The World Baseball Classic espresso machine has become one of sport’s most unexpected viral moments, turning Italy’s dugout into a tiny café every time a home run clears the fence. Italy has been bringing a Nespresso machine to the tournament, and players celebrate home runs by gathering for espresso shots — a tradition that has captured attention far beyond the baseball world.
How the World Baseball Classic Espresso Machine Tradition Started
The credit for the idea goes to Vinnie Pasquantino, the Kansas City Royals first baseman, who originated the home run espresso celebration concept. What started as a quirky cultural statement has grown into a defining feature of how Italy shows up at the World Baseball Classic — with genuine Italian flair baked into every at-bat. The dugout espresso setup is not a gimmick dreamed up by a marketing team. It is a player-driven tradition that says something real about the team’s identity.
Italy brought the machine back for the 2026 World Baseball Classic, confirming this is now an established ritual rather than a one-off moment. In a tournament that already leans hard into national identity and pride, Italy’s espresso corner might be the most on-brand thing any team has ever done at an international sports event.
Why the World Baseball Classic Espresso Machine Matters Beyond Baseball
Sport has always been a vehicle for cultural expression, but Italy’s dugout setup cuts through in a way that a flag or a jersey simply cannot. Espresso is not just a drink in Italian culture — it is a daily ritual, a social act, a point of national pride. Transplanting that ritual into the middle of a baseball dugout is genuinely clever, and the fact that it has resonated globally says something about how hungry sports audiences are for moments that feel human and unscripted.
Compare this to the standard approach most teams take at international tournaments — matching tracksuits, official sponsors, carefully managed media moments. Italy’s Nespresso machine cuts through all of that noise because it is specific, personal, and slightly absurd. That combination is exactly what makes things go viral, and Italy has stumbled onto something that no brand brief could have engineered.
Nespresso vs Traditional Espresso Machines: What Italy Is Actually Brewing
Nespresso machines use pre-portioned capsules to produce espresso-style coffee quickly and consistently — which makes them a practical choice for a dugout setup where speed and simplicity matter. A traditional espresso machine requires grinding, dosing, tamping, and dialling in extraction, none of which is realistic between innings. Nespresso trades some of the craft for reliability, and in a dugout context, that is a reasonable trade-off. Whether Italian baseball players are satisfied with capsule espresso is a question only they can answer, but the symbolism lands regardless of what a purist barista might think.
Is the Italy dugout espresso machine a Nespresso?
Yes. Italy used a Nespresso machine during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and the team brought an espresso machine back for the 2026 tournament as well. The espresso shot celebration after home runs has become one of the tournament’s most recognisable traditions.
Who started the espresso celebration at the World Baseball Classic?
Vinnie Pasquantino, a first baseman for the Kansas City Royals, is credited with originating the home run espresso celebration idea for Italy’s dugout. The tradition has since become a fixture of Italy’s World Baseball Classic identity.
Will Italy bring the espresso machine to future World Baseball Classic tournaments?
Given that Italy brought the machine back for 2026 after debuting the tradition in 2023, the espresso celebration appears to be a permanent fixture. It has become too closely associated with the team’s identity at this point to quietly disappear.
Italy’s World Baseball Classic espresso machine is more than a novelty — it is one of the rare moments in modern sport where cultural identity and genuine personality break through the polished surface of international competition. Whether you follow baseball or not, the image of players crowding around a Nespresso machine after a home run is one of the tournament’s most enduring stories, and it shows no signs of going cold.
Where to Buy
Lavazza Blue Classy Mini, which you can find on Amazon for $109 | Lavazza BLUE Classy Mini Single Serve Espresso Coffee Machine:
This article was written with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
Source: Tom's Guide
