Fans admire Royals’ Vinnie Pasquantino for his apology after Team Italy victory
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Vinnie Pasquantino omitted Venezuela in a postgame TV interview, then apologized on X.
- Fans praised his apology; he named and affirmed Venezuelan Royals teammates.
- Italy beat Puerto Rico; Venezuela later advanced, setting the Italy-Venezuela semifinal.
Team Italy captain Vinnie Pasquantino is likely to get some good-natured ribbing from a few of his Royals teammates on Monday night.
After Italy downed Puerto Rico on Saturday in the World Baseball Classic, Pasquantino did a postgame interview on FS1.
“It’s amazing,” Pasquantino said. “I don’t know how many people would’ve picked the Dominican Republic, Japan, the United States and Italy in the final four, but we’re here now, so we’re going to enjoy this for the probably next few hours. We’ve got a flight to catch. This is incredible, man.”
Pasquantino’s comments came hours before Venezuela advanced to the final four by defeating Japan. Next up for Venezuela is Monday night’s semifinal against Italy.
It didn’t take long for Pasquantino to realize he misspoke by not mentioning Venezuela, which has the Royals’ Salvador Perez, Maikel Garcia and Luinder Avila on its roster. Former Royals pitcher Angel Zerpa is on the team, too.
Pasquantino offered an apology on social media.
“Tried to get this fixed after the fact but I’m sorry I excluded Venezuela,” Pasquantino wrote on X. “Didn’t mean to that. Looking forward to watching that game we all know it should be fireworks. My bad Team Venezuela. I still love you Maikel, Sal, Luinder, and Zerpa.”
Fans thought it was cool that Pasquantino apologized.
“Don’t worry Vinnie, many congratulations from a Venezuelan with Italian grandparents, I hope to meet you in the final!” one person wrote.
Another shared this: “They know your heart, big man. Thanks for representing Kansas City, your Heritage and being a good dude.”
“Don’t worry, Vinnie,” wrote a fan. “The excitement of the moment. Hope we see each other soon in the next phases.“
“the biggest sweetie to ever exist,” wrote another.
Here is another response: “Don’t sweat it! But so cool that you came on X to ‘fix’ your omission. Class act.”
A Yankees fan wrote: “made a mistake, addressed it, apologized. it’s really that simple folks. take a lesson from future NY Yankees 1B Vinnie P”
“You didn’t need to post this, but it says a lot that you did,” wrote another fan.
And then there was this: “Class act. I wouldn’t be mad if Italy won it all.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 10:03 AM.
