By Merv Moore
Head Baseball Coach, Bohol Coconuts
I’m sitting here in Texas, watching the bluebonnets paint the highways blue and waiting for the day I can finally get back to Bohol. Late next month can’t come soon enough.
But while I’m stuck here counting down the days, the baseball world is gearing up for something that’s got my blood pumping even from 9,000 miles away: the World Baseball Classic.
Now that’s a tournament worth talking about.
Can America Slay the Dragon?
I’ve been studying the rosters, and I’ll be honest—I’ve got that little boy feeling in my gut again. Japan is the undisputed king of the baseball. Shohei Ohtani striking out Mike Trout to claim the title in 2023 was magical?
This year’s U.S. squad looks dangerous. The pitching depth is ridiculous. The lineup, top to bottom, is filled with guys who grew up dreaming of representing their country. And there’s something about tournament baseball—that win-or-go-home pressure—that brings out a different kind of focus in American players.
Can they knock off the Japanese champions?
I think so. But it won’t be easy. Japan doesn’t just have talent—they have tournament DNA. They understand that international baseball is different from the big leagues. The bunting, the base running, the way they manufacture runs… it’s a chess match, and their managers have been playing this game at a world-class level for decades.
Still, if I’m putting money down? Give me the Americans in a tight one. Something about this team feels different.
Why I Could Never Get Enough of Tournaments
But talking about the WBC has got me thinking about my own tournament days. And if there’s one thing anyone who knows me understands, it’s this: I’ve loved tournaments since I was a little leaguer.
That’s why, back in 1998, I made a decision that confused a lot of people.
I was supposed to leave Switzerland after the 1997 season. My time there was done—I built the Therwil Flyers into a dominant dynasty, transformed the Zurich Challengers back into a championship club, and rebuilt the Swiss national team from a laughingstock into a legitimate B-Pool contender.
But then I looked at the calendar and saw that the 1998 European Baseball Championship B-Pool tournament was being played in Vienna, Austria.
And I just couldn’t leave.
Not yet.
One More Shot at History
My wife likes to tease me about this. “You stayed an entire extra year in Switzerland,” she says, “just for one tournament?”
And the answer is yes. Absolutely yes.
Because that tournament in Vienna represented everything I had been working toward since I first stepped off that plane in Zurich in 1993. The Swiss national team had never qualified for the A-Pool. They had never even come close. But after five years of developing players, after building a pipeline of talent from the Flyers to the national team, I believed—really believed—that we had a shot.
Losing 4-3 to Croatia and their two American collegiate pitchers was devastating to me. I came up two runs short in a contest that would have put the Swiss one win away from an A-Pool spot.
The Stories You Only Get from Tournaments
People who’ve read my book, World Baseball Guy, know that my tournament adventures haven’t always been pretty. They’ve been wild, dangerous, beautiful, and heartbreaking—sometimes all in the same week.
People ask me sometimes: was it worth it? Staying an extra year in Switzerland, delaying everything, all for one tournament that ended in heartbreak?
And I tell them the same thing I tell my players when they ask why we work so hard: you don’t do it because victory is guaranteed. You do it because the journey matters. Because the process of building something, of believing in something, of fighting for something alongside people who share your passion—that’s the part you remember when you’re old and gray.
I remember the look on Allain’s face after he beat Ukraine in 1994. I remember the way my Swiss players battled back against Croatia in Zagreb even after I got ejected. I remember standing on that field in Barcelona, watching Felix Cano—the “Babe Ruth of Spanish baseball”—take batting practice and thinking, “This is where I belong.”
I remember Kiev in 1993, less than two years after Ukraine became independent, watching my Swiss junior national team navigate a country with empty buildings and wide highways and people staring at our expensive sneakers.
I remember Amsterdam, watching women displayed in storefront windows like products, feeling embarrassed to be human, wiping away tears that escaped from both eyes.
I remember Ljubljana, meeting a girl who looked exactly like someone from Bethel College, believing in doppelgangers for the first time in my life, going on a date the night before the biggest game I’d ever coached.
I remember Bhutan, watching kids show up at 6:55 a.m. in the fog, ready to learn. I remember Nepal, surrounded by curious students while yelling instructions to a pitcher who had never played before.
These are the memories that tournaments give you. Not just wins and losses, but moments. People. Places. The full spectrum of what it means to be alive and chasing something meaningful.
That Spring Time Feeling
Baseball has taken me to more than 20 countries. It’s introduced me to my wife, given me purpose when I was lost, and shown me the best and worst of humanity. And every spring, without fail, I get that same flutter in my chest that I felt when I was seven years old, making lineups with my baseball cards on my bedroom floor.
So yes, I’ll be watching the World Baseball Classic from here in Texas. Yes, I’ll be cheering for the Americans to knock off Japan. But win or lose, I’ll be counting down the days until I’m back on that field with my Coconuts, turning unconfident little boys into talented, confident young men.
Because that’s what spring is for. That’s what tournaments are for. That’s what this crazy, impossible dream is all about.
See you all in Bohol next month.
Marvin “Merv” Moore is the head coach of the Bohol Coconuts Baseball and Softball Club. He has coached in both Europe and Asia, led the Swiss national team at multiple European Championships, and is the author of “World Baseball Guy: The Overseas Adventures of an American Coach.” He returns to Bohol late next month.
