WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - GREAT BRITAIN VS UNITED STATES

March 10, 2023

Drew Spencer

Trayce Thompson

Daniel Cooper

Joseph King

Chase Field

Team Great Britain

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. What does the Great Britain uniform mean to each of you?

JOSEPH KING: This is my first time playing with this team, but I've been wanting to play for Great Britain since my freshman year at college about four years ago, five years ago. So this is just been pretty amazing so far.

Just happy to be here with a bunch of guys who have been representing the country for much longer than I have. So it's just a great honor.

DANIEL COOPER: When I first found out about being able to play for this team 10 years ago, first it was just like a really cool opportunity to play some international baseball.

The more you get to know these guys, get to find out what we mean for the country back at home, where my family's from, and just like build baseball in a country that it wasn't really known for, it's been an amazing journey. And just excited to expand baseball throughout the world in our country of Great Britain.

TRAYCE THOMPSON: For me, similar. To be able to represent my family, my dad's side of the family, something that doesn't get talked about a lot for me personally.

And to play with these guys, how much this means to them and how deep of an impact this would make on an entire nation is something that's pretty cool.

And to play for Drew. He's been in London, I think, 18 years. And a lot of blood, sweat and tears go into what he does. So to be representative of him, too, means a lot.

Q. Your thoughts on the exhibition games the last two days, what did you learn about your team personnel maybe that you didn't know before those games began?

DREW SPENCER: There's not much I feel that we didn't know about them because we studied them. They've all been hand picked to be part of this team, part of this experience. What was great was to see them come together as a group and kind of realize the potential that, up until then, it sat in spreadsheets and was on Zoom calls and things like that.

And to kind of feel the energy of all these guys face to face, to see what they could do was great.

We saw we can hit. We saw that. We got a chance to just get a look at all of our pitchers and see what they're capable of. And all of that helps us to build a plan.

Q. From September to now, from the run you guys had, what have the preparations been like on your side?

DREW SPENCER: Intense. Yeah, I think we got back from Regensburg we allowed ourselves maybe a day or two to enjoy the moment. And then it was back to work.

We knew we would have to dig deep and really expand the talent pool and get early conversations going with the guys so they had time to prepare and their organizations had time to prepare and just jump through all the various hoops that you need to do to get from what we refer to as kind of the end of the beginning for Great Britain baseball and the beginning of the next chapter.

And it was a lot of work that went into it. But it's fun work. It's good work. And credit to my staff who have volunteered a lot of hours to make this happen.

Q. Drew, the guys talked about the different experiences of what GB means to them. Can you talk us through how, like, the team as a whole gets along together because they come from different and disparate areas?

DREW SPENCER: Absolutely. I think first and foremost, what you get is you get veterans, like Coop, our captain, along with Alex Crosby who know what it means. They've been the new guy in the room before and have watched the kind of experience of international baseball, wash over somebody. They've good at welcoming people in, telling them what it means.

But we hold a big meeting together as a team for those that can be there. And it's tough because guys got different schedules. But as soon as we have as much of the team together as we can, we have a "what does GB mean to you" meeting.

And actually we invite the entire delegation. So this time it was just about 52 people in the room. We go around and everybody talks about their connection to Great Britain and why playing for this team is important to them.

And you get all kinds of stories, from whether it's Nick Ward, who is playing for his grandfather. Or whether it's Alex Crosby playing for his mother. Or as Trayce said, whether it's a chance to represent the heritage -- his father's side of the family, which doesn't get talked about too much unless you're a Lakers fan like I was.

But apart from that, it's -- what it is is, it's a chance for everybody to look each other in the eye and see there's a common bond amongst us. And it always brings the energy for us.

Q. Trayce, you've got the most big league experience of anybody on this roster. Obviously a lot of your teammates have international experience as well. What have you kind of conveyed to them about the stage that you guys are all walking into this week?

TRAYCE THOMPSON: I haven't said much to them. But just talking to them individually, guys that have come up to me, baseball is an interesting game. It doesn't matter who you are. I mean, I punched out three times yesterday in three at-bats.

And I'm watching these guys, none of them have been too close to the big leagues, and I'm watching these guys put up quality at-bat after quality at-bat against some good arms.

Baseball is crazy. It has a way of humbling you. Even the best players can be beat by a guy that's in rookie ball. And you'll see it in spring training all the time.

So anything can happen. That's the beautiful thing about this game. As long as we're out there competing, we have a chance to win.

