MIAMI — In 2021, Randy Arozarena put on a green Mexico jersey, logged into his Instagram account and delivered a video message he hoped would be heard by the country’s president. He wanted to be made a citizen and expedite the process as quickly as possible so he could represent Mexico in a World Baseball Classic that wouldn’t take place for another two years. He asked his fans for help.
Said Arozarena: “It’s the only thing I want.”
Arozarena was born and raised in Cuba, but he fled the island in 2015, settled in Merida, had a daughter, honed his skills as a baseball player and fell in love with the culture. Over this past week and a half, while representing a Mexican team that advanced further into this tournament than anyone imagined, Arozarena navigated the WBC with an intensity and a swagger that inspired. He donned lavish sombreros, made bold proclamations, delivered timely hits, turned in spectacular defensive plays and even signed autographs during pitching changes.
His spirited play, for a country he chose, turned him into a God-like figure in Mexico, where fans on social media superimposed his face onto Mexican currency and iconic Mexican statues.
His zeal embodied the vibe of an entire tournament.
The fifth installment of the World Baseball Classic, which culminated in an epic showdown between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, exceeded every expectation it carried. The atmosphere was electric, the games were intense, the drama was riveting. And in the end, despite consternation from pundits about injuries and paranoia from executives about usage, one aspect of it was undeniable: The players cared. A lot.
Ohtani is probably the biggest baseball celebrity in the world, a unanimous MVP who has done things that are unmatched in his sport’s history. But he called his game-ending strikeout of Trout — on a full-count slider that followed four consecutive 100-plus-mile-an-hour fastballs — “the best moment in my life.”
Throughout the tournament, players shared similar sentiments in the aftermath of their games.
“If you’re not here, you don’t get the desire and hunger and passion that we have for the game and for this tournament,” Puerto Rico catcher Christian Vazquez said in Spanish. “Wearing your homeland’s colors on the playing field is unexplainable. And this is an even bigger responsibility for all of us because it’s not representing a team, but an entire island. Our home country. And you give it all for your family and for all the people that got you here today. I was a World Series champion with the Red Sox, and this experience just has no comparisons. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.”
For players like Ohtani and Vazquez, brought up in baseball-obsessed regions that treat international events with considerable gravitas, passion for a tournament like this is inherent. For players like Lars Nootbaar and Alex Verdugo, representing the nations of their parents, it’s developed.
Verdugo was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, but his father was born in Hermosillo, Mexico. The outfield glove he uses regularly with the Boston Red Sox is red, white and green as a tribute to the Mexican flag.
“It means everything,” Verdugo said of playing in the WBC. “I love this.”
Nootbaar, from California, treated his participation in the World Baseball Classic as an opportunity to learn the Japanese culture of his mother, going so far as to try to memorize the words to the country’s national anthem. Navigating pool play in Tokyo qualified as a life-changing experience.
“For me to be able to wear ‘Japan,’ honor my mom — she sacrificed everything for me,” Nootbaar said. “I kind of understand some of her tendencies now after being there for a couple weeks.”
In previous iterations, excitement around the World Baseball Classic has been hard to come by in the U.S., which places far more importance on its domestic regular season. And yet Team USA’s stars displayed palpable intensity throughout this year’s event, spilling out of their dugout during big moments, making aggressive turns after routine singles, roaring toward the crowd after escaping tough jams. The competition brought it out of them.
“It’s like you either perform or you get exposed,” Team USA manager Mark DeRosa said. “I just think there is such a respect of the tournament from the guys in that room — a want to succeed, a want to represent your country.”
The last five days of this year’s tournament featured four exhilarating, back-and-forth games. In a quarterfinal matchup on Friday, Mexico overcame a four-run deficit to stun Puerto Rico. Trea Turner then pushed the U.S. to victory over Venezuela with an eighth-inning grand slam on Saturday; Munetaka Murakami hit a walk-off double off the center-field fence to send Japan into the championship on Monday; and Ohtani closed out a one-run win by striking out Trout on Tuesday, amazingly delivering the matchup between Los Angeles Angels teammates that so many dreamed about months earlier.
