I’ve coated Crimson October playoff video games in Philadelphia, and white out soccer video games at Penn State. I’ve additionally attended skilled video games in Panama and coated loads of Little League World Sequence video games, giving me a style of how totally different cultures get pleasure from baseball. However I’ve by no means witnessed a sporting occasion fairly like Wednesday night time’s World Baseball Basic recreation between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
It wasn’t simply the chanting, the devices blaring, or the dancing that made for such an exhilarating expertise; all of these issues have been additionally part of the earlier Pool D video games performed by the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. I do know what passionate fandom appears and seems like, and this was one thing altogether totally different. Venezuelan and Dominican followers don’t merely watch baseball; they take part in it. It’s kinetic, and when the power of their fandom collided below the closed roof of loanDepot park, it created a singular, unforgettable power. I hope all of you studying this may expertise one thing prefer it sooner or later in your life, as a result of attending to really feel that energy pulsing by means of the stadium is likely one of the nice privileges of this job.
That’s the final we’ll speak concerning the WBC on this week’s mailbag. As a substitute, we’ll be answering your questions on how baseball would change if it have been performed completely left-handed, how usually we would see an Final ABS Problem, and whether or not the 2026 Angels roster would’ve been a playoff workforce in 2024. However first, I’d prefer to remind you that this mailbag is unique to FanGraphs Members. For those who aren’t but a Member and want to maintain studying, you possibly can join a Membership right here. It’s one of the simplest ways to each expertise the location and help our workers, and it comes with a bunch of different nice advantages. Additionally, for those who’d prefer to ask a query for an upcoming mailbag, ship me an e mail at mailbag@fangraphs.com.