WBC rosters filled with Indy League ballers -

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) has never really received a lot of love over the years, but you’ve got to give credit when credit’s due.

2017’s version has exceeded all expectations and gave us a shimmy:

a no look:

And a robbery:

USA captured its first WBC title in dominant fashion defeating Puerto Rico 8-0, but what people may not know is that over 50 current and former Independent League players suited up for the WBC:

22 from the Atlantic League

PLAYER (POSITION)	COUNTRY REPRESENTING	ATLANTIC LEAGUE TEAM(S)
Chin-Lung Hu (INF)	Chinese Taipei	Southern Maryland
Fu-Te Ni (LHP)	Chinese Taipei	Lancaster, Camden
Chien-Ming Wang (RHP)	Chinese Taipei	Southern Maryland
Jeremy Bleich (LHP)	Israel	Somerset
Danny Burawa (RHP)	Israel	Long Island
Nate Freiman (INF)	Israel	Long Island
Blake Gailen (OF)	Israel	Lancaster
Tyler Herron (RHP)	Israel	Somerset
Josh Zeid (RHP)	Israel	New Britain

PLAYER (POSITION)	COUNTRY REPRESENTING	ATLANTIC LEAGUE TEAM(S)
Allan De San Miguel (C)	Australia	Southern Maryland
Luke Hughes (INF)	Australia	Lancaster
Chris Oxspring (RHP)	Australia	Somerset

PLAYER (POSITION)	COUNTRY REPRESENTING	ATLANTIC LEAGUE TEAM(S)
Andrew Albers (LHP)	Canada	Lancaster
Michael Crouse (OF)	Canada	Lancaster, New Britain
Rene Tosoni (OF)	Canada	Sugar Land

PLAYER (POSITION)	COUNTRY REPRESENTING	ATLANTIC LEAGUE TEAM(S)
Frank DeJiulio Jr. (RHP)	Italy	Long Island, Bridgeport
Mike DeMark (RHP)	Italy	York
Andrew Barbosa (LHP)	Puerto Rico	Long Island
Jose De La Torre (RHP)	Puerto Rico	Somerset
Miguel Mejia (RHP)	Puerto Rico	Bridgeport
Rene Rivera (C)	Puerto Rico	Camden
J.C. Romero (LHP)	Puerto Rico	Long Island

18 from the American Association

Australia

RHP Justin Erasmus (Fargo-Moorhead ’14)
RHP Ryan Searle (Grand Prairie ’14)
LHP Josh Tols (Kansas City ’15-)

Canada

RHP Scott Richmond (Wichita ’15)
OF Rene Tosoni (Sioux City ’14-’15)

Chinese Taipei

RHP Kuo Hua Lo (Lincoln ’16)

Colombia

RHP Karl Triana (Gary SouthShore ’16)

Israel

OF Blake Gailen (Wichita ’08, Lincoln ’11)
RHP Tyler Herron (Fargo-Moorhead ’12, ’15-’16)

Italy

RHP Alex Maestri (Lincoln 2011)

Mexico

OF Chris Roberson (Winnipeg 2012)

Netherlands

INF Yurendell de Caster (Fargo-Moorhead ’09, Winnipeg ’12-’13)
OF Chris Garia (Lincoln ’17-)
RHP Shairon Martis (Lincoln ’15-)
OF Randolph Oduber (Lincoln ’17-)
C Dashenko Ricardo (Lincoln ’17-)
1B Curt Smith (Lincoln ’11, ’13, ’15-)

Venezuela

RHP Omar Bencomo (Laredo 2015, Wichita 2015)

11 from the Can-Am League took part

CANADA

LHP Andrew Albers (Quebec ’10)

RHP Eric Gagné (Quebec ’09/Trois-Rivieres ’15/Ottawa ’16)

INF Jonathan Malo (Quebec ’12-)

COLOMBIA

RHP Karl Triana (Quebec ’17-)

CUBA

SS Yordan Manduley (Quebec ’15-)

3B Yurisbel Gracial (Quebec ’16-)

OF Roel Santos (Quebec ’16-)

ISRAEL

LHP Craig Breslow (New Jersey ’04)

ITALY

1B/OF Chris Colabello (Worcester ’05-’11/Nashua ’07)

NETHERLANDS

OF Kalian Sams (Quebec ’15-’16)

PUERTO RICO

RHP Andres Santiago (Sussex County ’16,/New Jersey ’16-)

And, 12 who spent time in the Frontier League, donned their countries colors.

Before the MLB season began, we were privy to playoff calibre baseball in March. This is how the tournament was meant to be played. It got the recognition it deserved and the players who may not get many headlines were apart of a phenomenon that put them at the forefront.