A Tex-Mex Baseball Trip

By David Marasco

After many years I finally put some plans into action and left Chicago for a baseball trip to Texas and Mexico. While I had seen the last regular season game in the Astrodome, that had been my only Texas baseball. With W as our new President, that was a situation that needed to be changed.

Thursday night found us in Arlington. While this is a newer stadium, I didn't like it as much as some of the other recent additions to baseball architecture. It felt like I was watching baseball in a lidless box. A lot of this had to do with the fact that there is a structure in between the right and left field stands. Granted, it probably generates a lot of revenue for the Rangers, but it cuts out any view of a skyline (although that far out in Arlington perhaps all you would see is rollercoasters anyway). There are plenty of other stadiums that have walls "all the way around," but the height of the structures makes it seem more enclosed than some other parks. On the other hand, there were a good number of choices for cuisine at the stadium. I felt that if I walked long enough I could find grilled alligator, or stuffed parakeet, or whatever your culinary fancy might be.

It was not a good night for A-Rod. Yes, he did return to "home" after his first series in Seattle, where he was quite unwelcome. Yes, he did hit his first home run in Texas as a Ranger. On the other hand, he wasn't sterling in the field. He let a ball get under his glove for a hit, got beat out on an infield grounder, and made an error. Three plays that a better defensive shortstop would have converted into outs. He disappointed at the plate. Sure, he hit the aforementioned dinger, but in the fifth he came up with runners on first and second, two out, and flew out. The Rangers were only down by two at that point. In the seventh, down by five runs, he came to the plate with bases loaded and two outs. The result? A strikeout. In the eighth A-Rod again strode to the plate with bases loaded and a pair of outs, and again the Rangers came away with nothing. Not the results you are looking for when you pay a player a quarter of a billion dollars. That night's loss to the A's didn't draw him too much heat. I wonder if the same will be said later in the Summer if the Rangers are struggling.

Is this fair to A-Rod? Of the three defensive plays, the official scorer was correct in labelling only one of them an error. The other two events were by no means sure things. And while A-Rod did strand eight runners and end three innings in his last three plate appearances, he did have a homer and walk on the night. Compare these deeds to the actions of Ruben Mateo, the starting right fielder. In the third he lost the ball in the lights. Mateo suffered the humiliation of standing in the outfield with a befuddled look on his face as the ball dropped in for a triple twenty feet behind him. In the fourth he not only let a fly ball hit the right field wall, but on the rebound he let it get past him and roll towards the infield. At the plate he had a crummy night, one-for-five with a run scored. Mateo had a much worse night than A-Rod, but nobody takes his game apart the next day. When you are the highest paid player in the game you walk around with a big target painted on your chest. That might not be fair, but that's the way it is. I hope that Mr. Boras explained that to the young shortstop.

On Friday we drove from Arlington to Laredo, proving something we already knew. Texas is big. We decided to ignore minor league cities like San Antonio and Austin. To tell the truth, modern minor league baseball is fairly homogenized, we probably wouldn't see too much from the Missions or the Express that we couldn't see elsewhere. We were headed for Laredo because straddling the border is a franchise unique in sport. Los Dos Laredos is a Mexican League franchise that splits its home games between stadiums in Mexico and Texas. It is believed that they are the only bi-national team in existence.

I'd seen Mexican baseball before, but that was the Mexican Pacific League, the winterball version. If anything, the MPL is probably of higher quality, simply because it has better imports. Because it plays while US baseball is sleeping, I was able to see recognizable names like Curtis Pride, Morgan Burkhart and Gary Matthews Jr on my previous trip. The Mexican League can not draw these kinds of players as they compete directly with both the majors and minors for talent. Well, not exactly. The reserve clause was never abolished in Mexico. As a result, the teams own all of the Mexican players on their roster. While many Latin American countries have opted to act as a direct pipeline into American baseball, Mexico has traditionally held its talent close to its vest. For the cost of obtaining the contract of one Mexican player, a major league franchise could sign a handful or two of Dominicans. As a result, many of the better Mexican players spend their entire careers in Mexico rather than advance into the US system. While this does lead to a higher quality of player at home, it also hurts Mexico's international recognition in baseball. It will be interesting to see if things stay the same as MLB becomes more and more internationalized.

Friday night Los Tecolotes de Los Dos Laredos (The Owls of the Two Laredos) played in Parque La Junta, their home in Mexico. For $4 the two of us got into the ballpark. Try to find a deal like that north of the border! The stadium has seen better days. There are the remnants of a scoreboard beyond the center field fence. It looks like it has been a long time since it has been used. Outside of a few rows of chairs near the field, seating consists of concrete bleachers. The lighting is adequate, but not enough water was used on the infield, resulting in dust storms every time a breeze rolled by. I think that a good amount of the sloppy infielding I saw that night could be attributed to dust-related vision problems on the part of the players.

