Venezuela’s tears of joy: Why the team that cared the most won the World Baseball Classic
Venezuela reacts on the stage after defeating the United States during the 2026 World Baseball Classic Championship game at loanDepot Park on March 17, 2026. - Sam Navarro/Imagn Images It doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things that Team USA — the United States of America, as in the birthplace of baseball and the home to the highest-caliber league on the planet — lost one game against Team Venezuela. Except to the Venezuelan players and their fans, to whom it means everything.
And, after two weeks of some of the most joyous and exuberant baseball that any March has ever seen, that is the beautiful thing about the World Baseball Classic. When Bryce Harper – with his distinct brand of humorless flamboyance – broke a 12-inning scoreless streak for Team USA with a game-tying, two-out, 432-foot home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, it was the sort of storybook sports moment that makes big games worth staying up late for. It gave American fans and Phillies fans and baseball fans who were promised a power-packed lineup something to leap up off their couches and cheer about.
Javier Sanoja of Team Venezuela steals second base in front of the tag by Brice Turang of Team United States during the ninth inning. He'd go on to score the winning run. - Megan Briggs/Getty Images It also set up an even more dramatic ninth-inning victory for the Venezuelans.
When Eugenio Suárez drove in the go-ahead run, it was a moment that mattered more to an entire nation than sports should have to . It gave the sold-out stadium something to party about, because even here in America, the crowd at loanDepot Park in Miami was overwhelmingly full of Venezuelan fans. For those back home, it was a moment of catharsis for a nation that has been racked by political upheaval, economic uncertainty, isolation on the world stage and increasing emigration to other nations in the Western Hemisphere.
That was surely part of MLB’s calculus in deciding to host the latter rounds of the WBC in South Florida, where the heavily Latino population showed up to support Team Venezuela and, through their semifinal elimination, Team Dominican Republic. This is for them. And for the fans in Japan, where practically the entire country tuned in to see some part of Samurai Japan’s run to the championship three years ago.
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