{"id":114085,"date":"2026-03-17T14:46:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/sin-categoria\/maikel-garcia-we-play-for-venezuela-not-for-latin-america-in-the-world-baseball-classic\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T14:46:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T18:46:40","slug":"maikel-garcia-we-play-for-venezuela-not-for-latin-america-in-the-world-baseball-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/nationals\/maikel-garcia-we-play-for-venezuela-not-for-latin-america-in-the-world-baseball-classic\/","title":{"rendered":"Maikel Garc\u00eda: &#8220;We play for Venezuela, not for Latin America&#8221; in the World Baseball Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Maikel Garc\u00eda Prioritizes Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic<\/h2>\n\n\nVenezuelan third baseman Maikel Garc\u00eda has made his position clear regarding representation in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. While acknowledging the outstanding Latin American talent in the tournament, Garc\u00eda emphasizes that the team&#8217;s priority is to defend the colors of Venezuela.\n\nThese statements were made after Venezuela&#8217;s 4-2 victory over Italy in the semifinals, a result that secured their first qualification to the World Baseball Classic final.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>\u201cThe people in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico may want us to play for Latin America, but we came to play for Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n\n<cite>Maikel Garc\u00eda<\/cite>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\nGarc\u00eda reiterated that representing his country is the team&#8217;s main commitment.\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<p>\u201cObviously we put Latin America on high, but we are playing for Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n\n<cite>Maikel Garc\u00eda<\/cite>\n\n\nThe Kansas City Royals player has been a fundamental piece in the performance of the Venezuelan team, contributing offensively in crucial moments of the tournament.\n\nVenezuela will face the United States in the final, seeking to conquer its first title in the history of the World Baseball Classic, driven by a team that has demonstrated unity, talent, and a strong sense of national identity.\n\nGarc\u00eda&#8217;s words reflect the team&#8217;s competitive focus, centered on representing their nation on the international stage, beyond the pride shared by Latin American baseball.\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thexpeditionary\/status\/1769493922338166946\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter post about Maikel Garc\u00eda&#8217;s statements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Maikel Garc\u00eda Prioritizes Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic Venezuelan third baseman Maikel Garc\u00eda has made his position clear regarding representation in the 2026 World Baseball Classic. While acknowledging the outstanding Latin American talent in the tournament, Garc\u00eda emphasizes that the team&#8217;s priority is to defend the colors of Venezuela. These statements were made after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":114086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[997],"tags":[88,3879,2182,5529],"class_list":{"0":"post-114085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-maikel-garcia","10":"tag-venezuela","11":"tag-world-classic"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}