WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - GREAT BRITAIN VS MEXICO

March 14, 2023

Drew Spencer

Chase Field

Team Great Britain

Postgame Press Conference

Mexico - 2, Great Britain - 1

Q. It was a great tournament for you guys, but disappointed with the loss against Mexico?

DREW SPENCER: Every loss hurts. I don't think we would be human if it didn't hurt. It definitely did.

But I can't be disappointed. I told the guys to hang your head high and stick your chest out and walk out of here with pride because you competed exactly the way we wanted you to.

Q. If I understand this correctly, I believe if Colombia loses tomorrow you will not have to qualify again. Would you take that as a sign of success for what you guys were able to accomplish here?

DREW SPENCER: Absolutely. We had three goals: Win the whole thing; get to Miami; and avoid relegation. Like, those were the three. Beyond that you're having a disappointing tournament. So if that happens, then we have even more reasons to celebrate.

Q. You've talked about how you want the team to be seen in Britain. How do you hope that U.S. fans that are getting a look at you guys or fans from other countries that are big baseball countries, what do you hope that they take away from how you guys performed at this tournament?

DREW SPENCER: It goes back to something I said the very first tournament I ever managed for Great Britain. And I was the under-23 team in 2019. And I said we're off to the European Championship. And everybody's going to look at our name on the schedule and they're going to go that's the easy game.

And I said to them, your job is to make sure when the tournament is over that they don't say that anymore. And I've believed that to be true that that's the job that this team has to do whenever we suit up on these big stages. And I believe we achieved that.

Like, I don't think people will see Great Britain on the schedule again in the future and think that's our easy game.

Q. Just piggybacking on what you were talking about, what do you think about the growth of the team through the entire process, going through the qualifying round, getting here? I mean it's obvious watching this pool that the gap between teams that qualify, teams that have come back are getting narrower and narrower. How do you feel about your progress at this point?

DREW SPENCER: I think it's exceptional. I feel like we got better every day from the first day of preparation before a qualifier, all the way through to the journey to this main tournament and then the journey through this main tournament. I feel as though we just kept improving.

And to me that makes me feel really, really good about the job that my coaching staff has done, that the full delegation has done. Everybody was pushed to new places in their roles in this program and in this tournament.

And it just feels like we made mistakes. And I told everybody we would. But we have to walk away from this and feel like we've arrived. I said the other night, beginning of chapter two. And chapter two is looking like a great story.

Q. What are your plans now? When do you guys go home?

DREW SPENCER: I think some of us are going to stick around. We don't get the opportunity to be here very often and to experience baseball at this level. There's Spring Training happening. We've got relationships that need to be built and more chances to just go away and take notes, soak in what we can and bring it back home and feed that into the program.

Q. Chavez Young was a spark plug, a catalyst the entire way. What do you make of his performance here in pool play?

DREW SPENCER: He's exceptional. He was so much fun to watch. He was a threat -- he makes you think about it. I think he makes you think about him when he's at the plate. He definitely makes you think about him when he's on the bases.

And he's a magnet to the fans. You talk about wanting this game to be fun and wanting to draw in the younger audiences and the new audiences into this game, that's the template. Guys like that. They're the future of baseball.

Q. Harry Ford started out 0-for-6 with four strikeouts and then found his stride, couple homers, a double today off a big league veteran, Walker. What did you see from Harry as the tournament progressed?

DREW SPENCER: Growth. He just turned 20 not that long ago. The amount of things that his face is on and the amount of pressure that's placed on his shoulders to be something great.

I think what you see is how he takes that role on. I just feel like the way that he bounces back from a tough start, it's pretty incredible. I think he's played seven games in a Great Britain uniform and homered in five of them. And yet he got better every game.

His pitch calling, his relationship with the pitchers, his work ethic. He started in a strong place and finished in an even stronger one.

Q. Do you want to manage this team more? Did you want it?

DREW SPENCER: As long as they'll have me I would absolutely love to manage this team. It's the privilege of a lifetime.