With rumors of another strike, deferred money conversations and the like, Clair offers several hours reading that reminds you of how baseball gets under your skin and stays there.

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) brings together teams from across the globe every three years in March to showcase players playing for their countries and the pride that ones with it. Sometimes a country may not have many players in its country and take American players who have family lineage in that country. Many European countries have players like this - an example would be Team Italy in the 2026 WBC.
However, that was not the case for the team from the Czech Republic in 2023. Their roster was completely made up of amateur players save for one American player who joined later. The tales of these players, their coach, and how they overcame long odds to not only appear in the WBC, but also win a game in pool play, are told in this book by Michael Clair.

None of the native born players nor coaches make baseball their full time profession. They are strictly amateurs and make a living in professions like teaching and firefighting. Clair does a very good job of telling the story of several of these players - most notably, catcher Martin Cervenka and pitcher Martin Schneider. Schneider caught the eye of scouts for the Minnesota Twins and offered a contract but he turned them down to remain as a firefighter in his native land and also to keep pitching.

The team stuck together despite many heartbreaks on the field that kept them from advancing further in European baseball. And speaking of fields, the conditions of some of those diamonds were poor - just one aspect of the hurdles facing the team that Clair does a good job covering.
However, the best aspect of the is when Clair writes about the two biggest games in Czech baseball history. The first was the victory over Spain that put the Czech team in the 2023 tournament. It was especially notable since earlier in the qualifiers, Spain had a mercy-rule 21-7 victory over the Czechs. But that didn’t intimidate Schneider for the rematch and when the Czechs pulled off the 4-3 upset, Clair brings the reader right there with the team to celebrate.

If the team and reader felt that was a big moment, then their first game in the 2023 WBC, played in the Tokyo Dome, was even bigger. They defeated China in their first ever WBC game and even held a lead after 3 innings in their next game against Japan, the eventual champion of that tourney. Clair’s account of the highlight of the game was excellent. Struggling to get his fastball above 80 miles an hour, Czech pitcher Ondrej Satoria - an electrician by trade - struck out Shohei Ohtani, causing the superstar to lose his helmet. After the game, won by Japan 10-2, the respect by both sides was mutual and the Japanese fans cheered the Czechs just as warmly as did the 200 fellow citizens who made the trip.

Reading about this extraordinary team was a treat, even if they did not win another game. The win assured them a spot in the 2026 WBC, where they did not fare as well, losing all 4 games in pool play. Nonetheless, their story of their adventure to get to the 2023 tourney is one that would be enjoyed by any baseball fan.

I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Sitting at the intersection of sports, culture, history, and politics, We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball is an eminently readable story of the Czech national baseball team and some of its most notable personalities. This story has all the hallmarks of some of the top nonfiction on the market today, such as in-depth profile journalism in expository sections, tense narrative moments when zooming into a scene of particular interest, and snippets of evocative dialogue to help the personalities in the story come to life. A true delight for any baseball fan, or anyone who likes a good nonfiction story.

Michael Clair writes an in depth look at the Czech baseball team that against all odds came to the WBC and managed to win. This book sits at the crossroads of many topics: sports, politics, history and social interest and seems to nail all of them. I was sucked in and rooting for this team despite already knowing the results. A great read!