The 14th annual Mexican Baseball Fiesta returns to Kino Veterans Memorial Sports Complex Oct. 2-6, with four days of double headers featuring teams from Mexico, Tucson and the University of Arizona.
The fiesta kicks off fall ball in Tucson. Throughout the month of October, the Tucson Baseball Team, part of Mexican Pacific League league, will be playing at Kino.
“Vamos a Tucson Mexican Baseball Fiesta” began in 2011 as a collaboration between the Mexican Baseball League and the former Tucson Padres.
Mexican baseball pitcher team co-founder Francisco Gamez, was also a pitcher for Mayos de Navojoa’s, among various teams.
“The event was founded by my father, Francisco Gamez, and his business partner, Mike Fader … a former general manager for the Tucson Padres from 2011 to 2013,” said Luis Gamez, the fiesta’s event operations head.
The fiesta filled the gap when MLB spring training left Tucson in 2011.
“We were pretty disappointed once baseball left in the spring and we’re looking to enrich Tucson with more baseball.” Gamez said.
The Mexican baseball fiesta website stated that the Mexican Winter League is as popular in Mexico as the MLB is in the States.
Several teams will participate in this fiesta, including the U of A’s baseball team and the Tucson Baseball Team, which relocated from the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico (Mexican Pacific League). It’s the first time the league has a team based outside of Mexico.
The fiesta started as a way to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month.
“It kind of fell into the lap of that,” Gamez said. “Since then, it’s just been a celebration of not just baseball but culture.”
The fiesta also brings together different styles of baseball on one field, which Gamez said was another goal of his father.
“Mexican League baseball is a lot different than spring training or Major League Baseball game or Triple-A game,” he said, adding that the fiesta brings “that style of baseball to fellow country men from us in Mexico and gives that experience to the people from the area here in Tucson.”
The fiesta will give fans an early look at the Tucson baseball team just ahead of their season kickoff on Oct. 16 against the Naranjenos De Hermosillo at Kino.
“We’ve been hungry for baseball for a long time,” said Justin Spears, a Tucson native and sports reporter for the Arizona Daily Star. “Ever since the Tucson Sidewinders and Tucson Padres left a while back, coupled with spring training leaving, we’ve been starving for pro baseball back. This is high-level baseball with a party-like atmosphere. Tucson is gonna fall in love with this.”
UA sophomore Sophia Alvarez has been a fan for the past three years.
I love the live music and I love the culture that Tucson has to offer,” she said. “I feel like there’s a sense of unity.”
The first doubleheader opens with Naranjeros de Hermosillo and Yaquis de Obregon at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 2, followed by UA Wildcats taking on the hometown Tucson Baseball Team.
“My favorite part about them is that it’s a party, but there just so happens to be a baseball game in the background,” Spears said of the fiesta. “There’s music playing between pitches, there’ll be concerts after the games and everyone just seems so happy to be there. That’s why they call it a fiesta, right?”
General admission tickets for the fiesta are $20; box seats are $25. Children 6 to 16 and seniors are $10 through https://www.ticketreturn.com/prod2new/team.asp?sponsorid=19329.
Arizona Sonoran news is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
