The sun shone brightly on a warm spring afternoon in Mexico City -- just weeks before the D-backs and Padres would take the same field -- confetti swirling in the air. The Kane County Cougars of the American Association, an MLB Partner League, had just defeated the Diablos Rojos del México from Liga Mexicana de Beisbol in the globe-spanning Baseball Champions League championship. This may not have been the World Baseball Classic, but there was still plenty of country pride on display: While Cougars middle infielder and tournament MVP Josh Allen held his award aloft, he was also wearing special American flag cleats.
Allen almost wasn’t here, though. The indy ball veteran had contemplated retiring at the end of last season, but Allen couldn’t say no to an international tourney and the chance to win more championships. Baseball doesn’t last forever.
“I really enjoy playing this game. It’s been what my life has been about since I was four years old,” Allen told MLB.com recently. “Obviously playing indy ball at 35, I don’t play for the money. I play for the love of it.”
The Cougars had lost in the semifinals last year, but the vibe was different from the start this time around.
“We got there this year, and day one coming and going from practice, guys are sitting in the back of the bus just laughing and joking,” Cougars outfielder and former big leaguer Dillon Thomas said. “Guys are giving Josh Allen a hard time because he claimed he was retiring last year. This season we're like, ‘Yeah, dude, I thought you were retiring, but here you are.’”
You could be forgiven if you missed the third installment of the Baseball Champions League, the event that unites club baseball teams from around the world in a tournament. (For European soccer fans, you’re well acquainted with the concept.) But even the most international-baseball-obsessed fan may have missed it as it fell in the short window between Venezuela’s victory against the United States in the WBC championship and MLB Opening Day.
That meant you missed some of the strangest baseball you’re likely to witness – the Diablos Rojos’ wind-and-altitude assisted 36-13 victory against Cuba’s Cocodrilos de Matanzas (whose logo is a grinning crocodile in a ballcap and with a baseball bat) is a scoreline you’re not likely to see any time soon – but also further proof of baseball’s continued growth around the planet. Previously known as the Baseball Champions League Americas, the Americas part was left off for this year’s tournament as in addition to USA’s Cougars, Mexico’s Diablos Rojos, Cuba’s Cocodrilos and Nicaragua’s Dantos de Managua, a farm team from Taiwan’s CTBC Brothers also took part in the tournament.
There were also plenty of big leaguers and World Baseball Classic veterans on the rosters, as well: Dantos had Nicaragua WBC players Benjamin Alegria, Osman Gutierrez and Carlos Teller on the roster, while the Diablos Rojos brought former MLB players Maikel Franco, Shane Greene, Francisco Mejía, and James Kaprielian – to name but a few. The Cougars had MLBers Thomas and Art Warren.
The tournament brought together a variety of different styles and ways of playing the game – in a way, it’s a celebration of both sport and life in general.
“You get to experience different cultures and take in a different city and a different country,” Allen said. “I love that. It’s great. It’s always fun getting to play against guys from other countries.”
“We played Cuba – we played them last year and they actually were the ones who took us out of the tournament – but I have no idea how they do it, they’re the kings of [making contact],” Thomas said. “It’s an offspeed pitch with two strikes and you’re trying to throw a put-away pitch. They’re the kings of throwing – literally throwing – their bat at the ball and making contact somehow. The bat ends up out in the field and they either foul it off or put the ball in play. But it’s like, dude, how do you even find out you’re good at that?”
Or there’s Nicaragua, who confounded Thomas with their pesky ability to push runs across the board.
“These guys could hit. We had guys throwing 95, 96 mph, and they’re just sitting there playing pepper, putting the ball in play and figuring out how to score runs,” Thomas said. “The one thing I’ve learned about baseball over the years is, man, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing on any given day. Somebody can get you or you can get them, so you’ve got to show up and respect the game.”
Thomas knows that a little better than most. Beyond his time in the big leagues and in the BCL, he spent time this past winter playing in China, suiting up for the Fuzhou Sea Knights alongside German national team star Lou Helmig.
“The way they play the game over there is completely different than how we play,” Thomas said. “It's a lot of small ball, it's a lot of pitching backwards, you know, bunt guys over, trying to hit and run, stuff like that.”
Thanks to his wealth of experience at the upper levels of the sport, Thomas became a quasi-coach on the team.
“They would constantly ask or want us to speak up during team meetings and be like, ‘Hey, if you see anything, tell us, let us know,'” Thomas said. “And then every day, it was just little things throughout the game that you do without even really thinking about, just instinctual stuff, whether it's like a dirt ball read or going first to third on a ball.”
And while both Allen and Thomas may harbor dreams of big league stardom, they’ve now seen the world in a way that few have.
“You get to experience different cultures and take in the different city, the different country and the people,” Allen said. “I love that. It's great. And the stadium [Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú] is beautiful down there. And of course, obviously, what everybody likes about playing in Mexico City is definitely the altitude. You definitely get rewarded for good contact in that stadium.”
“I would love to have had a long, lengthy career in the big leagues, but if not for getting away from affiliated ball, I don't think I would have had some of these opportunities,” Thomas said. “I've been able to play in Mexico now. I've been able to go play in Dubai. I've been able to play in China. Those experiences, taking me to different parts of the world, that without baseball, I probably don't even ever go to or really think about going to.”
While Thomas needed a translator in China and the two weren’t able to speak with everyone they faced during the Baseball Champions League last month, there is still one thing that united everyone: The language of baseball.
“Whether you're from another country or not, or you speak a different language or not, when you grow up playing baseball and you've played professionally, or you're playing into your 20s or 30s, and it's been your entire life, everybody's been through similar experiences, and so there's definitely that universal language within baseball,” Allen said. “Regardless whether you speak the same native language or cultural language there's the language of baseball that is very international, that everybody knows.”