Led by a staff of legends, Team Puerto Rico ready to make noise in the Classic

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- If you thought JetBlue Park was full of prideful noise for Team Puerto Rico for Tuesday night’s 5-3 win over the Red Sox, wait until the squad gets to San Juan’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

The vuvuzelas that were ever-present at a venue that is two hours from Miami will be even louder starting Friday, when a baseball-crazed island gets to see their team up close for several days in pool play of the World Baseball Classic.

The temporary deflation the island felt when it was learned Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa and Javy Báez wouldn’t be able to participate this year due to various reasons has long since subsided.

Team Puerto Rico plans on representing with passion and solid play.

“Man, we take it seriously,” said Puerto Rico GM Carlos Beltrán. “We don't have this opportunity to wear PR on our chest or PR on our heads that often. When we get this opportunity, we try to show up for our fans. Puerto Rico is a small island in the Caribbean. For years, we have proved that baseball is a religion on our island. We love baseball. We breathe baseball. And the fact that we're playing at home, we're going to make a lot of fans proud during the series in Puerto Rico.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora -- the GM of the Puerto Rico squad in 2017 that made a surprising run to the championship game before losing to Team USA -- will be tuning in closely from Fort Myers.

“I think the [initial] disappointment is that we are hosting for the first time in a while, and [Lindor, Correa and Báez] were going to play together,” said Cora. “So from that end, people got upset for two days, and now everybody's behind these guys. They already bleached their hair, including Nolan [Arenado].”

Yes, Nolan Arenado. After suiting up for Team USA in 2017 and ‘23, the eight-time All-Star Arenado was invited to participate for Puerto Rico this time. And it is an honor he isn’t taking lightly. In fact, when Arenado belted an RBI single as part of Puerto Rico’s three-run surge in the top of the first inning on Tuesday, the noise might have led you to believe that it was his best friend Trevor Story who got that hit for the Red Sox.

“Just seeing all the fans, even here for an exhibition game, it’s crazy,” Arenado said. “Just the passion of the players, even having dinner with all the guys, you can see how much it means to them. So all you can do is give it your all. There's no other way.”

Though Team Puerto Rico’s roster isn’t as stacked as in some previous classics, the front office is fronted by a Hall of Famer in Beltrán and a manager in Yadier Molina who will likely join him in Cooperstown before long.

Then there is the coaching staff, which is a who’s who of baseball men who are revered in Puerto Rico, such as hitting coaches Edgar Martinez and Juan Gonzalez, first base coach Sandy Alomar Jr., and Cora’s older brother Joey, who is coaching third. Carlos Delgado, a fearsome slugger in his day, is helping Beltran in an advisory capacity.

The construction of the support staff was very intentional by Beltran.

“One of the things that I told the younger guys is I tried to put together a coaching staff that has a lot of wisdom and knowledge about the game of baseball,” Beltrán said. “I told the younger guys to try to take advantage of that opportunity. They should try to gain something out of that and add it to their game so they can continue to move forward.”

In San Juan, these games will be viewed as far more than an event. And 86-year-old Iris Amora, Alex and Joey’s mother, got a reminder of that on Tuesday.

“I had a conversation with my mom today about tickets,” said Alex Cora. “She told my sister, ‘I'm not going’, and I had to pick up the phone. I said, ‘Listen, I know how you are, I know how you feel, but this is important for us.’ You have to go’ And she will.”

This spectacle is not optional for any baseball lover from Puerto Rico.

“At the end of the day, we feel that we have a good, young team with talent,” said Beltrán. “There’s no doubt you miss some of the big-piece guys like Lindor, Correa, Baez, [Jose] Berríos. But this will be a good environment. This opportunity to represent your country and to play back in Puerto Rico, it will allow some of the younger guys here to have an experience they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”