It is definitely a little looser in the WBC where it extends to parental eligibility and then various types of Commonwealth status. Great Britain of course would be terrible without the Bahamas and the Netherlands has many more players from Curacao and Aruba that legit Europeans like Bert Blyleven. Though Sir Didi was born in Amsterdam.
Italy is all second generation Americans for the most part. And since any Jewish person worldwide is generally eligible to apply for Israeli citizenship (though Netanyahu is trying to change some of that - for another thread) all those players are eligible for Israel even though they are not citizens. In the Olympics you actually have to apply for and get citizenship and soccer deals with this by making players choose once they are old enough for adult teams.
So it is definitely looser in the WBC but that still does not make it fun to watch. I am guessing this is great for baseball worldwide even if lots of 6-year-old British kids are not going to start playing the game. They might be in the market for Harry Ford jerseys though.
The World clearly needs more of this:
Great Britain's D'Shawn Knowles pulled out the sipping tea celebration.
#WorldBaseballClassic
pic.twitter.com/Y0blhiXSAb
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) March 12, 2023