World Baseball Classic - USA vs Canada
Rivalry Night... sort of
I have never been to Chase Field with an atmosphere like this. Team USA and Team Canada in pool play at the World Baseball Classic, with Team USA fresh off a rough loss to Mexico, was electric at first pitch. I know the USA-Mexico matchup on Saturday was even bigger (tickets were on resale markets for $100+), but given how many Canadians spend at least some time down here in the desert, it was a lively crowd.
I never paid much attention to the WBC before. I had been to a game in 2013, USA against Italy, which was about as sparsely attended as you might expect. And then with the delay to the 2021 event until this year, I did not give it much thought. But then we parked ourselves down in the right field bleachers and it was instantly the most energetic baseball crowd I’ve ever been a part of in a decade in Arizona.
The crowd felt evenly split, with some fans dressed in the stars and stripes, and many, many Canadian fans showing off their maple leaf clothing. And then the US scored nine in the first inning. They hit for the cycle… 4 walks, 2 singles, a double by Nolan Arenado, a triple by Cedric Mullins and a home run by Mike Trout. The game went from pregame buzz to World Series levels before the first inning was complete.
If I was a World Baseball Classic skeptic before, I’m converted. This event is awesome, especially now that the US is all-in (at least from a position-player perspective). The geographic rivalries are bigger in some places than anything the MLB can offer. The USA-Mexico crowd was 47,534! LoanDepot Park (Miami Marlins) drew 36,025 for Puerto Rico-Dominican Republic, which will be about 4x the Marlins average crowd this year. And Japan-South Korea was watched by almost half of the televisions in Japan. The group stage drew over a million fans in total, which was almost twice as many as the previous record.
So in four years, if you have a chance to get to any games, it’s a must visit for every baseball fan. Even if you can’t see your country, try to get to some kind of rivalry game. The USA games against our northern and southern neighbors were electric. Any matchup of Caribbean or Asian nations has patriotic crowds and excitement that matches anything playoff baseball can offer. Just start saving up now. All those imported Mexican beers the American and Canadian were drinking were $14.75 a can!