MIAMI -- A small band marched through the concourse at loanDepot park shortly before Sunday’s game, working the Dominican Republic fans into a lather before the first pitch was even thrown. The party didn’t stop for more than two hours, as the D.R. lineup kept the drummers busy all afternoon,

MIAMI – For eight innings Saturday, Team Netherlands looked helpless at the plate, stranding 10 men on base while going hitless in six tries with runners in scoring position. One swing by Ozzie Albies erased all of that frustration, turning what would have been a crushing defeat into a Classic

MIAMI – Friday’s opener was a family affair for the Netherlands. Andruw Jones, who will enter the Baseball Hall of Fame this summer, is managing the team for the first time after playing for the Netherlands in 2006 and 2013. And while he had familiarity with most of his players

MIAMI – Three years ago, Venezuela went undefeated in pool play, opening the World Baseball Classic with four straight victories before falling to the United States in the quarterfinals. The 2026 Classic started out in similar fashion for Venezuela, as a four-run fifth inning propelled them to a 6-2 win

Get ready to dive into World Baseball Classic pool play. The 2026 tournament, which gets underway this week, features four pools: A, B, C and D. Each of those pools consists of five teams battling it out in a round-robin format. The top two teams from each pool then advance

SARASOTA, Fla. -- In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, many young baseball players would be in their backyard imitating catches made by Andruw Jones, a premier MLB center fielder at the time. His popularity was even greater in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), as Jones made

NORTH PORT, Fla. -- Along with representing their baseball-rich island nation of Curacao during the upcoming World Baseball Classic, Ozzie Albies and Jurickson Profar will have the chance to play for the Hall of Famer they idolized as children. “I’ve known Andruw [Jones] since I was a young guy,” Profar

By the time Chadwick Tromp started playing catcher at age 11, he could already speak multiple languages. Growing up in Aruba, Tromp was fluent in Papiamento -- an Afro-Portuguese Creole language he spoke at home. At school, he learned English and Spanish. All other subjects were taught in Dutch, the

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is sure to be one of the most intriguing teams in the World Baseball Classic. It will combine the top talent from the Netherlands -- the jewel of European baseball and a 25-time winner of the European Baseball Championship, including in 2025 – and the

Below is a list of the players in every Major League organization who have been included on the rosters for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Pitchers denoted with ^ are part of the Designated Pitcher Pool (DPP), a reserve of up to six pitchers per federation that can be called

The World Baseball Classic begins on Wednesday, March 4, at 10 p.m. ET in a game between Australia and Chinese Taipei. It will kick off a fortnight of absolute madness, with the best baseball players on the planet highly motivated by patriotism, pride and plain old competitiveness squaring off in

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Ceddanne Rafaela (Curacao) was raised just an island away from Xander Bogaerts (Aruba). And for five years, they played in the same Red Sox organization, only Bogaerts was a star shortstop in Boston and Rafaela was working his way up through the Minor League system.

PEORIA, Ariz. -- The Padres' middle infield is back in Peoria -- far sooner than they would've hoped. Xander Bogaerts, whose Team Netherlands narrowly missed reaching the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals, returned to the Padres’ clubhouse on Wednesday. He was in the lineup against the Guardians before that game was

After Pool A of the World Baseball Classic ended in a five-way tie, Cuba and Italy are advancing to the next round. Cuba wins the pool based on tiebreakers and will face Australia, the Pool B runner-up, in the quarterfinals. Italy advances as the runner-up team -- clinching a spot

Though the Netherlands found itself on the wrong end of a tiebreaker, resulting in an abrupt end to its World Baseball Classic run, it still provided plenty of memorable moments and made some history along the way. For the first time in World Baseball Classic history, three pairs of brothers

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Joe LaSorsa was in a tight spot. Team Netherlands had loaded the bases with nobody out in the fifth inning. They were down, 6-1, to Italy in a must-win game and Team Italy manager Mike Piazza had turned to LaSorsa -- a Rays Minor Leaguer -- to

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Well, Thursday's Pool A matchup between Netherlands and Panama in the World Baseball Classic turned out to be just as expected: An elite defensive battle. Panama gave up three runs on seven hits (it could’ve been more if not for a laser throw by left fielder Allen

When Pool A play in Taichung, Taiwan, concludes, many expect that Cuba and the Netherlands will move on to the quarterfinals in Tokyo, but the margins are a lot closer than you may think at first glance. Italy -- led by manager Mike Piazza -- has Major League stars joined

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Cuba against the Netherlands. The two favorites from Pool A. It’s the matchup everyone was waiting for and, amazingly, it was the first one on the docket in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Wednesday’s game between the two international powers proved to be just as advertised for

TAICHUNG, Taiwan -- Looking up at the podium, it'd be hard to find a better full battery in baseball history. There was the Netherlands' pitching coach, one of the best curveball artists to ever toe a rubber. He had two World Series wins, 287 victories and more than 3,700 strikeouts

It’s nearly here. After a six-year wait, the World Baseball Classic has returned, and it’s bigger than ever. That’s not hyperbole, either: The tournament field has been expanded to 20 teams, with three first-time participants in Great Britain, the Czech Republic and Nicaragua hoping for a Cinderella run. But they’ll

You can probably imagine what it would be like to grow up playing baseball in Sint Maarten. Gorgeous hillsides, ocean views, playing the game in places not many kids play the game in. “Yeah, we played it around our house, we’d also go to the beach and play it in

The person who is, perhaps, the greatest representative of the spirit and the substance of the World Baseball Classic and the appeal baseball has internationally is no Major League star, no household name. He’s an unheralded right-hander from Willemstad, Curaçao, whose brief big league career concluded a decade ago but

In 1911, English teacher J.C.G Grasé returned to the Netherlands from a trip to the United States and introduced baseball to the northwestern European country. The inaugural official honkbal games were played later that year. On March 12, 1913, Grasé founded the Dutch Baseball Union and established Quick Amsterdam (now

The Netherlands is aiming to finally reach the medal stand in the 2023 World Baseball Classic after finishing the past two tournaments in fourth place. Managed by Hensley Meulens, the Netherlands is led by an experienced group of infielders who should be familiar to MLB fans: Xander Bogaerts, Jonathan Schoop,