Amid turmoil back home, Team Venezuela savors WBC moment - ESPN

MIAMI — Early Sunday morning, in the afterglow of a monumental victory for both his team and his country, Team Venezuela manager Omar López grabbed a baseball cap adorned with the No. 58 and placed it on the dais inside LoanDepot Park's interview room. Fifty-eight is the international code to reach Venezuela from the United States. It was a reminder.

«If you know someone in Venezuela, call them,» López said. «Tell them that Venezuela is in the Olympics and in the semifinals of the World Baseball Classic.»

In front of a favorable sold-out crowd, in the U.S. city with the highest concentration of native Venezuelans, López's players had knocked off defending champion Samurai Japan and accomplished two firsts for the nation's baseball team — qualifying for the Olympics and reaching the semifinals of the WBC, where they will confront the undefeated Italians on Monday night.

That they did it this year added a little extra weight to it all.

«Baseball is beautiful,» Venezuelan infielder Eugenio Suárez said in Spanish. «Baseball is a sport that unites. I feel like this has brought happiness to our country, which it desperately needs and deserves. To have a united public, watching us every day in this World Baseball Classic, yelling and supporting us in these games — it's really special.»

Venezuela has been in political turmoil ever since the United States launched a military strike to capture its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Jan. 3. While some are hopeful for Venezuela's future, it has also divided the nation on what should come next. And it has further prevented Venezuelans in the United States from traveling back home to see their families.

For many of the Venezuelans who made up the 34,548 fans in