More than 1.3 million people attended the 47 games that encompassed this year’s World Baseball Classic. Eleven of the 15 games that took place at LoanDepot Park, which hosted the knockout rounds, sold out. By the end of the first round, the 2023 WBC had already sold more merchandise than any of the previous four installments. The two semifinal games averaged 2.4 million viewers on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes, a 96% increase from the 2017 semifinals, according to data provided by Major League Baseball.
When Japan defeated Korea in Tokyo on March 10, 62 million people watched. When Mexico upset the U.S. on March 12, 47,534 people crammed into Chase Field in Phoenix. And when Puerto Rico got past the Dominican Republic on March 15, 62% of Puerto Rican households were tuned in.
The tournament faced its most pointed criticism later that night, when Edwin Diaz, the star closer for the New York Mets, tore his patellar tendon during the on-field celebration, an injury that will probably prevent him from pitchingthis season. The merits of the tournament were called into question by fans and pundits alike. But its participants pushed back against the criticism full-throatedly — none more so than Francisco Lindor, Diaz’s teammate both with Puerto Rico and the Mets.
“I understand how Mets fans are hurting,” Lindor said in Spanish. “But while for so many people the regular season is what counts, playing in the WBC means just as much to all of us. It is the dream of every Puerto Rican ballplayer to wear Puerto Rico’s colors and to represent our country. And not only Puerto Ricans, but every player in the WBC considers being here the ultimate honor. Of course, we don’t want injuries to happen, but it is part of the game. And they are things that can happen just anywhere.”
Another significant injury occurred on Saturday night, when Houston Astros second baseman Jose Altuve took a fastball from a noticeably erratic Daniel Bard in Venezuela’s quarterfinal game against the U.S. and suffered a fractured thumb. More outside criticism followed, albeit less so given the exciting games that led up to it. Privately, players and coaches pointed to other recent injuries — Gavin Lux tearing his ACL running the bases, Joe Musgrove dropping a weight on his big toe in the gym, Carson Kelly fracturing a forearm on a hit by pitch — to illuminate the inconsistency.
“People get hurt in spring training games every day right now,” Team USA starting pitcher Lance Lynn said, “and no one says we shouldn’t have spring training.”
Hours after the tournament had concluded, players on both sides remained on the field. The Japanese celebrated as a team, the Americans watched with their families. Team USA third baseman Nolan Arenado, who had just completed his second stint in the World Baseball Classic, stood about 10 feet from Ohtani, who wore a medal and took part in an endless array of selfies.
“Players need to do this,” Arenado said. “We have a really good team, but we need more stars. We need more guys. Why not? I think it’s important to play in it. You’re throwing hard in spring training, you’re playing hard. You might as well do it here — on a big stage for your country.”
ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Marly Rivera contributed to this report.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has promoted Steve Gregory to defensive coordinator and Nick Lezynski to co-defensive coordinator, the school announced Monday.
Lea served as his own defensive coordinator last season after he demoted the previous coordinator, Nick Howell, following the 2023 season.
Gregory was associate defensive coordinator and secondary coach. He joined Vanderbilt following five seasons as an NFL assistant.
Lezynski is entering his fourth season at Vanderbilt. He was hired as linebackers coach and was promoted to defensive run game coordinator in 2023.
Under Lea’s direction, Gregory and Lezynski helped the Vanderbilt defense show marked improvement. The scoring defense rose from 126th in 2023 to 50th in 2024 and rushing defense from 104th to 52nd. Vanderbilt held consecutive opponents under 100 rushing yards (Virginia Tech and Alcorn State) for the first time since 2017, and a 17-7 win over Auburn marked the lowest point total by an SEC opponent since 2015.
The Commodores were 7-6, their first winning record since 2013.
College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.
Texas is targeting former West Virginia and Troy coach Neal Brown for a role on its 2025 coaching staff, a source confirmed to ESPN.
The role is still to be determined, and a deal is not finalized but could be soon, the source said. Brown spent the past six seasons coaching West Virginia and went 37-35 before being fired in December. He went 35-16 at Troy with a Sun Belt championship in 2017.
247 Sports first reported Texas targeting Brown.
The 44-year-old Brown spent time in the state as offensive coordinator at Texas Tech from 2010 to 2012. He also held coordinator roles at Troy and Kentucky.
After back-to-back College Football Playoff appearances, Texas is set to open spring practice March 17.
