William Locke | The Critic's Corner
It started with a 4-2 Netherlands win over Cuba and ended with a 3-2 wipeout slider from Shohei Ohtani to strike out his Angels teammate Mike Trout. It spanned two continents, three countries, and four host cities. It featured the most elite players in baseball, from both MLB and other top leagues worldwide, and players that work full-time jobs, such as teaching high school geography or auditing for KPMG. It had some of the most compelling games baseball fans have watched in years, played in electric atmospheres comparable to and even exceeding those we experience in the World Series. The 2023 World Baseball Classic was a celebration of baseball and everything that makes it the greatest sport in the world.
I have been lucky enough to attend a lot of high-stakes sporting events in my life. I've been to a World Series game at Wrigley Field, win-or-go-home MLB playoff games, multiple Michigan-Ohio State football games in the Big House, NBA playoff games, and even the US Open in New York. I was also lucky enough to attend two WBC quarterfinal matchups in Miami last week, Puerto Rico vs. Mexico and USA vs. Venezuela. The atmosphere in the stadium and the intensity at which the players approached the WBC games that I attended last week were at the level, and in some cases exceeded, the atmosphere and intensity in all of the major sporting events I had attended previously. Luis and I mentioned on the podcast that we were both physically drained by the 7th inning of both games due to the constant energy and passion from the fans in the stadium those nights. The games were so electric that our voices were toast in quiet car rides back home, as we were still processing what we had just experienced. An enthralling five-run comeback from Team Mexico on Friday night followed by a back-and-forth game capped off with a historic grand slam from Trae Turner (that sent the crowd into an absolute frenzy and will be one of those "I was there!!" moments for the rest of my life, by the way) on Saturday night, Luis and I both knew that those were two of the best baseball games that we will ever attend.
The players knew it too. There is something different about representing your country on the biggest international stage the game has to offer. Mike Trout called the WBC "the most fun that he has had on a baseball field," and has already committed to being a member of Team USA in the 2026 WBC. In an interview with FOX Trout said, "I think that's coming from all of the guys. Talking to them, just how proud we are wearing that across our chest, and just coming out here in the ninth inning and hearing the 'USA' chants, it's special, man." Trae Turner called his grand slam against Venezuela the biggest hit of his entire career and said the atmosphere inside of LoanDepot Park that night was the loudest he had ever experienced (can confirm - it was electric). Yankees second baseman and Venezuelan international Gleyber Torres said, "I don't know how a World Series feels in New York; I think it's awesome too. But the WBC is amazing. It's another level. Many Latin players, many Latin fans. The crowd, the fans, the energy when you play in those situations - it's just unreal." Multiple players from Team Dominican Republic claimed they would rather win a WBC for their country than a World Series. For a tournament that crept up on a lot of baseball fans and has been maligned in the past for being "meaningless" and posing too much of an injury threat to MLB players so close to the start of the regular season, the 2023 iteration of the WBC left no doubts that this tournament means the world to these players and, in some cases, more than winning a World Series.
What makes the WBC so unique, and helps it stand out against the World Series, is the fact that it does not ostracize any fans. While the World Series is the highest level of competition baseball can offer, it only features two teams from two cities, and sometimes the same city a la 2000 Subway Series. Sure, fans of those teams are living and dying with every pitch, but fans from the other 28 teams have no real rooting interest, with many casual fans turning their attention to football once their baseball team has been eliminated from contention. Being a Yankee fan myself, I haven't had a real rooting interest in the World Series, outside of rooting desperately against the Red Sox and Astros, since 2009. Imagine being a Pirates fan, having not had a rooting interest in the World Series since 1979, or a Mariners fan, having never experienced seeing your team in the World Series since it was founded in 1977. The WBC kept fans of all 30 MLB teams, and leagues around the world, engaged from start to finish, something that the World Series simply cannot do.
A major factor in fans' interest in the WBC, outside of pride for their country, was being able to watch and root for the game's best players. Most American fans, including myself, don't watch the Japanese League, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Despite not being popular in the US, NPB features some of baseball's most talented players. Many fans got to watch NPB prodigies Munetaka Murakami, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki, all players that will be playing in MLB in the coming years, for the first time in this WBC. MLB legends Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and now Shohei Ohtani all started their careers in NPB.
As a Team USA fan, I was able to root for players that I have never rooted for in the past. Being a Yankee fan, I had the unfortunate experience of having to root against Mookie Betts for six long seasons while he was in Boston. Now that he is in LA playing for the Dodgers, I no longer root against him, but still have never had the luck of having him on my favorite team, until now. I found that having MLB's top stars on my team, Team USA, and getting to actively root for them was an incredibly fun experience. Players that I normally would not have any rooting interest in, such as Mike Trout or Nolan Arenado, were all of a sudden playing high stake games in a tournament that mattered for a team that I desperately wanted to win. It's fun rooting for great players! Take that and add in the fact that baseball's best player since Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, also played in this tournament and you have what was the unforgettable 2023 World Baseball Classic.
