MIAMI — Daniel Palencia’s 100 mph fastball blew past Roman Anthony. Then came euphoria.
Palencia spun on the mound, chucked his glove into the sky and collapsed under a sea of teammates in bright blue jerseys who had come pouring onto the field. Andrés Giménez crumpled to the ground near second base and began to sob. Over at third base, Maikel Garcia did the same. Ronald Acuña Jr. sank to the ground in right field with his arms outstretched before scrambling to his feet and racing to the infield. Eugenio Suárez took a few slow steps out of the dugout with the Venezuelan flag. He raised it above his head, fell to his knees, his colors waving boldly behind him.
Baseball is the heartbeat of Venezuela.
Since baseball exploded onto the scene in the early 1940s, including the founding of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League in 1945, the sport has been one of the country’s defining characteristics. It isn’t just the most prominent sport in the country. It’s a rite of passage and a point of pride.
Never has Venezuelan baseball had a night like this.
Underdogs throughout the tournament, Team Venezuela upended the most powerful roster Team USA had ever assembled. A 3-2 victory over the United States on Tuesday secured the country’s first World Baseball Classic gold medal. One look at the outpouring of emotion from the players, coaches, and thousands of fans in attendance at loanDepot Park showed it meant so much more.
“Thirty million people around the world were watching this game today,” team captain Salvador Perez said. “The World Series, as you all know, is one of the most important championships in the Major Leagues, but when you fight for your country, that goes beyond. That feeling, the country where you were born and raised, the sacrifices made by our parents, those people that helped us. That’s why this means a lot to me and to Venezuela.”
Throughout the first few editions of the WBC, skeptics dismissed it as nothing but an exhibition tournament. There were concerns about the injury risk, the timing and whether people would care about a two-week international competition that wasn’t the Olympics.
But based on the scenes from Tuesday’s finale, that argument is over. A sellout crowd of 36,190 at loanDepot Park shook the ballpark as Venezuela erupted with joy. Manager Omar López had tears running down his face as he celebrated with his coaching staff. Brothers William Contreras and Willson Contreras — playing on the same team for the first time in their lives — held each other in embrace, both crying.
Eduardo Rodriguez, the starting pitcher who shut down the USA’s offense with 4 1/3 scoreless innings, wiped away tears during his postgame interview. Suarez, the hero of the night after his go-ahead double in the ninth inning, delivered an emphatic, passionate answer of his own, speaking at length about Team Venezuela’s camaraderie and the privilege of representing your country.
“The unity. We are together the whole time. We’re not just teammates, we are family,” Suarez said to Ken Rosenthal during the Fox Sports broadcast. “This team is awesome. We are family here. That’s why we play with passion, with love, because we feel the jersey. We feel our country in front of us.
“Nobody believed in Venezuela, but we won the championship today.”
The WBC reached new heights this year, as television ratings surged. The semifinal game between the United States and the Dominican Republic was the most-watched WBC game in tournament history, with 7.369 million viewers, outdrawing the 2025 MLB All-Star Game. Tuesday’s championship game should shatter viewership records when that data is released.
The WBC set an attendance record with a total of 1.6 million fans, topping the previous mark of 1.3 million in 2023. Several sellouts were recorded in each of the four host sites: Miami, Houston, Puerto Rico and Tokyo. The event has grown so popular in Miami that the city is pushing to be the WBC’s permanent home.
Scenes like Tuesday night show why.
“(People) underestimated Venezuela because we had never won anything, but we are powerful,” said Garcia, who was named the WBC’s Most Valuable Player.
This was the reaction from Venezuela’s Alfredo Sadel Square as the country’s baseball team upset the U.S. to win the World Baseball Classic championship 🇻🇪
pic.twitter.com/uyR3q9qVlf
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) March 18, 2026
After spending most of the tournament criticized for its perceived lack of emotion, Team USA showed plenty of it after the game. The frustration, disappointment and disbelief were palpable. Players removed their silver medals from their necks nearly instantly after receiving them, their heads low and faces somber. In the early editions of the tournament, the United States arguably did not take the WBC as seriously as other countries, with many of its top stars opting to sit out the tournament to stay focused on the upcoming MLB season.
That is no longer the case. The WBC’s global impact far surpassed expectations. It’s changed how federations construct their teams — and the standards to which they hold those teams to. In an attempt to avenge its gold medal loss to Japan in 2023, the United States responded by recruiting its most accomplished roster yet. When Venezuela knocked out the defending champions Japan on Saturday, manager Hirokazu Ibata abruptly resigned. Team Italy’s surprising Cinderella run captured the interest of its nation, and could spark a foundation for the upcoming generation.
Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, declared Wednesday a national holiday to celebrate the championship.
“This WBC has become a tidal wave of emotion for a lot of guys,” Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said. “You get them in the room representing their country, coming together for two-and-a-half weeks, the buy-in. It’s infectious in there.”
Debates will continue about how the WBC compares to the World Series, if the formatting of the tournament should change and whether MLB should limit pitcher usage. But is this tournament really important?
Take in the tears streaming down the faces of Venezuela’s players as their national anthem played during their gold medal ceremony — and consider the matter settled.
