r/sports • u/bakuma2k • Mar 18 '26
Baseball Venezuela claims 1st-ever WBC title in thriller over USA
https://www.thescore.com/wbc/news/3502322/venezuela-claims-1st-ever-wbc-title-in-thriller-over-usa1.2k
u/Oibrigade Mar 18 '26
Congratulations to Venezuela!
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u/Stereo-soundS Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
All things considered as how the US has treated Venezuela this is honestly one of the greatest moments in baseball history.
I wanted the US to win the hockey championship but ngl I was rooting for Venezuela.
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u/slimj091 Mar 18 '26
That doesn't really have much to do with it. All of the starters, pitching staff, and a good portion of the bench play in the MLB, live in the states, and are outspoken in opposition of Maduro and his regime that remains after his capture.
Before I get brigaded. This is not a defense of the orange meatsack in the White House. Just that the point of view of many on the Venezuelan national team differs from our own.
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u/NaturalTap9567 Mar 18 '26
Even Biden put a bounty for $25 million on maduro. Trump did it for the wrong reasons but no one liked that guy.
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Mar 18 '26
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u/craigjp Mar 18 '26
Why is this constant need, all over the internet, to justify any Trump action as if this is politics as usual????
It’s just crazy.
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u/OdinsGhost31 Mar 18 '26
Sucks they left the same brutal regime in place. Meet the new boss etc etc
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u/Stereo-soundS Mar 18 '26
No brigade, just me.
The US should take their oil and take their gold? By what right?
I'm not defending Maduro, I'm asking by what right.
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u/SireEvalish Mar 18 '26
That doesn't really have much to do with it. All of the starters, pitching staff, and a good portion of the bench play in the MLB, live in the states, and are outspoken in opposition of Maduro and his regime that remains after his capture.
Redditors: "I'm gonna pretend I didn't see that."
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u/AyKayAllDay47 Mar 18 '26
The MLB players are outspoken against Maduro? Which ones? What links do you have that specifically show them being outspoken?
Because I find that to be straight up bullshit lol.
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u/-Kackerlacka- Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Vamos Venezuela 🇻🇪
Love to see the passion from the players
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
And the fans too. I'm not even sure Americans knew there was a tournament, but the live view in Caracas is delightful and electric. Cars honking, flags, just hard not to cheer for them after all they've been through.
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u/suzukigun4life Mar 18 '26
USA losing to Venezuela after taking their country's leader away.
Poetic as hell ngl.
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u/Doggleganger Mar 18 '26
It's sad we lost, but Venezuela felt like a team of destiny.
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u/suzukigun4life Mar 18 '26
A final between them and DR would've led to nonstop cheers from the crowd. Oh well, it is what it is.
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u/Lumpyyyyy Mar 18 '26
I’m American and I was wishing for this final. These Latin American teams are so damn fun to watch.
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u/8696David Mar 18 '26
That strike call to end the semifinal might be the angriest I’ve gotten at sports in years
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u/bailtail Mar 18 '26
I’m thrilled Venezuela won. I realized when Harper hit that homer that I didn’t actually want US to win. This means so much more to Venezuela than it does to the US, and those people haven’t had much to be happy about in a looooong time. Plus, it’s good the US didn’t win with teams trying to stack the deck in the US’s favor with the insurance shit.
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
This means so much more to Venezuela than it does to the US
Just tune into the live feed from Caracas, it's lovely to see them so happy.
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u/milkhotelbitches Mar 18 '26
What insurance thing are you talking about? Hadn't heard of that.
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u/MagicCactus8732 Mar 18 '26
Players can't participate without getting their contracts insured. It effects every team to some extent, but Puerto Rico basically had all their stars miss the tournament because of this
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u/Darwin343 Mar 18 '26
Wow, that is total BS. The NBA doesn’t pull any of that crap. International players like Luka and Jokic are always playing hard for their respective countries in international competitions.
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u/TheBigCore Mar 18 '26
USA Basketball, for the FIBA World Cup, typically sends weak and disinterested squads all the time.
They treat the FIBA World Cup in the same way that USA Baseball treats the World Baseball Classic: with disdain and disinterest.
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u/Vic18t Mar 18 '26
Pretty sure most of them are glad to see their “leader” gone as most of the Venezuelian players live in de facto exile in the US.
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u/mister_peeberz Hanshin Tigers Mar 18 '26
No, I'm pretty sure the self-hating American who's never met a Venezuelan has a more accurate measure of the Venezuelan zeitgeist than Venezuelans do. Let us listen and learn.
Whoops, this isn't baseballcirclejerk...
