On March 7, as the World Baseball Classic was starting to ramp up, Team Venezuela manager Omar López kicked off a press conference with a plea to reporters. “Please,” he said in Spanish, according to ESPN, “don’t ask me any more questions about the political situation of my country.” Venezuela had descended into chaos after U.S. troops snatched its president, Nicolás Maduro, from his home in January, leaving many of López’s players scrambling to get out. Some worried they wouldn’t be able to get visas for MLB spring training if they waited too long. Some feared that speaking out about politics would jeopardize the safety of their loved ones back home.

But López’s plea wasn’t just about self-preservation. Like many major international athletic events, the triennial WBC operates under the delusion that politics and sports can be kept separate. It has strict rules prohibiting political speech. López was militant about his team obeying them throughout its Cinderella run to the WBC final. And yet, by the time pitcher Daniel Palencia threw the final strike on Tuesday, capping off Venezuela’s stunning 3-2 upset victory over the U.S., it was clear that these rules were less about keeping the sport pure than distorting what qualifies as political behavior. And no one benefited from that more than Team USA.

This seemed at first to be a mere difference of affect: The Team USA roster was effectively a dream team of MLB superstars — reigning home-run leaders Cal Raleigh and Kyle Schwarber; the best hitter in the world in Aaron Judge; Cy Young–winning pitchers Paul Skenes and Tarik Skubal. Yet none of them seemed to be having any fun. They approached the event with a stoic, businesslike mien, what podcaster Jimmy O’Brien described as a “1950s, hard-nosed, football mentality.” Cal Raleigh refused to shake hands with his Seattle Mariners teammate, Randy Arozarena, because Arozarena was playing for Team Mexico and the U.S. had a policy of putting “country ahead of teammates and........

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