And so my message to them, if any of them come up to me or I get a chance to talk to them, is just embrace the moment, because you never know what can happen. I was on a team that won 111 games last year, and we were out in four games. Anything can happen. It's the beautiful thing about this game.

Q. Drew, since you spent so much time over there coaching baseball, how would you describe the state of baseball in Great Britain now? And how much has it grown since you first arrived there?

DREW SPENCER: It's small, but it's a robust community. There's a good three, 4,000 people around the country playing baseball, with concentrations in certain pockets.

But baseball in Britain goes back to the 1800s. So there are some people who are incredibly passionate. We've got a guy in the dugout with us right now, Gavin Marshall, he's the third generation in his family to be in the British Baseball Hall of Fame, for the Hull Scorpions, and there's been baseball in Hull for 100 years. It's really interesting to see the history.

I think with the London series, first the Yankees-Red Sox in 2019 and the games coming now, what you're starting to see is more and more people showing up, coming out of the woodwork. It's not just an American ex-pat who got stationed in London for a couple of years for their job; there are actually baseball players with British accents. They're showing up more and more, especially because of what these guys are doing.

And we've been hearing from them all week long on Twitter and in WhatsApp. And they're letting us know how much this means. So I reckon that coming out of this experience you're going to see that group grow significantly.

Q. Your choice to wear 43, what does that mean to your family? Has your dad already asked to have a Thompson 43 jersey with GB on it?

TRAYCE THOMPSON: He's got enough jerseys. (Laughter).

But he's my hero. My dad was my idol. I don't really think of him as a sports dad. He was just my dad. He never pushed sports on us. We just kind of chose our own paths. And if it wasn't for him and the way he raised us, who knows if I would have played baseball because, like I said, he let us do whatever we wanted to do.

And for me it was baseball at the age of 5. And it's been that ever since.

I was choosing between that and 28 because my uncle Colin was a big-time baseball player in the Bahamas, and he wore 28. Actually went to spring training with the Dodgers many years ago.

But 43 will always be a special number in my family. It's to honor my dad. And everyone in the Bahamas kind of knows that.

Q. Since you're the most, at least in terms of the Major League experience, established guy on the roster, as you've been around these guys, is there anybody who is kind of off the radar for most baseball fans that's really impressed you on your team?

TRAYCE THOMPSON: All the arms have been really impressive. Maybe it's just because I live under a rock, I don't have social media or anything. And I don't really -- I kind of have blinders on and focus on what I need to focus on. But all the arms have been pretty impressive.

And so I've been really impressed with that and really looking forward to seeing how they do.

I knew of pretty much most of the hitters, but like I said, all the arms have been really impressive. I'm excited for everyone to get the opportunity to go up against a couple of really good lineups.

Q. Joe and Daniel, could you describe yourselves both as pitchers and what your repertoires are and your approach to pitching here in this tournament?

JOSEPH KING: I actually prefer Joseph. Sorry, that's all. I throw a fastball, a changeup and a breaking ball. I throw a lot of changeups and a lot of fastballs, just try to get them off time, miss the barrel. That's about it. Get outs. It's that simple.

DANIEL COOPER: I've been retired for a good amount of time now, but my sinker has kind of become more of a gravity ball at this point. It doesn't have the same heat behind it. But you've got a bunch of guys, everyone lives 95 to 99 now. They haven't seen an 86-mile-an-hour sinker in a long time.

My goal is to keep them off balance and just get ground balls like I've been doing my entire life. That's the way I pitch.

Q. Going off John's point, there's a lot of big league hitters, not just big league hitters, big league All-Stars, that are here over the next couple of days. Can you both comment on maybe particular guys that you're excited about facing?

JOSEPH KING: All of them. It's going to be fun.

DANIEL COOPER: The funny thing is I started my career at the same time as most of the guys on the USA lineup, I've been fortunate to face a lot of them in the minor leagues. I was a college draft pick when they were high school guys.

I faced Trout about five times there. And I faced Arenado -- you can actually look me up; my only YouTube video is me striking out Arenado. You can find it on "Cooper Cracks Nuts." Look it up -- Modesto Nuts, High Desert Mavericks.

It's cool how things have come full circle. Obviously most people my age, if they're still playing baseball, they're 10-year big league vets at this point.

But it's really cool to have an opportunity to, one, keep playing the game that I've loved my whole life and to come back full circle, big league stadium against these same guys. To me this is my big leagues. I'm just super excited to be a part of it.