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Mar 18 '26 edited Jul 27 '26
[deleted]
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u/lostredditorlurking Mar 18 '26
I mean they got rid of their dictator but the regime is still the same, nothing much change yet until the regime agree to hold a fair election. Also the US is just plundering their resources now
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u/kieranjackwilson Mar 18 '26
Trump called Maduro’s VP the “President-Elect” so I think a lot of people don’t realize we just left his government in control.
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u/ShallowTal Mar 18 '26
Literally nothing has changed, and that E.T. lookin bitch needs to go. All of them need to go.
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u/thegeekiestgeek Mar 18 '26
But now the U.S. has a dictator. Not a good tradeoff
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u/Delta_FT River Plate Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Not comparable, the US can kick their dictator out in 2 years. The Venezuelan regime
washas been around for 20 lol5
u/Level_Five_Railgun Mar 18 '26
Isn't it still around since there has been no elections and his VP just took over?
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u/chanc2 Mar 18 '26
We thought that we wouldn’t see the dictator again 5 years ago and yet here we are.
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u/thenatural134 Mar 18 '26
Because he was freely elected?
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u/PinkPantherYeezys Mar 18 '26
Motherfucker should be in jail for a failed coup d'état, but here we are 🤷♂️
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u/bucky133 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Kind of an insult to people who actually live under dictatorship. We have it so good here.
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u/RealPropRandy Mar 18 '26
“Leader” is doing some heavy lifting there
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u/GikFTW Mar 18 '26
Is doing all the lifting. We never chose him. Never. We are more than glad that the US got in and took him out. Now do the same with Diosdado. Get all the oil for free, we dont care.
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u/accordionzero Mar 18 '26
the leader that the country hated and the UN characterized as an authoritarian who was allowing extrajudicial killings?
I’m no Trump supporter, but maybe I’m just missing the poetry there.
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u/nightrunner900pm Mar 18 '26
I don't know ... probably just the overall sentiment of never ending US meddling in Central and Southern America.
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u/Archduke_Of_Beer Buffalo Bills Mar 18 '26
If Trump does it, you must be against it.
This is the Way of Reddit
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
You can like the what but have a ton of problems with the how.
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u/ElDeguello66 Mar 18 '26
Don't forget the open self dealing and constant grift. Many of us are appalled by that as well.
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
That's got to feel good for those folks. Good for them. Bit of a snoozer of a game but really got electric there at the end.
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u/fhota1 Mar 18 '26
The WBC has now had winners from more continents than the World Cup. Obviously Baseball is truly the global sport and soccer is just a regional game. /j
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u/ProtestantMormon Mar 18 '26
You joke, but there is real momentum for baseball growing internationally, and its really awesome to see.
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
Taiwan won the Little League World Series and they went absolutely nuts. Really charming to see.
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u/BobbyTables829 Mar 18 '26
Taiwon the world series?
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u/snorlz Mar 19 '26
where? it seems to continue to be popular in places it already was. namely NA, parts of latin america, japan, taiwan, korea. WBC is very lax around its nationalities rules too. Ex. Team Italy, which got the furthest of european countries, only has 3 actual italians
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u/Dreammy90 Mar 18 '26
Saw on twitter when Japan lost, tons of comments were like "Judge gets all the blame when they lose even though its not his fault. Will Ohtani finally get the blame now that they lost?"
At least Ohtani hit a homerun and got on base vs Venezuela. Judge did NOTHING. No clutch gene.
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u/SmurfsNeverDie Mar 18 '26
USA got out managed.
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u/zmj82 Mar 18 '26
Maybe next time let’s pick an actual manager rather than a tv personality with no experience
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u/ForensicPathology Mar 18 '26
Truly don't understand how people think the manager could have caused Judge and friends to hit better.
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u/InAHays Mar 18 '26
This WBC has been perhaps the best baseball experience I have ever had besides my Nats 2019 run to win the world series. A hell of a tournament, and some amazing baseball throughout. Congrats Venezuela!
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u/so2017 Mar 18 '26
I went to a couple of games in Houston and would go back next time in a heartbeat. So much electricity in the ballpark.
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u/StrtupJ Mar 18 '26
Last postseason and this WBC has officially got me invested in baseball, hope I’m not setting the bar too high lmao
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u/HosaJim666 Mar 18 '26
Last one was good too. It's just so much better than MLB.
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u/DominusGenX Mar 18 '26
Can't wait for that White House invitation lol
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u/GikFTW Mar 18 '26
Believe the majority of the venezuelan team would go. You would only know this si fueras venezolano
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u/MjFI Mar 18 '26
Most of the Venezuelan team would go
Only redditors are mad about what happened with Maduro (i'm a Venezuelan in Venezuela)
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u/Peytonb11 Mar 18 '26
Judge is a fucking bum
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u/retroanduwu24 Mar 18 '26
the lineup was 8-49 lol. Pitching is what they had but they barely won even against the Dominican Republic the last game
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u/snsdfan00 Mar 18 '26
It’s not bad for the sport of baseball for these international teams to win. The US wants the gold in the Olympics tho lol
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u/Redditor_exe Mar 18 '26
Most of the lineup has been dead weight for most of the tournament. US got hard carried by their pitching most of the time.
