It was the matchup baseball fans were hoping for as the final of the 2023 World Baseball Classic reached the bottom of the ninth inning in Miami, Florida.
The United States trailed Japan, 3-2, at LoanDepot Park, and Los Angeles Angels’ two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani took the mound, looking to secure Japan’s third WBC title.
With two outs, in his way stood his teammate, three-time AL MVP Mike Trout. The two best players in Major League Baseball had the opportunity to square off with a championship on the line on the world’s stage.
The count ran full, and on 3-2, Ohtani struck Trout out with a wipeout slider, winning the WBC for Japan and capping off a tournament that captured the attention of sports fans worldwide, including a number of players and coaches on high school teams in the Golden Triangle.
“It was very exciting watching the guys fight down to the very last out,” Starkville senior infielder Brennon Wright said. “At all high schools, a lot of games come down to the last inning, the last out, the last pitch. When you watch guys higher up fighting until the end, it makes us want to give everything we’ve got. I feel like it’s helped us a lot watching those games.”
As the WBC final took place last Tuesday, Wright and the Yellow Jackets opened up district play against Tupelo, and down 3-2 going into the bottom of the seventh, Starkville needed a rally.
Inside Starkville’s press box, one of the scoreboard operators had the game streaming on their phone for others to watch, with the two mirroring each other so much.
Unlike in Miami, the Jackets found some last-inning magic in the form of an Ethan Pulliam two-run, walk-off home run, but the night before, Japan had its own walk-off magic against Mexico.
With two on in the bottom of the ninth, Munetaka Murakami sent Japan to the final with a two-run double off the left-center field wall, one of the signature moments of the tournament.
“I remember when the WBC first started back when I was in high school or just starting college,” Starkville head coach Luke Adkins said. “I remember how cool it was because all these familiar faces from MLB were playing for completely different countries. I think the main thing my kids took away from it was that sense of pride for playing for your country.”
The lead-up to the 2023 edition of the tournament was the most-anticipated one to date because of a number of big name players deciding to suit up for their respective countries.
That was especially the case with the United States, who had commitments from players like Trout, Betts, Trea Turner, Kyle Schwarber, Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and more.
“Me and the coaches would have a lot of conversations about it mid-game,” Heritage Academy junior infielder Jack Ketchum said. “Like on Tuesday, I would ask one of the coaches, ‘Hey, what’s the score? What’s going on? How did Mike Trout do?’ Stuff like that.”
As basketball fans talk about superteams, this was the first time baseball fans got to experience that feeling, and it wasn’t just Team USA that had the stars come out.
Many countries who participated were represented by some of the best players in the world.
“I loved the competitiveness this year,” Ketchum said. “I think that’s going to show a lot of people that players like Trout, Turner, those guys, they want to win and they want to go compete.”
Not only did the WBC showcase the best of the best repping their country across their chest, it exposed many current high schoolers to baseball environments they otherwise wouldn’t have seen.
With the last edition of the tournament taking place in 2017, it didn’t grab the attention of baseball fans quite as much as this year, and as a result, people saw the cultures of nations like Taiwan, South Korea, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and more on display.
“We’ve had some conversations about Japan and why Japan has been able to be successful with their arms,” Heritage Academy coach Brad Haines said. “We talked about how their development program is the best in the world. It’s just like a factory.”
Baseball, despite being America’s Pastime, has garnered criticism and scrutiny in recent years, gaining negative attention and waning popularity to an extent.
However, the WBC crushed those headlines, with last Tuesday’s final being one of the most-watched baseball games worldwide ever.
One estimate said that 97.4 percent of households in Japan with a television watched the ninth inning, and that was just the final.
Attendance records were doubled, social media impressions tripled that of posts during the World Series, and it grabbed the attention of the sports world in a way none had before.
The next edition of the tournament won’t take place until 2026 and the world will be early awaiting its return.
“It draws more attention to the game as a whole because people around the world are watching these games, cheering for their respective countries,” Wright said. “They see guys from their country and they’re like ‘Oh, this guy plays for the Tigers, Braves, whoever’, and then they can start watching those guys on the TV.”
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