World Baseball Classic Qualifier

WBC Tucson Qualifier Notes: Organizer encouraged by operations, fan turnout on first day

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Germany’s Lucas Dunn celebrates with Vincent Ahrens after Ahrens scores a run in the 12-2 win over China in seven innings Sunday in the World Baseball Classic Qualifier at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium (Stephanie Van Latum/AllSportsTucson.com)

Blake Eager, the executive director of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism and Film Authority, mentioned with a sense of excitement in his voice that Sunday’s atmosphere at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium on the first day of the World Baseball Classic Qualifier was that of spring training.

“Seeing the crowd out here tonight and you’ve got big-leaguers on the field right now, playing games in March that we really haven’t had since 2010, and you see the field (completely re-sodded) … it gets a little bit emotional but this is amazing,” Eager said.

Attendance is a significant aspect for Eager and other Southern Arizona leaders involved in the proposal to MLB to bring the WBC Qualifier to Tucson.

The attendance of the China-Germany game that started at 11 a.m. was announced at 1,549. A listed crowd of 2,332 watched the Brazil-Colombia game that started at 7 p.m.

Monday and Tuesday games at 11 a.m. are a concern for attendance because the games fall in the middle of a workday, but Eager and his group have a plan in place to draw thousands of fans — young ones.

“We’re hoping that this is successful for people showing up and a community effort,” Eager said. “The big thing for us is the Monday and Tuesday 11 a.m. games, we weren’t really sure how to promote that.

“So we sat down with the Pima County Superintendent’s office and we turned those into ‘kids in the park’ days. We’ve got about 6,000 kids coming both of those days. We’ve got the Tucson Children’s Museum that’s going to do the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) program on site with the Pima County Library. We’re super excited about that.”

Promotions involved with this week’s World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Tucson

Schedule

Monday

  • Brazil vs. Germany, 11 a.m.
  • Colombia vs. China, 6 p.m.

Tuesday

  • China vs. Brazil, 11 a.m.
  • Germany vs. Colombia, 6 p.m.

Thursday

  • No. 2 seed vs. No. 3 seed, 6 p.m. (No. 1 seed already qualifies for the 2026 World Baseball Classic)

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Star Watch

Baseball fans have plenty of reasons to watch the talent on the display on the field with a mixture of young prospects, current major-leaguers and former big-leaguers at the twilight of their careers.

— Colombia’s Gio Urshela, a 33-year-old third baseman with the Oakland A’s, had a defensive gem when he made a diving stab on a hard-hit ball down the third-base line in the top of the fifth of his team’s 5-0 victory over Brazil on Sunday night. Urshela also hit a triple in the game.

—  Mariners top 100 prospect Michael Arroyo, second baseman for Colombia, went 1 for 4 with a walk and was also part of turning a double play.

— A’s prospect Brayan Buelvas, a centerfielder with Colombia, was 1 for 2 with a run, RBI and two walks.

“That’s what’s special about this team,” said former big-league veteran Dilson Herrera, who hit two doubles for Colombia. “It’s the youth and the veteran guys. It’s an explosion of talent that we have with the young players. For us to be able to put everybody on same roster, it’s just a huge advantage for the country.”

Colombia has a roster that can get it back in the WBC after not getting out of pool play at Phoenix two years ago.

Brazil has sons of famous former MLB players on its team — right fielder Lucas Ramírez (wearing his dad Manny Ramírez‘s No. 24) and first baseman Dante Bichette Jr. Both are playing with Brazil because their moms are from that country.

Bichette Jr. is 33 and a former first-round pick of the New York Yankees in 2011. He made it as far as the Double-A level with the Yankees and Washington Nationals.

His younger brother Bo is a shortstop with the Toronto Blue Jays.

The younger Ramírez is a burgeoning prospect while Dante Jr. is near the close of his career.

Lucas Ramírez was drafted in the 17th round last year out of high school by the Los Angeles Angels.

He and his dad spoke with the media before Sunday’s game.

Lucas looks a like natural batter with a smooth swing from the left side with some pop while Manny was a right-handed batter with power during his storied big-league career.

“To be honest, I always wanted to be a lefty,” Manny said. “As soon as he was born, I said, ‘This guy’s going to be a lefty.’ And I started working with him as a lefty. If you’re a lefty, you’re going to see a lot more right-handed pitchers.”

Lucas tried to play soccer more than baseball growing up but said he became bored with soccer at 12 years old and decided to play baseball more.

“I’ve always wanted to be better than my dad, so that’s why I wanted to play baseball again,” he said.

Lucas is taking a break from his first spring training with the Angels up the road in Tempe to play for Brazil.

“I obviously want to win and show my abilities and that I’m ready to play, to come out here every day and show the Angels that I’m ready to play,” Ramírez said. “I think I can bring some leadership and some big left-hand power. Also, some defense in the outfield.”