Reynosa broke the game open fairly early, scoring often on a long parade of Tecos pitchers. As a result I spent as much time watching the crowd as I did the game. The lack of a scoreboard seemed to make the crowd into better fans. They were forced into following the details of the game so that they would know the score and situation. Unlike many ballparks in the United States, almost every person was riveted with the game, even though it wasn't very close. Reynosa eventually took it by a final of 16-6. People knew when to cheer on their own, without needing a scoreboard to prompt them. An active drumming crew combined with a zany mascot kept the noise level fairly loud. The beer and soda vendors didn't exchange money at each transaction, they kept a running tab. They would sit at the bottom of the stands with their wares sitting in a nest of ice chipped from a big block, answering requests from the fans above them.

The Tecos scored a ten in hospitality. After they tried and failed to procure a taxi back to the border for us, they simply had a member of the staff drive us back to the Rio Grande. Hats off to Prof. Rogelio Reyes Puente and his team.

The next night the Tecos played in Veterans Field in Laredo. Ten or fifteen years ago Veterans Field could be properly labelled as a lower-level minor league park. Decent groundskeeping, some aluminum stands combined with some plastic seating, a small concessions area, all the signs of minor league baseball. But with the recent trend towards big money in the minor leagues, this park has been left behind. It would be in the bottom third of the Midwest League, a low-A loop. The one dead give-away that it wasn't a part of a US system was that there weren't any scouts with radar guns following the progress of the pitchers.

Before the game the national anthems of both countries were played, and the entire affair took place under the flags of both Mexico and the United States. I thought that this was fairly interesting. On the US side a big deal was made out of the bi-national character of the team. On the Mexican side I don't remember either national anthem being played. While Veterans Field offered a decent sound system and a functioning scoreboard, the crowd seemed a little dead. Granted, there was not as much action as the previous night, but whereas the crowd in Mexico acted on its own, the fans in the United States needed to be prodded for a response. It was hard to believe that we were just a few miles away from a stadium that had rocked the previous night. On the other hand, there is an important river between the two.

The action on the field was much better. The defensive play was raised by a few notches, confirming what I thought about the dust in Parque La Junta. In fact, Joel Chimelis tied a Mexican League record with 21 putouts at first base. The other milestone for the night came from player-manager Gerardo Sanchez. The thirty-seven-year-old connected for his 200th career homer in the Mexican League. Sadly for the home-town fans, Reynosa took this battle too, 4-1.

Sunday took us to Houston for a game at Enron Field. There roof being open or closed makes a huge difference. With the roof open the stadium reminded me of a less-imposing version of the SkyDome. Having movable walls really helps it from feeling too enclosed. As it was drizzling slightly, the Astros closed the roof. It's a rather impressive procedure. On the other hand, when it is done you do feel like you are watching the entire affair in an airplane hangar. Also, the lighting upstairs isn't so good. When the roof was closed I felt like I was in an NBA arena with the lights turned down.

One thing I found interesting was the train motif. The Astros went from a Space Age image in their old park to a 19th Century image for their new park. This has to do with the proximity to old Union Station. The mascot is a rabbit in a train conductor's uniform. A restored locomotive rides upon wheels on a wall above left field. I guess the market research showed that people associate baseball with the past rather than the future.

One thing I really liked about Enron Field was that they gave the fans lots of information. They are another stadium that posts both OPB and Slugging for each batter. And they have a small scoreboard for the deaf that has a real-time transcript of what the PA system is saying.

Former President George Bush was involved in a pre-game ceremony honoring one of the sailors who was on the China spy plane. Seems like you can't go to a ballpark these days without seeing him or his son. In Arlington they show a highlight videotape, and one of the scenes has W sitting in his box next to his mother. He has an unhappy look on his face like Barbara just scolded him.

The game was decent enough. Bagwell launched a homer to deep left-center in the first, and a homer and some defensive craziness gave the Astros two more runs in the third. The Cardinals tied up the score on the strength of two home runs from Pujols (ok, how do the network broadcasters pronounce that name?). The Astros were able to push across a run in the bottom of the eighth, and then brought in Wagner for the win.

Of all the experiences, I thought the most interesting was the game in Mexico. Maybe their shortstop doesn't make $250M, and they don't have a roof, let alone one that moves, but the spirit of the game seemed strongest there. Adios amigos.