Matt Clark hopes this year's Olympic baseball tournament will prove that what goes around comes around, and that the lessons he learned playing in Japan will help earn Mexico its first Olympic medal in the sport.
Clark, who had two stints in Japan, has been playing in the Mexican League since 2015. In 2019, he was asked to join Mexico's team for the Premier 12, where he helped propel Mexico into its first Olympic baseball tournament.
"My grandmother is from Mexico. I'm a Mexican citizen now," Clark said recently from his home in Houston. "I didn't know they were going to put me on the team. They just called me out of the blue at the end of that season in 2019. 'You're on the team,' they said. 'We'd love to have you.'"