{"id":3334,"date":"2023-03-24T23:53:13","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T06:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportrelay.com\/mlb\/?p=3334"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T02:27:10","slug":"great-britain-baseball-wbc-biggest-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportrelay.com\/mlb\/2023\/03\/24\/great-britain-baseball-wbc-biggest-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Britain Baseball One of the Biggest Winners at the World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Great Britain Baseball among Biggest Winners at the WBC<\/h2>\n

It has been just over a week since pool play ended for the World Baseball Classic, who crowned Japan as the winner Tuesday night in Miami. But while Japan was the champion, one of the biggest winners at the WBC was Great Britain baseball, who qualified for the first time in 2023.<\/p>\n

This win goes beyond their 1\u20133 win-loss record in Pool C. It goes beyond their \u201cHere We Are!\u201d upset victory over Colombia<\/a>. And it goes beyond their automatic qualification for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. This was a big win for not only the national team, but for Great Britain baseball itself.<\/p>\n

Ren Quantrill, marketing coordinator for Great Britain baseball, said interest in Great Britain baseball exploded during the tournament. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot more interaction. A lot more respect of the British game. And long may that continue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Great Britain Baseball \u2014 A (Very) Brief Overview and Recent History<\/h3>\n

To fully understand how big their showing in the WBC was, look at the organized baseball leagues in Great Britain. Great Britain, with a population of 60.8 million, has about 4000 people nationwide playing on a baseball team at some level, whether it be adult leagues or youth leagues. By comparison, the United States had 15.6 million players nationwide in 2021. The top-flight British league \u2014 the National Baseball League (NBL) \u2014 has seven teams. The next level on the pyramid \u2014 AAA \u2014 has eight. There are two more levels below that \u2014 AA, with 21 teams, and A, with 25. While the top European baseball leagues send their champions to the annual European Champions Cup, no British team has participated since 1969. Furthermore, the four years that a British team did<\/em> participate saw the same result in the standings \u2014 a four-way tie for fifth in an eight-team tournament.<\/p>\n

International competition has been similar. The European Baseball Championship has been held every other year, for the most part, since 1958. (Author\u2019s note: Every year from 1954 to 1957, even-numbered years from 1958 to 1964, odd-numbered years from 1965 to 2007, even-numbered from 2010 to 2016, and once again odd-numbered from 2019 to the present.)<\/em> Out of those 34 tournaments, Great Britain has qualified for 14. Other than two second-place finishes \u2014 1967 and 2007 \u2014 Great Britain has finished no higher than sixth, and they\u2019ve done that only once. They have also finished seventh three times, eighth twice, ninth four times, tenth once, and eleventh once.<\/p>\n

“Chapter One” \u2014 Great Britain Qualifies for WBC<\/h3>\n

When Drew Spencer<\/a><\/strong> took over as manager of the men\u2019s national team in 2019, they finished ninth at the Euros. In 2021, they finished sixth. The club has continued to improve since then. Even so, when they hit the qualifying round for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, they were not among the favorites to qualify. Out of the six teams in their pool, they were ranked fifth. In order to qualify, they needed to finish in the top two of the double-elimination tournament held in Regensburg, Germany.<\/p>\n

They faced France in the play-in game, with the winner slated to meet Germany. Great Britain won convincingly, 12\u20134. After that, Great Britain soundly defeated Germany, 8\u20131, in the second game. This matched them against Spain, who crushed eventual qualifiers Czech Republic, 21\u20137, in the previous game. Great Britain came back from deficits of 4\u20130, 5\u20131, 8\u20133, and 9\u20136 to tie the game with a one-out homer in the bottom of the ninth. They ultimately won the game in the bottom of the tenth, 10\u20139, with a one-out sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n

Spencer, who had a constant smile on his face in every media session, called this moment the \u201cend of Chapter One.\u201d His philosophy about managing a national team is, \u201cYou’re playing an infinite game. A baseball game is finite. It has a start and a stop. There’s a certain number of outs. And somebody wins in the end. But when you’re managing a national team, you’re not playing for one game or one season, you’re playing for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cChapter Two\u201d \u2014 Great Britain in WBC<\/h3>\n

Great Britain was in Pool C along with USA, Canada, Mexico, and Colombia. Given the prowess of these four teams, few gave Great Britain much of a chance. Spencer said on the workout day that he and his staff knew they would have to \u201cdig deep, expand the talent pool, and get early conversations going with the guys\u201d so everyone could prepare. This included the players and their organizations. It also included the national team \u201cjumping through the various hoops\u201d to get from what the team referred to as \u201cthe end of the beginning for Great Britain baseball and the beginning of the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer shared with the assembled press that the London Series between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees in 2019 started a trend of \u201cmore and more people showing up, coming out of the woodwork.\u201d He added that it wasn\u2019t only \u201can American ex-pat who got stationed in London for a couple of years for their job\u201d but there were \u201cactually baseball players with British accents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>