A set of famous parents are also on hand to watch their son play — tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf. Their son Jaden is a member of Team Germany.

“I think the earliest memory I have is running on court after my dad won the US Open and giving him a big hug,” Jaden Agassi said in an interview with KVOA-TV.

“As a kid, I’d pick up a tennis racket and it was tough for me to keep the ball in the lines. I just wanted to hit it as far as I could. I have stuck with baseball ever since.”

Oldies but Goodies

Germany was led by two 30-something players on the mound and with power at the plate in the 12-2 victory in seven innings against China.

Starting pitcher Markus Solbach, 33, was with the Minnesota Twins, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers and Detroit Tigers organizations, going as high as Triple-A. He has pitched in the Australian Baseball League. He earned Co-MVP honors. When the minor-league season was canceled due to COVID in 2020, he starred in Italy’s Serie A.

Solbach has lately coached for the Bonn Capitals of the German professional baseball league.

He scattered eight hits over 6 1/3 innings. He reached 82 pitches, just shy of the pitch-count limit of 85 when he struck out the first batter of the seventh inning. He had six strikeouts overall with no walks.

When asked if he knew he would return for the seventh inning, Solbach said, “Yes, I knew because the coach didn’t take me out.”

“As a starting pitcher, you go until you get your hand shaken,” he added. “I was waiting and trying to make eye contact to see if (Germany’s manager) was coming, but he never came. So I knew I had one batter left, and, yeah, I emptied the tank.”

Former major-leaguer Donald Lutz, who retired before deciding to play with the Brisbane Bandits of the Australian Baseball League, hit a two-run home run in the seventh to give Germany an 8-2 lead. He pounded his chest as he rounded the bases, pointing to the “Deutschland” scripted on his uniform on his chest.

“I knew my mom was watching,” said Lutz, 36, of the animated celebration.

After the victory, the German team stood outside the dugout and acknowledged a large contingent of German supporters

“I haven’t been in Germany for a while, and there were a lot of German jerseys, a bunch of hats and stuff,” Lutz said. “It’s just amazing. It feels like playing back home.”

Colombia’s Julio Teheran, 34, is a free agent who has spent time with the Atlanta Braves, Tigers, Angels, Milwaukee Brewers and New York Mets.

Teheran, who has the second-most big-league wins for any pitcher from Colombia with 81, pitched a gem in Colomobia’s win over Brazil. José Quintana, who pulled out of playing in the WBC Qualifier last week, has 102 wins in the majors.

Teheran had a no-hitter through five innings, before giving up a hit in the sixth inning on Vitor Ito’s bunt single. He struck out four batters without a walk.

The bad news: Because he threw more than 50 pitches (he had 54 pitches) he is required to have four days of rest. He is now unavailable for the rest of this tournament.

He did not view the bunt by Ito as a means to break up his no-hitter.

“To be honest, the bunt surprised me because I was expecting them to swing the bat, but that’s the game, and I respect that,” he said.

Participants like Tucson

The unanimous consensus among participants in the WBC Qualifier at Kino Stadium is that Tucson is a good place to have the event. Not a bad word has been heard yet about Tucson or the facility.

“It’s been awesome,” Solbach said. “Most of us have been in Arizona before (for spring training, Arizona Fall League or rookie-league ball). It’s like being home, back in spring training. Tucson has been awesome. People have been awesome.

“We’ve been treated well, had quality games, had good food and best possible preparation.”

Germany has been in Tucson more than a week training and playing scrimmages.

“I really like Tucson,” Germany manager Jendrick Speer said. “It’s a great city. Friendly people. The weather’s good. I’ve really enjoyed my time here, yes.”

The Ballpark Bugler is at Kino

Jeff Lange, known as the Ballpark Bugler, can be heard down the right-field line playing his trumpet occasionally depending on the flow of the game. One of the more recognizable songs is the Imperial March (Darth Vader’s theme) mixed in with various other tunes.

When asked how he decides on what tunes to play, Lange said, “It comes from watching the game, paying attention and thinking ahead, thinking about, ‘What do you want to play?’ he said. “If there’s double play, what would be good to play? You know, just kind of think ahead, watch the game. I love baseball, and I just try to bring the energy where I can.”

After Lange belted a tune late in the Colombia-Brazil game, one fan was heard yelling, “I love you!”

Lange is a Maricopa resident who was a member of Missouri’s marching band.

The idea of bringing his trumpet to baseball games started two years ago when the World Baseball Classic was held in Phoenix.

“A friend of mine told me, ‘You know, they’ll allow you to bring in your trumpet,” and sure enough, they allowed it,” Lange said. “I’ve also brought it to Arizona Fall League games and Caribbean League games. It’s a lot of fun and I’m glad to add to the experience of the fans.”

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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.

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