Opening day: How Baseball binds across national boundaries
I watched Ronald Acuña Jr. make some dazzling plays during his career with the Atlanta Braves.
Perhaps the most iconic moment of Mr. Acuña’s baseball career in right field occurred earlier this month in the bottom of the 9th inning of the championship game of the World Baseball Classic, the game’s premier international tournament.
Roman Anthony stood at home plate, with a single ball and two strikes with two outs, the letters USA emblazoned on his jersey. Jaws clenched, sinister and clenched, in the dugout of his club. On the other side of the diamond, the Venezuela team waved its arms, prompting a noisy crowd to stand. Neither side nor their supporters lost sight of the fact that, less than three months earlier, their nations were rivals in a different geopolitical power game.
Why we wrote this
Baseball’s opening day heralds the arrival of spring as surely as the geese’s migration north. As the United States takes a tougher stance against illegal immigration, this national pastime – with its rosters of great players from diverse nations – showcases the value of sports in uniting humanity in the common pursuit of teamwork and excellence.
From the mound, Venezuelan pitcher Daniel Palencia unleashed a 99.7 mph fastball. It curved inwards, then outwards. Anthony sliced it, too low, and the ball found the glove. Far in right field, Ronald Acuña Jr. fell to his knees, his arms stretched skyward, his face etched with childish joy.
Yesterday was Opening Day – the first in Major League history. For fans coming out of the long winter months of the offseason, the WBC, played once every three years, was an appetizer — and a reminder that while baseball is America’s national pastime, it is also the story told across generations of a nation growing toward its higher ideals of common affection and pluralism. (In the only Opening Day game, the New York Yankees blanked the San Francisco Giants 7-0 last night at Oracle Park in McCovey Cove.)
According to MLB, last year’s Opening Day featured 265 players from 18 countries and territories outside the United States. A fact sheet from the Immigration Research Institute at George Mason University puts these numbers in a broader context: Players from other countries make up 24 percent of the major leagues.
However, their on-field exploits are the best measure of their impact. Mr. Acuña, for example, won the National League Most Valuable Player award in 2023. His counterpart that year in the American League was Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese pitcher who is also the only player in baseball history to hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. Since then, he has won two more MVP awards and a World Series ring.
David Ortiz. Juan Marichal. Roberto Clemente. Fernando Valenzuela. Ichiro Suzuki. Names like these side by side in every clubhouse lore with names like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken Jr. Each brought their own blend of flair and flavor, sportsmanship and competitiveness.
Personally, I’m a fan of bat flips. The Dominican Republic became a fan favorite in the WBC thanks to MLB power hitters like Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Fernando Tatis Jr., who sent wood flying through the air almost as fast as they did baseballs. The Phillies’ Bryce Harper, whose home run in the WBC final against Venezuela tied the game, watched a fastball sail over the center field wall before swinging his bat toward a noisy U.S. dugout.
That kind of exuberance not only stokes the sand dreams of young people, but also inflates the bottom line of a sport that has struggled to attract a new generation of fans in more pressured times.
More than 10 million people watched the WBC Finals, a record for the event and comparable to last year’s World Series and NBA Finals.
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images/NPSTrans/TopPic/Reuters
“The WBC is somewhat of a springboard for the rest of our international efforts,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said. “It kind of gives you a building block to work on to build long-term business relationships with sponsors, broadcasters, etc.”
It reminds me of the NBA’s distinctive foray into international play with the success of the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs in the 2000s, with significant contributions from Frenchman Tony Parker and Manu Ginóbili, an Argentine. Almost a quarter of a century later, Spurs became contenders again thanks to another Frenchman, the dynamic Victor Wembanyama. Additionally, football ambassadors such as Arvydas Sabonis and the late Dražen Petrović have given way to current international stalwarts such as Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić.
Baseball has the ability to do the same thing. Last year’s World Series MVP was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who shut out the Blue Jays in a classic Game 7 performance.
The boys of summer are back and baseball is once again showing that, through sport, international camaraderie hovers above global uncertainty like a fastball transformed into a souvenir.