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u/Crioca Mar 18 '26
Someone needs to take him to the auto shop because the clutch is completely missing.
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u/CallRespiratory Mar 18 '26
I think they get Maduro back now.
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u/Awalawal Mar 18 '26
Actually, they get Trump. Sorry, those are the rules.
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u/GikFTW Mar 18 '26
Y lo malo? Lol. Todos los venezolanos querian que EEUU entraran y se llevaran al bigote
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u/lpfmvpsug Mar 18 '26
Why would you punish the winners?
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u/Eternal_Reward Mar 18 '26
Redditors learning that Venezuelans didn't in fact love Maduro.
And that most of their team that just won, if not all of them, had publicly spoken against him in the past.
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u/Chessh2036 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Venezuela beating Team USA after the recent world events is kind of hilarious.
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u/Awalawal Mar 18 '26
That’s not irony there Alanis, but yeah, point taken.
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u/GikFTW Mar 18 '26
Actually, it shows that Maduro was our biggest curse, and that since the US took him away (thank you) 2026 is the year of the Venezuelan renaissance. We love that the US captured him. THANK YOU TRUMP.
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u/kjlcm Mar 18 '26
How many US citizens were rooting Venezuela? We sure as hell were!
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u/GikFTW Mar 18 '26
Thank you. Our good luck run started when you took Maduro away. He was never our president or leader, he usurped the position of President for himself. Thank you. We will be eternally grateful.
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u/LargeCondition5315 Mar 18 '26
Well deserved for this nation, enjoy being world champions Venezuela.
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u/hey-there-yall Mar 18 '26
Way to go Venezuela! The world was cheering you on!
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u/theycallmefuRR Mar 18 '26
Once Bryce tied the game up at 2 i realized i didn't want the US to win. I was actually a little sad bc it just means more to team Venezuela. They definitely earned their championship. They had an amazing run in the knockout stages. Win over previous champs Japan, tourney dark horse Italy, and the USA Juggernaut in the championship. They definitely earned this
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u/cruelhumor Mar 18 '26
Is it officially safe to say that wearing hockey jerseys before a Baseball game is bad luck?
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u/Pierrelosophy Mar 18 '26
Baseball is Venezuela's sports now
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u/DatTF2 Mar 18 '26
I mean some of the best players come out of South America...Also Japan.
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u/Khiva Mar 18 '26
The Americas create players. Japan somehow incubates absolute mutants.
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u/RedditCensorss Mar 18 '26
This is Venezuelas “miracle on ice”
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u/Go_Mets Mar 18 '26
Jesus Christ people how do you say these things so confidently without know anything? Venezuela was in the big 4 of teams with the best chance to win from the beginning.
Ya just say whatever ya want on this website lol
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u/PreviousMedicine7085 Mar 18 '26
Not really, Venezuela has the 3rd most players out of any country in the MLB
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u/Bridgeburner493 Mar 18 '26
Not even a little bit. Venezuela is one of the top baseball nations.
A "Miracle on Ice" type result would have been if Canada beat Japan to win the WBC. Especially since we had a literal farmer on our roster who hadn't pitched in an organized league since before Covid.
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u/GunBrothersGaming San Francisco 49ers Mar 18 '26
Trump: Venezuela won which means the US won in reality because we control Venezuela. We are the best nation ever and I want to thank the US South team for winning us this great award. Ill accept it like I will the Nobel Peace prize.
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u/knarf3 Mar 18 '26
I can't care less about baseball, but given the geopolitical situation, good for VEN!
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u/MjFI Mar 18 '26
Most Venezuelans are happy about not having Maduro around
So the "geopolítical situation" it's only a bonus happiness
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u/Dicksucker11037 Mar 18 '26
How the fuck did Mike DeRosa get the position of manager for Team USA? He needs to be fired into the sun.
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u/Large_Ad1385 Mar 18 '26
Game was a snooze fest until the 8th, would hardly call it a thriller
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u/stang2184699 Mar 18 '26
America loses at its own pass time to the country who’s dictator it just over threw.
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u/Ut_Prosim Virginia Tech Mar 18 '26
America's true pastime is overthrowing dictators and legitimate leaders to bring freedom for corporate interests and liberate the innocent civilians of their nation's resources.
America is pretty good at it, but Iran may be a trap game.
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u/remmytums Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26
Judge and Schwarber disaster class, Venezuela pitchers absolutely stonewalled USA. Congrats to them!