Mexican baseball teams to face off at Smith's Ballpark in nod to local Latino fans

SALT LAKE CITY — Soccer isn't the only game in Mexico.

America's favorite pastime is growing in popularity south of the border and in the rest of Latin America, and in a nod to the sport's Hispanic fanbase, a pair of professional Mexican baseball teams face off this weekend at Smith's Ballpark. The Venados de Mazatlán and the Charros de Jalisco meet in exhibition games on Saturday and Sunday as part of an initiative of Miller Sports + Entertainment to mark Hispanic Heritage Month.

"We're grateful for the baseball community here in Salt Lake City and our Latino community locally that supports us here," Dustin Dehlin, vice president of business development for Miller Sports, said at a press conference Friday to promote the activity. "We're going to be able to really celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and what it is."

In fact, sport isn't meant to be the sole focus of the Béisbol en Salt Lake weekend, as dubbed by promoters. Miller Sports owns the Salt Lake Bees baseball team. "It's more than baseball. It's a fiesta with music, dancing and food," Dehlin said, noting the pregame activities preceding the games each day, including live music.

Likewise, Utah Sen. Luz Escamilla, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from the Mexican state of Coahuila, sees the event as a way of tapping the power of sports to unify the community. "This is a way of saying this is for everyone; baseball is for everyone," said Escamilla, who helped bring the event together and also spoke at Friday's press conference.

She also noted the fast growth of the Latino community across Utah, the key motor to population expansion here and in the nation as a whole. Increasing diversity exemplified by Latino growth "continues to be the trend in Utah," she said.

Hispanic Heritage Month, meant to recognize the impact of the Hispanic community in the United States, goes from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. The Beísbol en Salt Lake initiative — featuring play-by-play announcing in Spanish — is one of numerous events that have been held or are planned in Utah to mark the month.

Baseball is gaining ground in Mexico

The teams from Mazatlán, a Pacific coast city in the state of Sinaloa, and Jalisco, the Mexican state where Guadalajara is located, play in the Mexican Pacific League, a winter league. Reps from the Mazatlán squad were on hand Friday and expressed excitement at the opportunity to play in the United States, a first for the team. Jalisco team members hadn't yet arrived in Utah.

Even those in Salt Lake City's Mexican and Mexican American community who don't have connections to Sinaloa or Jalisco will be drawn to the game, said Jose Pacho, manager of the Mazatlán team. "We know the people are going to come because it's going to be a Mexican party for them," he said.

Soccer may be the most popular sport in Mexico, Pacho added, but baseball is quickly gaining ground in many parts of the country. Many Mexican players have made it to Major League Baseball teams, he said, and when Mexican national teams play in the United States — during the World Baseball Classic, for instance — the stands will fill with local Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

FiveThirtyEight, the polling organization, crunched attendance figures to professional baseball games around the world, finding that after the United States and Japan, games in Mexico drew the largest crowds, on average.

A free baseball clinic for kids will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Smith's Ballpark. The doors on Saturday open for pregame festivities starting at 3:30 p.m. while the game starts at 6:30 p.m. Pregame activities on Sunday start at 10 a.m. with the first pitch set for 1:05 p.m.

Organizers will also be collecting food during the games as part of a drive for local food bank.

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