Team Venezuela expects the WBC to be a celebration, even on US soil

MIAMI (AP) — A Venezuelan flag was stitched on the right side of Omar López's cap. And an American flag was positioned a few feet to his left.

Baseball, meet politics. Politics, meet baseball. Like it or not, it's happening.

The World Baseball Classic — already underway in Tokyo — starts pool play Friday in three other locations, including Miami. And, to no surprise, Venezuela's team is a top attraction for the games in Latin-centric South Florida.

Sporting events having geopolitical ties is nothing new, but the situation the Venezuelan team — managed by López — faces in this tournament is unusual. These games come two months after the U.S. executed a military operation in Venezuela to capture deposed leader Nicolás Maduro and bring him to New York to face drug trafficking charges.

“I’m going to be honest with you,” López insisted Thursday. “I’ve been working in baseball for 28 years and I don’t talk about political stuff, to be honest. I’m here to talk about our Venezuelan team. I’m not here to talk about anything about political situations around the world, around my country. We are alive, we are here and we want to play for our team to win every single game here.”

When news of Maduro's capture seeped out in the early morning hours of Jan. 3, many Venezuelans — it's believed, based on U.S. Census estimates, that about 200,000 people who identify as being from that country live in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area — took to the streets in celebration. Much of that was centered in the Miami suburb of Doral, which has the largest Venezuelan population in South Florida and also is where President Donald Trump owns a golf resort that will host the G20 Summit later this year.

And based on just the numbers of tickets that are available and their resale prices online, Venezuela's four games at loanDepot Park — the home of the Miami Marlins — between Friday and Wednesday will draw large crowds.

“I’m super happy, super happy to be here in my city,” Marlins utilityman Javier Sanoja said. “I love Miami because it’s the closest we have to our country, and seeing it full of Venezuelans fills me with pride.”

That won't just be the case for Venezuelans, of course. Events like the WBC — not unlike the Olympics, the Ryder Cup and more — are designed to stoke national pride, even in unusual times both in the U.S. and abroad.

The tournament is beginning less than a week after the U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran to start a new war in the Middle East. At the WBC, the U.S. is playing its pool play games in Houston; Israel has its pool games in Miami. Cuba — a longtime political adversary of the U.S. — is opening in San Juan but could get to Miami if it advances out of pool play. And all of this, plus soccer's World Cup later this year, is happening amid an immigration crackdown that has some wondering if it's safe to even try and visit the U.S.

There were no noticeable protests outside the ballpark in Miami on Thursday when teams worked out, and it's unknown if there will be any sort of politically charged events either inside or outside the stadium when games happen over the next few days.

“To put it mildly, it’s interesting times right now,” Israel manager Brad Ausmus said. “So, I hope there is that kind of unifying joy that all these players, coaches, they’re representing their heritage, but they all have one thing in common and that’s baseball. I hope the fans enjoy it.”

Venezuela's players all say some version of the same thing, that they're here to play baseball — even with the country's deposed leader in a jail cell in New York. The political times, to those players, don't make the games any more or less significant.

“I don’t try to pay attention to that, you know,” Venezuela captain Salvador Perez said. “I understand when fans buy a ticket, they want to see the team win. Win or lose, it’s part of the game. ... I can control what I can control. The rest, God has control of that.”

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Workers construct a speed pitch game outside of loanDepot Park in advance of the World Baseball Classic, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Artist Mike Macaulay paints a World Baseball Classic logo outside of loanDepot Park in advance of the World Baseball Classic, Thursday, March 5, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

Concern is rising that the first major storm outbreak in the run-up to spring could strike the nation's heartland, putting millions of Americans from Texas to Iowa at risk of potentially strong tornadoes.

Some scattered severe thunderstorms were expected to begin firing up late Thursday in the Texas Panhandle and across western Oklahoma and parts of Kansas, the National Weather Service said. Large hail, damaging winds and possibly a few tornadoes were also expected, according to the forecasters.

But the strongest storms were expected Friday in a zone that includes much of Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri and extends into some nearby states, according to weather service projections.

“This is probably our first real event this season where people are really starting to pay attention getting into the spring storm season,” said Melissa Mayes, deputy director of the Washington County Emergency Management Agency in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, north of Tulsa.

More than 6 million Americans are at the highest risk of severe weather Friday in an area that includes the metropolitan areas of Kansas City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. Another 22 million people are at a slightly lesser risk in a zone that includes Oklahoma City; St. Louis; Omaha, Nebraska; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The general setup for the strong storms is a clash between warm air streaming north from the Gulf Coast and cooler Canadian air behind cold fronts, according to meteorologists with the private forecasting service AccuWeather.

In parts of the eastern U.S., this weather pattern is also expected to usher in extremely warm temperatures for this time of year by the weekend.

“Temperatures will be 20-30 degrees above average, with 80s reaching as far north as parts of the Ohio Valley and Mid-Atlantic,” federal forecasters wrote in their long-range forecast discussion. “Daily records could become widespread.”

The high temperature in Louisville, Kentucky, for instance, is expected to reach 81 degrees (27.2 Celsius) by Friday, the weather service predicts. Atlanta's high temperature is expected to hit 82 degrees (27.8 Celsius) by Saturday. The forecast for Washington, D.C., calls for a high temperature of 74 degrees (23.3 Celsius) on Saturday.

The spring storms in the forecast come near the start of what many call tornado season, which generally begins at different times in different parts of the United States.

In what has historically been known as Tornado Alley — a designation that typically includes Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas — the peak of tornado season is May into early June. But the season starts earlier in what is often called Dixie Alley made up of southern states such as Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.

Experts recommend a few simple safety steps to take before tornadoes hit.

For Mayes and other emergency managers at this time of year, social media is a key tool for raising awareness of the risks that storm season brings.

“We will probably start pushing out some safety tips this afternoon,” she said.

FILE - This photo shows the National Weather Service monitoring station in Brownville, Texas, May 23, 2014. (David Pike/Valley Morning Star via AP, File)