When the World Baseball Classic begins on March 5 in Tokyo, the Czech Republic will play Korea in just the second game in the entire tournament. Last weekend, we got a taste of what we have to expect as the two nations squared off in the two-game K-Baseball Series held at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Korea. (I was there alongside Joe Na and Lucas Stevenson from MLB for some videos you should keep a lookout for as we get closer to March.)
While these games may have been an exhibition, you wouldn’t know it from the atmosphere. Nearly 17,000 fans packed their way into the Dome for the weekend contests and spent the entire game singing, dancing, and chanting their way as Korea went on to win the two contests, 3-0 and 11-1.
“My biggest impression of the Korean team is that they play like a team. They want to win like a team,” Czech Republic manager Pavel Chadim said after the two-game series. “They have a big passion and a big dream to [achieve] some results.”
While the scoreline may look lopsided, it was another data point in the Czech Republic’s rapid growth as a baseball nation. Until Chadim began using some of his teenaged pitchers in the middle innings of the second game, hoping to get them crucial big game exposure before this spring’s World Baseball Classic and the run for Olympics 2028 qualification after that, the Czechs were actually trailing just 2-1 through five innings in Game 2. Thanks to a Milan Prokop RBI single, the Czechs had the tying run just 90 feet away from scoring.
“The message is not just for them. The message is for every young pitcher in Czechia, not just 18 years old, but younger, too: If you will work hard, you will have a chance,” Chadim said.
The fact that they were in Korea, being treated as sporting equals by one of the world’s great baseball nations — Korea won Olympic gold in 2008, finished second at the 2009 World Baseball Classic and took home the Premier12 title in 2015 — is something that would have seemed unthinkable just a half-decade ago for a team made up of amateur baseball true believers.
Nearly the entire roster has day jobs: Its new captain, Martin Mužík, is a caretaker for his club team’s field in Hluboká, and pitcher Ondřej Satoria, the man who struck out Ohtani, is an electrical worker. Even its manager, Chadim, is a respected neurologist in Brno. (Among those who don’t have a day job: Outfielder Marek Chlup, who debuted with the Tokyo Giants this past season as the first Czech-born player in NPB history. He returned from a broken wrist for his first action since the summer.)
“For us, baseball means everything,” said Mužík, whose homer defeated China in the 2023 Classic and confirmed the team’s spot for 2026. “I grew up playing baseball since I was 12 years old, and I’ve never played any other sport. Sometimes it’s a little difficult with a job, because you don’t have that much time for practice, but we try to take it as professionals and be the best on the field as possible.”
In a sign of global baseball sportsmanship, Czechia had games against Japan and Chinese Taipei during their Asia Tour last winter. This spring, they came to America and squared off against Minor League teams. Now, just weeks after winning their first ever bronze medal at the European Baseball Championships, they came to Korea to prepare for the World Baseball Classic.
This was no charity, though: Korea was looking at the Czechs as solid competition to begin their own World Baseball Classic preparation. After being bounced from the first round in the last three Classic tournaments, the team has turned to a new manager in Ji-Hyun Ryu in hopes of a fresh voice at the helm of the team.
“First of all, we found out a lot more about the Czech national team so we can prepare for next March,” Ryu said with MLB’s Sunjae Song interpreting. “It will help a lot in preparing for that tournament and our first game next March. Of course, we’ll need to see how [this weekend’s exhibition games in] Tokyo goes. But our bullpen pitchers and our younger players, we saw a lot from them, got a lot of insight.”
While many veteran arms and those who played deep into the Korean Series weren’t on the roster, and the potential MLB additions which Ryu has been scouting this summer were also absent, we got a peek at how Ryu plans on approaching his roster construction. He revealed that he uses wRC+, an advanced stat, for help in constructing his lineup.
It’s why 22-year-old slugger Hyun-Min Ahn, known as “The Muscle Man,” for his impressive physique and workout regimen, has been slotted in at the No. 2 spot in the order after slashing .334/.448/.570 with 22 home runs this past season. Don’t be surprised if MLB scouts are at full attention when he steps into the box this spring.
“I think we can confirm him as the second batter in the lineup,” Ryu said with a smile following the tournament, which saw the slugger score three runs in the finale.
Sung-Mun Song, who is attracting big league attention this winter, batted third behind Ahn after his own breakout 2025 season (.315/.387/.530, 26 home runs) and played second base. Expected to play third base in the tournament assuming Hyeseong Kim and Ha-seong Kim are on the national team’s roster, he did fly out with the bases loaded against Czech reliever Lukáš Ercoli. That wouldn’t be too notable, except Ercoli is also the team’s director of media and communications – how often do you see team employees getting big leaguers out?
Korea also brought a number of young big-armed, fireballing relievers with them, including Jeong Woo-joo, Bae Chan-seung and Kim Taek-yeon. (In fact, Gwak Been, a member of the 2023 WBC team, was seen as the veteran leader despite being just 26 year’s old.)
Their goal, just like the Czechs, was to get these youngsters some much-needed playing time in the national team uniform. While these guys can all push 95-mph plus, with some hitting triple digits in the regular season, there’s something different about playing for your nation that can’t be replicated.
“There’s a high chance that the players that are here today will make up a majority of the [World Baseball Classic] roster,” Ryu said. “We may consider their KBO performances, but also how they perform in these international exhibitions and how they prepare for the games. The level of nervousness is very different in these types of games and international events. Even from yesterday’s game, players that have national team experience look more comfortable when they came back today, and the players in their first time in action would admit that they were a little bit nervous.
“So, this is all a process. It’s all positive for these players to get this type of experience.”
Korea will now play two games this weekend in Tokyo against Japan — the first time these two storied rivals will ever face off in an exhibition contest with nothing on the line except pride — while the Czechs have returned home and must start finding ways to prepare for the professional teams and superstars they’re set to face in Tokyo.
“We tried three years ago in our gym, to pump in noise from Japanese games, but I am not sure we will do it [again],” Chadim said. “The pressure is big without fans and without noise, too.
“The [players] want to be on the team. They want to be successful. The pressure is on the players, on the coaches, on everybody. We want to be better. We want to be a good, competitive team. And without hard work, without smart thinking it’s not possible. We want to show the next generation that we will do the best to [stay in the World Baseball Classic], for them.”
