Last week, Venezuela won the World Championship against the United States and it was so satisfying. It was a good reminder that the US does not dominate everything. We can lose.

Between the two world championships as of late, the 2026 Winter Olympics and the 2026 World Baseball Classic just a few weeks later, countries have been showing off their colors, celebrating their culture and their people. And the world has been watching.

It makes me sad that some of the biggest celebratory moments for the US were about our war culture. From FBI Director Kash Patel (note: DIRECTOR) celebrating with the US Men’s Hockey team to having a Navy Seal who was a part of the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden hype up the USA baseball team before their quarterfinal game against Canada… is that really all we have to show for our cultural heritage?

Meanwhile, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic were blasting music and dancing and laughing in their locker rooms. Their priorities here seemed to be celebrating their national brotherhood, sharing the moment together, and playing the beautiful game for their countries.

For the Olympics, the US Women’s Gold Medal match was way more exciting anyways. Go Megan Keller!!! 

For the WBC, the one good thing to come out of the US team this year was Bryce Harper. I always hoped he was a cool guy (a gentlemanly pirate of sorts) and he solidified that with his sportsmanship during the final. He was the only USA player to congratulate the Venezuelans after their win, even after hitting a homer that brought USA up from a 2-0 deficit to 2-2 tie.

It only makes sense that he spent time playing in Barquisimeto, Venezuela while on the 18U national team!

At 16, he played for the 16U U.S. national team in Veracruz, Mexico. A year later with the 18U team, he traveled to Barquisimeto, Venezuela — one of the cradles of talent for a country introduced to the game in the late 19th century by expatriates from Cuba, a country that learned the sport from Americans in the 1860s. He saw that others adored baseball same as he did, even if they spoke different languages and lived different lives and played a different style than he’d been taught. He didn’t just learn from the games. He learned from the people who played them.