As I sit here watching the championship game of the World Baseball Classic between Team USA and Team Venezuela from Miami, Florida, USA, I couldn’t help getting drawn in by the opening ceremony.
In the US, these ceremonies are filled with celebrity performances of national anthems, seventh-inning stretches, and pregame performances. It is all fine, but to me, it distracts from what we are there to watch, a baseball game. This is where the World Baseball Classic (WBC) got it right.
The producers of the WBC had three clear goals. First, they wanted to celebrate baseball and the tournament. They did this with music, dance, and highlights of how we got to this evening’s game. For television viewers, we got graphics and video of each WBC host location, each highlighted with key game moments, accompanied by music fitting to each location. A country music intro for Houston, a Latin drum introduction for Puerto Rico, an Okedo-daiko (drum) with Bachi (wooden sticks) intro for Tokyo, and, of course, a party DJ introduction for Miami. This entire intro celebrated the game, the tournament, and put the “world” in World Baseball Classic.
Goal number two, the WBC celebrated the players as each team marched out from the outfield foul lines, with the team captains each carrying the flag of their country. Aaron Judge led Team USA as Salvador Perez led Team Venezuela. It was a slow march to home plate for each team as the players had their moment celebrating their achievement. Then, each starting lineup was introduced to the delight of the crowd, especially the Venezuelan fans, who American fans could learn a thing or two about baseball passion, myself included.
Finally, after team introductions, goal number three was met. Each national anthem was played to celebrate each country. No celebrity performances, they left that to the fans. It was a spectacular celebration of country pride on both sides.
It was a perfect set-up for what ended up being a great baseball game with Venezuela winning 3-2. I hope more classic sports games, such as the MLB All-Star Game, World Series, Super Bowl, NBA Finals, and others, use this as an inspirational model for celebrating their respective sports. Congratulations to Team Venezuela and the fans and people of Venezuela. They celebrated national pride through the game of baseball.
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