Play Ball! 2023 World Baseball Classic Proves to Be All Kinds of Wacky

Tampa Bay Rays player Randy Arozarena hits a homer run to tie up Mexico with Colombia during the World Baseball Classic at Chase Field in Phoenix. Credit: WBCBaseball

The 2023 World Baseball Classic is true to its name, with celebrations of what used to be called “America’s Pastime” taking place in several international locations this weekend. It’s hard not to get swept up in the love of our great game being displayed by fans and players from countries worldwide.

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One of the locations for the Classic is Taiwan, where the home team faced off against Team Italy on Friday night. And it wouldn’t be an understatement to say things were getting all kinds of wacky.

In most Major League dugouts, you expect to see bags of sunflower seeds, maybe some paper cups filled with Gatorade. But the Italian team has something unique to help them feel at home: espresso:

Check out the Taiwanese fans going wild at the same game:

(Taiwan ended up beating Italy in the contest, winning by a score of 11-7.)

Also among the teams playing in Taiwan is the curiously named Taipei of China, along with Team Cuba:

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Though the Classic is already underway both oversea and on our shores, a boatload of gameplay happens Saturday in Arizona during “Cactus League” spring training:

 

This fan from the Dominican Republic shows off her team spirit:

And a Puerto Rico fan was hyped up on Saturday, too:

Here are some of Great Britain’s players sporting their World Baseball Classic uniforms. They play against the U.S. team later tonight:

If you’d like to keep up on more wacky shenanigans, one of the games happening in Phoenix (inside Chase Field, the home of the Arizona Diamondbacks) on Saturday is Mexico vs. Colombia, which is airing nationally on Fox and tied up at 3-3 (at the time of this writing). Here’s the last big play, with current Tampa Bay Ray and Team Mexico player, Randy Arozarena hitting a homer to tie the game at 3-3.

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Play ball!

UPDATE: The game is now in the 10th inning. Earlier, Team Mexico got into the wacky antics. There’s a…home run sombrero:

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