in Spanish. “I got the toughest part of the lineup.”
Well, he struck out Soto and Rodriguez, and then after allowing a double to Machado, struck out Devers too. Tigers scout Luis Molina, who was working for Team Nicaragua in the World Baseball Classic, offered Hebbert a minor league contract on the spot.
There were also the players who will never make a Major League roster, but who used this one opportunity as a chance to live out childhood dreams. Like Czech starter Ondrej Satoria, who works as an electrician, but was able to strike out Shohei Ohtani with a 71 mph changeup in what he described as an experience “like [a] heart attack.”
So while Team USA didn’t emerge with a trophy, Benji Gil was right that baseball came out of the World Baseball Classic with a major win. It breathed life and passion into a sport that so desperately needed it. Now they just need to make the most of their second chance.
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