Dominican Republic Puts on A Show, Leaves Korea In Awe at WBC

MIAMI—A bit more than a smidgen in time before you could stream a game on your phone, the Pittsburgh Pirates first caught sight of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the 1927 New York Yankees at 35 minutes past noon on Oct. 5. The Pirates had just finished batting practice before Game 1 of the World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. The Yankees were a foreign entity to a National League team, existing only on radio, newspapers or mythology. The Pirates stuck around to watch the Yankees hit. Bad idea.

They had seen nothing like it. Ruth, Gehrig and the boys of Murderers’ Row put on a scary show. The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph reported Pirates fans let loose “a chorus of admiring shouts” as Ruth blasted balls into the seats. “The crowd yelled its awe,” it reported, when Gehrig sent pitches soaring over the right-field wall.

Up in the press box, Giants star Rogers Hornsby noted the Yankees were using Reach baseballs for B.P., not the standard Spaldings. Why? The Reach balls were livelier. They made for better showmanship. More gunpowder for the fireworks.

“Spies said the Yankees were using the lively ball to impress the Pirates, who watched Ruth and Gehrig smear the ball from all corners of the lot,” the Sun-Telegraph reported.

Legend has it that the 1927 World Series was over before it began. The Yankees so thoroughly overwhelmed the Pirates they won the series in B.P. It’s a bit of a stretch, but not far from the truth. In the top of the first, Ruth singled, Gehrig tripled and the Yankees were on their way to a four-game sweep. Pittsburgh held a lead for a total of two of the 36 innings.

Ninety-nine years later—matching the number on the broad back of Korea starting pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu—the World Baseball Classic gave us a sequel Friday night. As the mighty Dominican Republic team took batting practice before a quarterfinal game, 17 members of the Korean team stood on the warning track on the first base side in solemn, awed attention. More weirdly, they observed from behind retractable belt stanchions set up to keep media and guests off the field.

I’ve seen scattered opposing players watch Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa take B.P., usually while pretending to stretch or warm. I’ve never seen anything like this.

Look, there’s Juan Soto! Hey, it’s Fernando Tatis Jr.! That’s Vlad Guerrero Jr.!

This being spring break in Florida, all that was needed to complete the tableau was a souvenir shop selling T-shirts that read, “I saw the DR take BP and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.”

Even if you were not familiar with what happened to the 1927 Pirates, you know what happened next here. Korea lost, 10-0. Mercy-ruled in the seventh on a three-run homer by Austin Wells. Truth was, it was over before it started.

Cristopher Sánchez pitched five scoreless innings against Korea. | Jim Rassol-Imagn Images

The Dominicans are the ’27 Yankees of the WBC—the new Murderers’ Row. Fila de Asesinos.

They have scored 51 runs, an average of more than 10 per game. They are slugging .637 as a team—higher than Aaron Judge’s career slug. Starting with Ryu, Korea used six pitchers against the first 22 batters. It was like trying to stop rushing water with your fingers.

The Koreans flew more than halfway the circumference of the globe for this—15,200 miles for one miserable game. The trip from Tokyo to Miami to Seoul covers 61% of the earth’s belt size.

The Dominicans came after them in a fury, as they have treated everything in the world in their way. Guerrero flew Superman-style across the plate. Soto (on a foolish send from third base coach Carlos Febles, given no outs and the ease of scoring in this game), somehow scored a run by sliding across his back while contorting himself Matrix-style in the coolest, most back- and mind-bending slide you ever will see.

They took five more walks, giving them 39 walks against 29 strikeouts in five games. Starting pitcher Cristopher Sanchez was so sharp that Korea hitters missed 12 times in their first 19 swings.

But let’s be real, folks. I’ve had enough of watching the Dominicans destroy high 80s fastballs. Ryu, who turns 39 in two weeks and is so old he pitched against Albert Pujols, the Dominican manager, opened the game with an 87.9 mph four-seam fastball to Tatis.

Manny Machado saw a four-seamer at 86.7 mph. It was the third four-seamer he has seen in this tournament at less than 87 mph. He had seen just one of those low-velo fastballs out of 5,024 pitches the past two years.

What we want is what will happen if Team USA takes care of Canada: Paul Skenes going up against the greatest lineup of our times. He will not be throwing 86.7.

I told Wells if USA, up 5-0 at the time against Canada, closed out that win, the Dominicans would get Skenes on Sunday in a semifinal game. He didn’t flinch.

“Let’s go. Bring it on,” he said with a smile.

“You must feel like the way this team is swinging it,” I said, “it doesn’t matter who’s out there?”

“Exactly. That’s right. We’ll be ready. The at-bats have been incredible. Incredible.”

The Dominicans are playing with purpose that is palpable. In other iterations of the WBC, they have been accused of not taking it seriously enough, or chasing too many pitches, or bench players harrumphing about a lack of playing time. This group, under the leadership of Pujols and GM Nelson Cruz, is truly playing as a motivated unit. Tatis is playing some of the best baseball of his life, especially with the way he has mastered the strike zone in a Soto-like Zen state.

The Dominican Republic lineup is the greatest show on earth, not only for smashing baseballs like the ’27 Yankees but also for the joy, purpose and celebratory style they bring. “Guys are dragging?” “We need to get guys off their feet?” Not here. Not for one game, one inning or one at-bat.

No wonder the Koreans took a good long look after traveling more than halfway across the world. They can go home and tell their friends they saw baseball about as good and as fun as it gets. Only one question remains about the Dominican juggernaut: Can anybody stop them? Let’s dial up the velocity and find out.

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