i hope it's a classic

looks like the world baseball classic kicks off next week. a couple of months ago, i thought it would be interesting to see how many of the 20 participating countries are represented within my dodger collection. i am not referring to players who hail from those countries, but rather those countries being represented on a dodger card. make sense? let's see how my collection fares!

the teams are divided in to four pools of five teams each. advancing teams in pools a and b will eventually face off (those teams are playing in taiwan and japan), and the advancing teams from pools c and d will square off in the united states. the final is scheduled to be held in miami on march 21. i'll link to the current team rosters in the text below.

pool a 

chinese taipei is represented by this 2008 topps update card of chin-lung hu

hu received a ton of cards in 2008 but never panned out at the big league level.

cuba is represented by this 2014 bowman yasiel puig international parallel

puig famously (and perhaps nefariously) defected from cuba to mexico before signing with the dodgers. puig is not on cuba's roster, but former dodgers onelki garcia and erisbel arruebarrena are. i hope the other players protect their ears!

the kingdom of the netherlands is represented by this 2009 topps chrome kenley jansen wbc insert

jansen, a native of curacao who joined the dodger organization in 2004, was a catcher back then. jansen is on the current roster, too, and bert blyleven is back as a coach. i know bert wasn't a dodger ever, but he's a bit of a favorite of mine so is worth a mention.

italy is not represented in my collection. i don't know of any dodger players who played for italy in the past, and there are no dodgers on their current roster.

panama is represented by this 1996 upper deck collector's choice roberto kelly silver signature parallel

when i think of baseball and panama, rod carew is the guy who comes to mind. panama is one of the teams that was not automatically included in the field - they had to qualify through a separate round of games. old friend javy guerra is on panama's squad this year.

pool b 

japan is represented by this 1997 bowman's best hideo nomo international inssert

the dodgers have had a fair number of players from japan suit up for them, but nomo is the one i think of first. i didn't see any dodgers - former or present - on the roster for japan.

korea is represented by another 2014 bowman international parallel - this one featuring hyun-jin ryu

ryu is injured and so is not on the roster. i didn't recognize any of the names on the roster from a dodger perspective. of course, chan ho park has several cards that i could have used here as well.

australia is featured in my collection thanks to this 1999 bowman chrome luke prokopec international refractor parallel

that is, of course, the sydney opera house behind him. no dodgers on the aussie squad, i am afraid, however there are a few recognizable major league names on the roster/staff.

china isn't represented in my collection, although former dodger jim lefebvre managed their team in the olympics one year as i recall. 

the czech republic is making their first appearance in the wbc, and there are no dodgers on their roster. tough to have a card in my collection to show when that is the case.

pool c 

the usa is represented by this 2022 topps pristine clayton kershaw pristine borders insert

i have plenty of other dodger cards that could have been used here, but the kershaw is the newest. kershaw is no longer on the team usa roster, but fellow dodgers mookie betts and will smith remain. dino ebel is the third base coach as well.

colombia has former dodger jolbert cabrera at the helm, but i don't have any cards in my dodger collection that reflect his nationality.

mexico is represented by this 1998 upper deck karim garcia national pride insert

i guess it's no surprise that i don't have a fernando valenzuela dodger card to show here, as the country-focused subsets and inserts didn't start showing up until after his dodger career came to an end. i will note that i filled out a sportlots order last year with a 2002 donruss super estrellas ismael valdes nacion de origen insert

not remembering that he was a ranger by then. oh well. there are a couple of dodgers on mexico's roster this year - austin barnes and julio urias - as well as former dodger alex verdugo. former dodger pitcher elmer dessens is the pitching coach, too.

canada is represented here by this 2009 bowman draft picks & prospects russell martin wbc xfractor parallel

martin is a coach for team canada in the tournament this year, as is fellow former dodger paul quantrill. freddie freeman is the only dodger player on the squad.

great britain is making their wbc debut, so my collection comes up short for them, although maybe trayce thompson will be featured on a wbc insert later this year? note that i am not counting the topps uk edition cards i own that feature the union jack on the front for this exercise.

pool d 

puerto rico features a roster that includes former dodgers jose de leon and kiké hernandez. i was surprised to not find any dodger cards representing puerto rico in my collection.

venezuela is represented in my collection by this 2021 panini national treasures keibert ruiz international treasures autograph card

ruiz is not on the roster, but old/new dodger miguel rojas is.

israel isn't represented in my dodger collection, although i did recognize a couple of names on the roster. joc pederson, of course, and also fellow 2020 world champion adam kolarek. neither are with the dodgers anymore as i am sure you well know.

the dominican republic is represented in my dodger collection many times, including by this 2001 upper deck sp game bat milestone edition adrian beltre card.

the country's flag is burned in to the bat chip. keep their flag in mind for later, by the way. this year's dominican team is stacked, and includes one former dodger in manny machado.

nicaragua is the last of the three newcomers to the tournament, and i don't have any dodger cards to represent that country.

so, 12 of 20 countries are represented by cards in my dodger collection. that's not too bad, and i am hoping for some others to be produced as a result of this year's contest.

i do want to give an honorable mention to yasiel puig's 2018 topps update international affair black parallel card

that i pulled from a dime or quarter box a few months ago. his bowman international card up above is a better representation of his home country of cuba, however.

finally, let's never forget the time when upper deck messed up royally in terms of international flavor

and issued a couple of cards of raul mondesi, including the 1996 collector's choice card above, referencing the country of dominica, not mondesi's home country of the dominican republic, and i don't think they have the right coloring on the bird featured on dominica's flag, either.

on with the tournament!