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03/12/2004 10:00 AM ET
South of the border?
MLB serious about considering Mexico in the future
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By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com |
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| Fernando Valenzuela was the winning pitcher in the first regular season game in Mexico in 1996. (John Gaps III/AP)
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• Mexico City previews:
Astros | Marlins
The fans dance to the beat of congas and drink cool rum punch in the bleachers. From the Dominican Republic to Mexico to Puerto Rico to Panama, when the Major Leaguers come, the fans chant the names of the native players. Ivan Rodriguez in San Juan. Fernando Valenzuela in Mexico. Vladimir Guerrero in Santo Domingo. Ruben Rivera in Panama City.
Major League Beisbol has gone big-time in Latin America and is returning to Mexico City's Estadio Foro Sol this weekend for the Serie de Primavera, the spring series. It is the third time in what is becoming an annual two-game exhibition series, this time between the Houston Astros and the World Series champion Florida Marlins.
Initially, Hispanic players migrated to the United States and Canada to play in the big leagues. Now they are coming back regularly to play at home in the uniforms and colors of their MLB teams. MLB is marketing the brand in Latin America like never before. It seems like only a matter of time before a team will be located permanently somewhere south of the border.
"There's a lot of potential, there's no question about it," Commissioner Bud Selig said last weekend during his initial tour of the Arizona spring camps. "We're looking very closely at that market and I'm sure there ultimately will be some kind of permanent internationalization."
Neither Selig nor Bob DuPuy, MLB's president and chief operating officer, would put a timeline on it, but it could happen sooner rather than later. The evidence for sooner is gaining momentum.
MLB is going back to Mexico City, where last year two games between the Dodgers and Mets drew 37,758, compared to 21,473 in 2001 for two games between the Pirates and Devil Rays.
The Montreal Expos were so successful playing 22 regular season games last season in San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium, MLB's owned-and-operated team will do it again in 2004. Five of the 22 games in the 18,000-seat stadium sold out and the average was 14,222 per game. The Expos drew 312,882 last year in San Juan.
Monterrey was so highly regarded after its bid to host the Expos for at least those 22 games this season, MLB's relocation committee is seriously considering the industrial metropolis far to the north of Mexico City as a permanent home for the Expos in 2005.
"How serious are we about planting roots in Mexico? We wouldn't be working with Monterrey about relocating the Expos there if we weren't," DuPuy said.
MLB has played exhibition games in the Dominican Republic and regular season games in Monterrey, and Team USA played in Panama in November. Major League-affiliated players, like Rivera, played for their native countries in qualifying tournaments for the Olympics, which is being staged in Athens, Greece, this summer.
The result might have been anathema to the Americans, who were eliminated by the Mexicans in a 2-1 quarterfinal game that came down to the final at-bat.
"I still have nightmares thinking about it," said Justin Leone, a third baseman on Team USA and now a hot prospect in the Seattle Mariners organization.
But consider it from Mexico's point of view. Its only win of the wacky tournament came against the U.S., the dominant neighbor to the north.
"The Mexicans came of age," said John Moores, the majority owner of the San Diego Padres. "That was good for their self-esteem and good for the future of baseball as a whole. You have to take the broad view. The U.S. may not be going to the Olympics this time, but we're growing the sport down there. We can't take any Latin American team for granted anymore."
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"From what I've heard, [Monterrey is] very impressive, very impressive. Whether we go down there or not, only time will tell."
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-- Commissioner Bud Selig
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As a novice owner, Moores pioneered MLB's exploration in Mexico. In August 1996, his Padres hosted the Mets for a three-game series at Estadio Monterrey, the first regular-season series to be played outside the U.S. or Canada. Valenzuela, then playing for the Padres, started the first game of the series and pitched six innings of six-hit ball as San Diego won, 15-10. In the last game, Padres third baseman Ken Caminiti was so ill he was fed fluids intravenously while lying prone on the cement floor of the clubhouse. Caminiti played, hit two home runs, and the Padres won again. That's how folklore is born.
The series drew 67,382 in the 26,000-seat ballpark and was such a rousing success that the Padres returned to Monterrey to open the 1999 season against the Colorado Rockies.
Playing baseball regularly there is a possibility, Moores said.
"We have to do a complete economic evaluation to see if it'll work," Moores said. "It may be more of a romantic possibility than a pragmatic one. I'd like to see the numbers first."
Industrialist Carlos Bremer is trying to find a way to permanently lure the Expos to Monterrey, the third-largest city in Mexico behind Mexico City and Guadalajara.
It's a 2 1/2-hour drive from southern Texas and the capital city of Nuevo Leon, one of six Mexican states that share a border with the U.S. The Monterrey metropolitan area has a population of 3.2 million out of the state's 3.8 million and consists of seven municipalities.
MLB is insisting that a new stadium be built to house the team, but Bremer wants at least one test season in an expanded Estadio Monterrey before they make that kind of commitment.
Selig said he wants to move the Expos by next season. But if no winners emerge among the six communities now vying for the team, MLB could conceivably continue to own the Expos and take a sizeable payment from Bremer to have them play in Monterrey next season.
"It's the least of our options," DuPuy said. "We still think we can sell the team."
But MLB is obviously serious about Monterrey. A pair of Expos players took a whirlwind tour of the city and playing facilities last month just before the start of Spring Training. They came away with a favorable feeling fueled by the sultry weather and warm welcome.
"From what I've heard, [Monterrey is] very impressive, very impressive," Selig said. "Whether we go down there or not, only time will tell."
Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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