Florida State and Clemson will vote Tuesday on an agreement that would ultimately result in the settlement of four ongoing lawsuits between the schools and the ACC and a new revenue-distribution strategy that would solidify the conference’s membership for the near future, sources told ESPN on Monday.
The ACC board of directors is scheduled to hold a call Tuesday to go over the settlement terms. In addition, Florida State and Clemson have both called board meetings to present the terms at noon ET Tuesday. All three boards must agree to the settlement for it to move forward, but sources throughout the league expect a deal to be reached.
According to sources, the settlement includes two key objectives: establishing a new revenue-distribution model based on viewership and a change in the financial penalties for exiting the league’s grant of rights before its conclusion in June 2036.
This new revenue-distribution model — or “brand initiative” — is based on a five-year rolling average of TV ratings, though some logistics of this formula remain tricky, including how to properly average games on the unrated ACC Network or other subscription channels. The brand initiative will be funded through a split in the league’s TV revenue, with 40% distributed evenly among the 14 longstanding members and 60% going toward the brand initiative and distributed based on TV ratings.
Top earners are expected to net an additional $15 million or more, according to sources, while some schools will see a net reduction in annual payout of up to about $7 million annually, an acceptable loss, according to several administrators at schools likely to be impacted, in exchange for some near-term stability.
The brand initiative is expected to begin for the coming fiscal year.
The brand fund, combined with the separate “success initiatives” fund approved in 2023 and enacted last year that rewards schools for postseason appearances, would allow teams that hit necessary benchmarks in each to close the revenue gap with the SEC and Big Ten, possibly adding in the neighborhood of $30 million or more annually should a school make a deep run in the College Football Playoff or NCAA basketball tournament and lead the way in TV ratings.
The success initiatives are funded largely through money generated by the new expanded College Football Playoff and additional revenue generated by the additions of Stanford, Cal and SMU, each of which is taking a reduced portion of TV money over the next six to eight years, while the new brand initiative will involve some schools in the conference receiving less TV revenue than before.
As a result of their inclusion in the College Football Playoff this past season, SMU athletic director Rick Hart said, the Mustangs and Tigers each earned $4 million through the success initiatives.
Sources have suggested Clemson and Florida State would be among the biggest winners of this brand-based distribution, though North Carolina and Miami are others expected to come out with a higher payout. Georgia Tech was actually the ACC’s highest-rated program in 2024, based in part on a Week 0 game against Florida State and a seven-overtime thriller against Georgia on the final Friday of the regular season.
Basketball ratings will be included in the brand initiative, too, but at a smaller rate than football, which is responsible for about 75% of the league’s TV revenue.
If ACC commissioner Jim Phillips is able to get this to the finish line Tuesday, it would be a big win for him and for the conference during a time of unprecedented change in collegiate athletics — particularly for a league that many speculated would break apart when litigation between the ACC and Florida State and Clemson began in 2023.
Both schools would consider it a win as well after they decided to file lawsuits in their home states in hopes of extricating themselves from a grant of rights agreement that, according to Florida State’s attorneys, could have meant paying as much as $700 million to leave the conference. The ACC countersued both schools to preserve the grant of rights agreement through 2036.
Although the settlement will not make substantive changes to the grant of rights, it is expected that there will be declining financial penalties for schools that exit before 2036, with the steepest decreases coming after 2030 — something that would apply to any ACC school, not just Clemson and Florida State.
The specific financial figures for schools to get released from the grant of rights were not readily available. But the total cost to exit the league after the 2029-30 season is expected to drop below $100 million, sources said.
The current language would require any school exiting before June 2036 to pay three times the operating budget — a figure that would be about $120 million — plus control of that team’s media rights through the conclusion of the grant of rights.
This was seen as a critical piece to the settlement, allowing flexibility for ACC schools amid a shifting college football landscape, particularly beyond the 2030 season, when TV deals for the Big Ten (2029-30), Big 12 (2030) and the next iteration of the College Football Playoff (2031) come up for renewal — a figure Florida State’s attorneys valued at more than $500 million over 10 years.
Sources told ESPN that there’d just be one number to exit the league, not the combination estimated by FSU of a traditional exit fee and the loss of media from the grant of rights.
In addition to securing the success and brand initiatives, viewed within the league as progressive ideas to help incentivize winning, Phillips also guided the recently announced ESPN option pickup to continue broadcasting the ACC through 2036.