Why does baseball take off? Is it as easy as wanting to grow the game? Or does it need a catalyst?
By Jason Daniels.
During the World Baseball Classic, many players and coaches shared their wish to grow the game. This desire gained special attention for teams like Italy, where baseball exists in pockets yet its national team leans on American bloodlines to compete.
Italy’s most recognizable name in the WBC, Kansas City Royals’ first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, told reporters during pool play: “I think that’s the long-term goal for this team, to be full of purebred Italians. To open that door and show, hey, Italy has got some ball players and all you have to do is invest in them a little bit.”
In the wake of the WBC, many are asking: “What’s next?” Is growth realistic where baseball is a third-tier sport? What would growth look like? And how soon can we expect it?”
Pasquantino offered some thoughts on the topic during the tournament. “When we’re done, [Manager Francisco Cervelli] is going to go over to Italy, and he’s going to be engrained in the development over there. And he’ll be driving buses to no-name Italian cities trying to create a culture of baseball in Italy.
“We want in 20 years for the World Baseball Classic Italian team to be full of Italians, like Italian speakers from Italy. That’s the goal of this.”
Having played and coached for six seasons across Czechia, France, Germany, and Australia, I have noticed a few development patterns and parallels:
- Run-of-the-mill clinics that fail and after-school programs that land
- Coaches who carry out a task and leaders who get kids to care
- Federations that feed off a moment and governing bodies that harness a movement
At its core, baseball is a game that rewards the willing, the ones who endure, who want it, who sacrifice. Development is not a flip of the switch. And it certainly is not riding the light from a fleeting, one-off event. It is a slog and a process, owned by the people fortunate enough to enjoy it.
Historically, baseball development—loosely defined as building a base of players, governance, and resources—comes down to two drivers. Baseball developed in most places it currently exists because it either:
- helps to overcome hardship
- channels expression
Hardship
Sometimes, baseball needs conflict and grit to grow. Baseball took off on the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century under brutal Japanese oppression. Today, Dominican boys chase baseball for a ticket out of poverty. After the Velvet Revolution, Czechs, seeking closer ties with the West, gravitated toward baseball—and that fervor has only grown.
Expression
Mark Twain drew parallels between baseball and the American way, describing the game as the “outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century”. Baseball became the American pastime just as it rejected colonial by-products like cricket.
Baseball thrives in the north of Mexico where games create communal spaces for family and fun. In Australia, cricket’s popularity reflects the culture’s British ties. Yet, baseball has gained ground over the past few decades with younger Aussies, who are less drawn to tradition and more open to novelty. While many Aussies would be surprised to know that professional baseball exists in their country, Australia can—and does—call itself a baseball nation.
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So, what does this mean for Italy and are these the only two paths?
To realize Pasquantino’s goal—a WBC team of purebred Italians 20 years from now—Italy needs a reason for their citizens to care. What did the 2026 WBC reveal? Is there a hardship baseball can solve? Can baseball provide an outlet that’s missing? Is there another reason it will succeed?
If not, it is unlikely baseball will sustainably grow.
I spent a season playing for Rouen in the French Division 1 and learned that French culture is pretty content with French culture. Baseball there is a niche novelty.
Italians also own a proud culture and do just fine expressing themselves. Would baseball satisfy something they’ve missed? Do they really want more American-ness?
The reality—for better or worse—is that people turn to baseball when they have to. Baseball fills an unmet need, a longing void.
That is the bar that justifies the thick rule book and high equipment costs—or broom sticks and bottle caps—where soccer or basketballs would work instead.
The game is too hard to grow—and play—for development to be a flash in the pan or an order from above. People have to require it, and they have to make development happen—organically, over time, and through difficulty. It’s not that Italy cannot tackle that. It’s that the why has to be strong and it has to be clear.
Italy can learn from Baseball United and its push to grow baseball in the Middle East behind big names, deep pockets, and sophisticated marketing (I witnessed and wrote about its inaugural season last year https://www.mister-baseball.com/baseball-will-tell-you-where-it-needs-to-grow/). So far, Baseball United’s ‘growth’ has meant eyeballs from afar. Few Dubai locals are motivated to attend games and pick up baseball.
Baseball is not easy and baseball is not meant for everyone. So, when baseball builds and manifests, it’s truly remarkable.
A better question would be: would we even want half-hearted baseball? Countries dipping a toe into the game, investing intermittently, employing part-timers, producing something resembling what we know to be baseball?
Baseball can be brutal when it is sloppily played, but not all baseball has to be equal. The game can exist and create impact across different tiers:
- Baseball that alleviates conflict—for example, as a vehicle to assist in war-torn, poverty-stricken regions. For example, non-profit group Play Global [link] works with youth in developing and underserved areas across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East to foster respect and teamwork.
- Baseball that creates tribes—where baseball exists as a niche hobby, for example in France, Great Britan, and Italy. The game is propped up by passionate volunteers, grassroots fundraising, and tight-knit communities.
- Baseball that drives a nation—where baseball is the sport, a de-facto religion like in Japan, the Dominican Republic https://www.mister-baseball.com/baseball-will-tell-you-where-it-needs-to-grow/, or Curaçao https://www.mister-baseball.com/baseball-will-tell-you-where-it-needs-to-grow/. Kids naturally grow up playing the game because that is what everyone around them does.
Baseball can comfortably live at each of these levels. Nations need to know where they stand and what it will take (and mean) to move up. Nevertheless, locals have to want it.
You can do all the clinics and have all the national team success you want, but once the coaches leave and cameras stop, the people on the ground need to keep the game going.
American or Azzurri?
After Italy beat Puerto Rico in the Miami quarterfinals, Pasquantino recapped the headlines. “There was baseball being played [on TVs] at bistros and cafes in Italy tonight,” he told the press.
“In the south of Italy they don’t play that much baseball,” Manager Francisco Cervelli added. “Yesterday everyone was watching the game.”
Can Italy replicate that sentiment beyond a whirlwind two-week tournament? In the wake of the WBC, what does Italian baseball even mean?
“The Italian brand of baseball is just take some espresso shots and get after it right now,” Pasquantino said. “That’s the brand that we’ve created, and we’re still trying to figure it out … It’s a good question. I just don’t really have a great answer for it.”
Cervelli had to persuade people in Italy that they could do something special with baseball. “I got to Italy a year ago and I felt like they’d forgotten baseball. The guys had no hope. It was pretty hard for me to convince them that this project was legitimate.”
“We’re trying to change the mentality in Italy…I want to change the culture. And we called it last year the ‘Italian Way.’ Create an identity, it’s not just to participate. Create an identity every time we show up.”
Beating the US was a monumental feat and step in the right direction. “They’re going to start believing more,” Cervelli said. “We need help. We cannot do it by ourselves.”
As Italy racked up wins in pool play, Italian fanfare had soared. “Probably this is the start of a new religion, baseball in Italy,” said Cervelli. “I don’t know how we can do it, but I think we’ll make it happen. It’s a good start. And I’m glad in Italy a lot of people are talking about baseball.”
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For more tournament success, Italy needs better homegrown talent. To play in Premier12 or the Olympics, players must hold passports or citizenship. Claiming a grandparent won’t cut it.
If Italy—or any country—wants to move from one level of development to the next, it needs to harness one of two motives: tap into adversity or an unrealized outlet.
It is not about pushing baseball on a people, but enabling locals to naturally gravitate to the game and call it their own. A culture’s energy will show where baseball must grow.
Calling for growth is good for baseball. Putting in the work is great for baseball. But watching baseball organically blossom is even better for the game.
Photos by Gabriel Fidler.