Taking the World Classic apart, the Caribbean country had a hard time standing out internationally in recent years until the arrival of the Olympic bronze
The general perception has always been that although many of the great stars of baseball that are distributed in the main leagues of the world are Dominicans, the national team could not achieve a group that could stand out internationally.
This without valuing the World Baseball Classic where the Dominican Republic has already been crowned undefeated, and neither have the participating teams in the Caribbean Series, which although they are reinforced are a selection and the tournament is one of champion clubs.
The Dominican teams felt lacking, below the talent they could have and without those great figures who play in the Major Leagues, and they had a long time without achieving triumphs on big stages such as the Pan American and Central American and Caribbean Games.
The Premier 12 2015 was the first sample, a tournament organized by the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC for its acronym in English), which aimed to bring together the 12 best teams worldwide, according to the international ranking.
The Dominican participation was a disaster when they said goodbye to the fair with 5 losses without victories. They lost to the United States, Japan, Venezuela, Mexico and coincidentally also to South Korea.
In four years Dominican Republic He fell six positions in the confederation’s world rankings due to various setbacks in international baseball, and in the Premier 12 of 2019, he was able to obtain his position precisely as the 12th position, the last.
The tournament awarded two tickets to the Tokyo Games, and unfortunately for the Dominican Republic, the goal could not be achieved, with one victory and two losses that did not allow them to play the second phase of the tournament and forced them to look for the Olympic ticket in the Americas Qualifier.
🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴 DOMINICAN VICTORIA !!! 🇩🇴🇩🇴🇩🇴
We beat South Korea 10-6 🇰🇷 responding with 5️⃣ runs in the 8th inning and took bronze in # Tokio2020 🥉🤩
It is our 5th medal in these #Olympic Games 💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/1oCzKtvEwB
– ESPN.com.do🇩🇴 (@ESPN_DO) August 7, 2021
The joust in Florida that started in May was not bad at all, with 5 wins and one loss, but in the tiebreak they could not beat the United States who won the ticket and this forced the Dominicans to play again in a final qualifier at Tokyo 2020.
In Puebla, the Dominicans dominated Venezuela and the Netherlands to finally achieve the long-awaited ticket to Tokyo 2020, and already in the Games they had to go through a double playoff to be able to fight for a medal.
With the bronze medal achieved by defeating South Korea, the Dominican Republic finally asserts its reputation as a baseball country in one of the most important stages in the world. The Dominican Republic is baseball and we congratulate all Dominicans for placing themselves on the Olympic and world podium.
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