My guest Michael Clair with the World Baseball Classic trophy and the cover of his debut book.
Around the time I was preparing to head to San Juan, Puerto Rico, for the World Baseball Classic and Event No. 47 of the Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project, I happened to catch this video from Major League Baseball about Korean baseball entitled “Behind the Flag.”
One of the individuals featured speaking about Korean baseball was someone name Michael Clair. Another featured speaker was Jee-ho Yoo, a 2-time former Conversations with Sports Fans guest (S:4, E:7 and S:5, E:17) and an English-language sports writer for Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
I figured anyone worthy of sharing screen time with Jee-ho was worthy of me doing a bit of research about. Turns out Michael is MLB.com’s lead writer for all things international which, of course, included the WBC. A little further sleuthing and I discovered Michael was about to publish his first-ever book, We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball: How the Czech’s Amateur Underdogs Became World Baseball Classic Heroes. It’s the story of the improbable rise of Czech Republic baseball. As I read the synopsis, I was reminded of the uniqueness of this national team where the players (almost to a man) worked full time jobs and played baseball on nights and weekends.
While I’m always up for talking baseball and writing, I was especially intrigued about the Czech story so I reached out Michael.
And here we are😊
During this episode Michael shares his journey from New England to telling the story of international baseball as MLB.com’s senior manager of storytelling and special projects. Oh yeah, we talk plenty about the Czech team and We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball.
I’m also delighted to give away an author-signed copy of the book to one lucky entrant. All you need to do to enter is email me at hilldouglast@gmail.com by 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, May 22, 2026, and you’re in the drawing. If you’re a member of the $80 for 80 Circle of Champions and enter, your entries will be tripled!
Good luck!