Venezuela stuns the world to win the 2026 World Baseball Classic. Venezuela entered the tournament having to face all three previous champions: the U.S., Japan, and the Dominican Republic. They lost their final Pool D game against the D.R. before winning comeback games against Japan and Italy to reach their first ever WBC final. Japan’s elimination was historically their worst-ever finish in tournament history.
Sixty-three Venezuelan born players appeared on MLB opening-day rosters last year, second only to the Dominican Republic. This was never a fluke, it was a program of players overdue. Garcia was named tournament MVP after hitting .385 with a tournament-high ten hits and seven RBIs. “They underestimated Venezuela because we had never won anything, but we are powerful,” Garcia said after the Finals win.
Team USA, for its part, went 3-for-30 in the Final and never had a single at-bat with a runner in scoring position beyond Harper’s home run. Team USA proved that star power on paper means nothing if you lack the team chemistry and the drive to win. Venezuela simply wanted it more.
This was the tournament that defined the first clear underdog story since the WBC’s creation. Fueled by a dugout espresso machine and led by captain Vinnie Pasquantino and manager Francisco Cervelli, Team Italy went undefeated in Pool B. Italy beat the one seeded Team USA 8-6 and reached the semifinals for the first time in program history. The win against the United States has been compared to the U.S. win over the Soviet Union in ice hockey at the 1980 World Olympics.
Italy quickly became fan favorites as players embraced their “roots” with a shot of espresso in the dugout after every home run. The cultural ripple was real and influential as newspapers in Italy reported on the team’s success and members of its government spoke about baseball. At the same time, millions of people in Italy tuned in across the tournament to watch their team dominate. The team went 5-0 before finally falling to Venezuela in the semi-finals.
The Americans entered as the clear favorites to win the tournament. The U.S. roster has been compared to the 1992 Dream Team (in Olympic basketball) by various media outlets. Italy showed the world that this team was not the same team that critics acclaimed after handing them a loss that nearly sent them home. Poor hitting combined with managing errors by Mark DeRosa left the team’s fate in the quarterfinal temporarily out of their own hands. DeRosa famously “misquoted” by saying the team had “punched their ticket” before the game with Italy, which had in fact not been true. Many speculate that he did not know the team had actually not clinched a quarterfinals berth at the time of the game against Italy. Italy went on to beat Mexico and send the U.S. to the elimination round. From there, the USA beat Canada 5-3 in the quarterfinals, then edged the D.R. 2-1 in a tense semifinals game. The offense, however, was flat, slow to start, and relied heavily on the homerun ball, an issue that plagued them the entire tournament and eventually caused their demise.
