LAS VEGAS -- “Viva Venezuela!” a fan in the crowd at the Chelsea Theater yelled as William Contreras walked onto the stage with the Brewers’ Commissioner’s Trophy.
Team Venezuela won its first World Baseball Classic title back in March, excelling in a thrilling championship game against Team USA in which Eugenio Suárez’s go-ahead RBI double in the top of the ninth carried his country to an electric 3-2 victory.
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Months later, and even after two of Venezuela’s biggest stars in Jackson Chourio and Contreras won the World Series with the Brewers, that World Baseball Classic still sits at the forefront of Venezuelans' minds.
“No team had sazon quite like Team Venezuela,” said MLB Network’s Siera Santos. “Despite turmoil and unrest in their homeland, a roster of superstars armed with bats and tambores brought an entire nation together ... to celebrate history: Venezuela's first-ever WBC title.”
Chourio and Contreras were joined by William’s brother Willson in Las Vegas on Wednesday night, when Team Venezuela was honored at the MLB Awards Show at the Chelsea Theater at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
“It's a dream come true,” Willson Contreras said. “Being part of a WBC champion is another level. I'm proud to be Venezuelan. I’m proud to come out of there to the USA to find my way to the big leagues. But I'm also proud to be from Venezuela and inspire the kids that are watching on TV. So this goes to Venezuela.”
The WBC came at the height of conflict in Venezuela that gave the group more motivation than ever.
“It means a lot to win the WBC for Venezuela,” Willson Contreras said. “It finally happened this year, and we did it for our country. We had a good team. We were facing the USA. We knew that we had a tough job to do against them, but you know what? We believe in God, and we pray for us to win the championship. We dedicated the whole tournament to Venezuela because we needed that."