In a must-win World Baseball Classic game against Canada, who better to hype up Team USA than Olympic hockey hero Jack Hughes?
Manager Mark DeRosa on Thursday said the New Jersey Devils star “sent the boys a nice little fire-up message” ahead of their WBC quarterfinal against Canada on Friday night in Houston’s Daikin Park.
DeRosa said he shared the message in the players’ group chat.
On Feb. 22, Hughes scored the overtime goal to clinch USA Hockey’s dramatic gold medal win over Canada in the Winter Olympics in Milan. It was Team USA’s first men’s hockey gold since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980.
Major League Baseball’s communications staff reached out to the Devils before WBC training camp to ask if Hughes would send a message of encouragement to captain Aaron Judge and the U.S. team, as Hughes is a die-hard New York Yankees fan whose father was born in the Bronx.
Hughes, 24, recorded a hype video in the Devils’ locker room and asked that it be kept private between him and the WBC players.
DeRosa said the USA Hockey motivation might not end there.
“I know there’s talk of some hockey jerseys being sent in tomorrow for the guys to wear during [batting practice] or around the clubhouse,” DeRosa said.
USA Hockey’s men’s and women’s gold medals at the Winter Games have served as inspiration for Team USA on the diamond during the World Baseball Classic.
“The boys were so fired up. We sent so many pictures of Hughes in the group chat,” Judge told “The Pat McAfee Show” in early March. “Now we get a chance to throw on the red, white and blue and copy what they did. That was a special run on both sides, men and women.”
Team Canada is also trying to conjure some magic from Olympic hockey. Josh Naylor of the Seattle Mariners, a Mississauga, Ontario, native, wore a Paul Kariya jersey from the 2002 Canadian Olympic team that beat the U.S. for gold in the Salt Lake City Winter Games.
While USA Hockey has spent years trying to overcome its dominant neighbors to the north, the roles are reversed in baseball. After Canada shocked the U.S. in pool play during the first WBC in 2006, the Americans have won four straight matchups. Their past two wins in 2017 and 2023 were by a combined score of 20-1.
