Fan favorite Nelson Figueroa looks back on incredible 2013 Classic win over USA

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There are not many players with careers like Nelson Figueroa’s. The Brooklyn, New York, native is the only player to ever reach the Majors coming out of Brandeis University, a school known more for its liberal arts program than its baseball team. Selected in the 30th round of the 1995 Draft by the Mets, Figueroa put together a nine-year MLB career, with another three seasons playing in Taiwan for the Uni-President Lions.

Figueroa was also the winning pitcher in Puerto Rico’s 4-3 defeat of the United States in the 2013 World Baseball Classic. That day, Figueroa threw 6 shutout innings while giving up just two hits to a loaded American lineup that featured three MVP Award-winners in Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Braun and Joe Mauer. With San Juan once again playing host for the 2026 tournament, we thought it was a good time to catch up with Figueroa, who is now the sports analyst for PIX11 in New York.

Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MLB: Your career took you all over the world and introduced you to all different people and players. What were some of the things you learned in your travels?

Figueroa: Even if the language is different, the game is the same. There's different ways to get the job done. There's different ways to throw pitches, there's different ways to attack hitters. I got to see some of the best fastballs on the planet, plus some of the best breaking balls on the planet. I got to see a multitude of different arm angles with different tempos, timings, mechanics. It was a living experiment, going and absorbing every little bit of knowledge from each and every person I played catch with, to every person that I watched pitch.

In Taiwan, I was able to learn a forkball and make it better than I had when I was coming up in the Minor Leagues. So, I think it was just all about not shying away from learning new things.

MLB: Not only did you pitch for Puerto Rico in two World Baseball Classic tournaments (2009 and '13), but those were years that San Juan hosted. What was the atmosphere like?

Figueroa: One of the most fantastic things about the WBC is that it's playoff atmosphere baseball. And it's not just the playoff atmosphere – it's Game 7, every game.

I think what sets it really apart is playing for national pride. Nobody's thinking about whoever won the World Series last year, their team is better than my team. We're all playing on the same team. Now the goal is very simple. We're going to go out there and [dominate] in the name of our country.

When we were the host in Puerto Rico, the fans had our backs 1,000 percent. We still had a chip on our shoulder. We felt like the underdog, that we're going to have to try and prove to everybody that we could hang. I mean, we had to play the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. Those rosters looked like All-Star team rosters. Between guys with playoff experience in the Majors, guys with All-Star appearances, Silver Sluggers, MVPs – we had to go up against all that. I got a chance to prove that if given the opportunity, I could do it against that caliber of talent, especially in a pressure-filled, do-or-die kind of situation.

MLB: You pitched one of the biggest games in WBC history when you helped knock out the United States in 2013. What was going through your mind before that start? What was the preparation like?

Figueroa: I was watching the Dominican-USA game in the hotel knowing that I was going to pitch with a chance to eliminate one of the two teams. I was just studying the hitters, watching which guys handled which kind of pitches well, and what I was going to have to do. Even though I formulated a game plan in my head, once I got to the ballpark the next day I had some jitters. I’m just trying to make sure that I'm getting my rhythm down and getting my release point right.

When [catcher Yadier Molina] walked into the bullpen to finish out catching my series, I was like, ‘I'm just gonna trust this guy. Whatever he puts down, I'm going to throw and just execute it to the best of my ability.’ I had nothing but 100 percent blind faith that Yadier knows these guys better than anybody.

MLB: What stands out in your memory from these international competitions that you took part in?

Figueroa: For a kid who was born in Brooklyn – and I have family members who are from Puerto Rico – getting a chance to spend time with my family in Puerto Rico was so special. Getting to see people I had never met before, some I had met when I was so young that I didn't remember them, and getting a chance to share the experience was tremendous.

After the 2013 WBC, I wound up making the All-World Team and MetLife had sent a plaque with all the baseball cards from every player signed. And so I have that with everybody on them. I just look at that sometimes and realize that even for just one tournament, I was on par with these guys. That's the beauty of baseball because I was a 30th-round Draft pick. And it didn't matter at that point because baseball never changes. Once you're playing on a 60-foot mound and 90-foot bases, it never changes, so it doesn't matter where you were drafted. It doesn't matter how hard you throw.