The attendance, TV ratings, and social media metrics back this up. The first round of the 2023 WBC drew just over 1 million fans, which is a 98% increase from the 2017 edition of the tournament. Chase Field in Phoenix drew 47,000 fans for Team USA's pool play matchup with Team Mexico, a game that Mexico won 11-5. Fans in Miami showed up in droves for elimination round matchups, with just under 36,000 fans attending the semifinal between USA and Cuba. The final between USA and Japan was a sellout.
TV viewership broke records as well. The most-watched MLB game of all time was Game 6 of the 1980 World Series between the Phillies and Royals, which drew an average of 54.86 million viewers in the United States. Japan alone, a country with 125 million people, drew 62 million viewers for Samurai Japan's pool play game against Korea, shattering the World Series record. While viewership numbers from last night's title game between Japan and USA have not been released yet, many think it could be the most-viewed baseball game ever.
The WBC social media metrics are also off the charts and shatter traditional MLB engagement numbers. The video of Trae Turner's go-ahead grand slam against Venezuela already has 8 million views on Twitter. For comparison, Aaron Judge's 62nd HR last September has 2.9 million views, Albert Pujols's 700th HR has 2.2 million views and Bryce Harper's clutch Game 5 NLCS home run has 2.4 million views. The video of the final out from the title game, you may ask? 13.7 million views on Twitter in a mere 20 hours. Not too shabby for a "dying" sport, eh?
The players themselves have increased their social media followings thanks to the WBC. American-born Lars Nootbaar, the first non-Japanese-born player to play for Samurai Japan, had 59k Instagram followers on March 1st. As of the writing of this article on March 22nd, Nootbaar's following has skyrocketed to 782k; he became a sensation with viral pregame speeches and wholesome interactions with Ohtani. Ohtani himself, the sport's biggest star, started the tournament with 2 million Instagram followers. He doubled that over the course of the tournament and is now the most-followed MLB player of all time, with 4.6 million followers and counting. Ohtani is the first MLB player to exceed 4 million Instagram followers. While this may largely be in part due to the rabid Japanese baseball fanbase, it still represents significant growth for a sport that normally receives lower social media engagement compared to other American sports.
Fans around the globe attended, watched on TV, and interacted online with the WBC at astounding rates. It all culminated with a moment that still feels surreal for many baseball fans, a showdown between the game's two best players, Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. You couldn't have written a better script. People that normally have no interest in baseball were aware of what was taking place last night. ESPN talk shows were leading with the WBC Final this morning - they never lead with baseball! That is unheard of! I even have a friend who hates baseball text me last night saying, "That's the most interested I've been watching baseball literally ever." The 2023 WBC had people from all walks of life hooked.
Now, baseball needs to ride this momentum into the 2023 MLB season. At its roots, baseball is the purest form of entertainment sport can offer, there is a reason it was the most popular sport in the United States for so long. A slew of factors but mainly the steroid era, the strike in 1994-95, longer games, an increase in strikeouts, and lack of action caused baseball's popularity in the United States to dwindle over time. Watching a batter trying to get on base, however, whether through a walk or hit, is fundamentally the most interesting event that takes place in any sport. The rudimentary interest in watching that event take place is still there and has been there for decades, it was outside factors that caused interest in baseball to crater. Baseball needs to get back to its roots to make a comeback in the United States.
The new rules for the 2023 season should help casual fans' interest as they eliminate the dead time that so many fans have complained about for years. Shorter games mean more action and less time for attention to be drawn elsewhere. These are changes that should have happened years ago but nonetheless should help baseball's popularity moving forward.
The star power in the league right now also lends the optimistic fan to think baseball can make a comeback. Aaron Judge in New York, Shohei Ohtani, Mike Trout, and Mookie Betts in Los Angeles are just a few of the game's biggest stars that play in its biggest markets. MLB needs to market Ohtani as the once-in-a-lifetime player that he is. They need to put the Angels on as many nationally televised games as possible, put him in every commercial and social media post that they can, and have him do public outings; MLB needs to do whatever it takes to make Shohei Ohtani a household name. Hell, MLB could even move up the start time of some Angels home games so fans on the east coast can watch Ohtani and Trout do their thing. Ohtani needs to be in the same circles and as famous as LeBron James and other stars in Los Angeles.
Shohei Ohtani is the most unique and talented athlete that most people alive today have seen in their lifetimes and he is making baseball cool again. There is no better time than now for baseball to take advantage of what they have in Ohtani, and other stars such as Aaron Judge, to help grow the game in the United States. The 2023 WBC helped get the momentum going, now the onus is on Rob Manfred and MLB to continue baseball's comeback in America.
Cover image by Megan Briggs/Getty Images
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