Tucson Baseball Team 'a team that's here to stay a long time'

For the most part, the dozens of people gathered at a Kino Veteran’s Memorial Stadium clubhouse Wednesday morning were smiling, but some wiped tears off their face.

The tears of joy stemmed from the years of collaborative efforts to bring professional baseball back to Tucson. Professional baseball in the Old Pueblo is no longer a what-if situation, it’s a reality.

In September, Tucson is receiving a relocated franchise from the Mexican Pacific Winter League — also known as Liga ARCO Mexican del Pacifico (LAMP) — for the league’s 80th season of existence.

LAMP is considered the third-most popular baseball league in the world behind Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional League in Japan.

“Baseball is back,” said Blake Eager, the executive director of Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism and Film Authority, at the team’s introductory press conference Wednesday.

Eager, who grew up across the street from Flowing Wells Middle School and played baseball professionally, said, “Tucson was one of the greatest cities in the world for baseball.”

The Old Pueblo was home to minor-league affiliates in the Tucson Toros, Tucson Sidewinders and the Tucson Padres, which played its last season in 2013. USA Baseball trained at Hi Corbett Field until 2003. MLB spring training officially moved to Phoenix full-time in 2010.

“It’s important to remember our history,” Eager said. “It’s important to remember what we lost, because today marks a new opportunity — a new chance — to make Tucson one of the greatest cities again for baseball.”

Mayos de Navojoa, one of 10 teams from the Mexican Pacific Winter League, announced in May its plans to relocate to Tucson. The Tucson-based team will be the first-ever U.S. team in the Mexican Pacific Winter League.

Mexican Pacific Winter League president Salvador Escobar said, “We are proud, we are happy and are glad to be here (in Tucson).”

“I just want to invite you to the history we’re making here in Tucson,” Escobar said. “It’s not easy to open doors for baseball in another country. You’re part of Mexican baseball right now, but together we are building bridges between two countries and that’s very important today. We’re making history.”

Edgar Soto, the chairman of Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism and Film Authority, said a Mexican professional baseball team “is going to open up a lot of doors throughout our country and hopefully build even more bridges.”

Pima County District 3 supervisor Jennifer Allen added, “There is something else really wonderful about today’s announcement that goes beyond baseball.”

“Over the years, we have drawn lines on the map,” she said. “We have put up barriers that separate Pima County from Sonora. Pima County’s roots run deep in Sonora. Despite the lines on the map, the national rhetoric, this community has remained culturally and economically tied to Sonora and Northern Mexico.

“Long before there were walls between us, sports of all kinds ... occurred regularly. ... Having a team from a Mexican professional baseball league established in Tucson creates a truly international baseball league and it reconnects us to the strong and deep cross-border traditions we all share. That, too, is worth celebrating today.”

Moving a professional baseball team isn’t a simple process.

Sarah Horvath, the deputy director of Kino Sports Complex, heard rumblings about the Mexican Pacific Winter League establishing a team in Tucson 10 months ago, with Kino Veteran’s Memorial Stadium as the home, which was previously the home of the Tucson Padres, Tucson Sidewinders and the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox for spring training until 2010.

“When we first heard about it, we were excited, but then we were like, ‘Is it going to grow legs?” Horvath said. “Is it really going to happen?’ ... It’s been a lot to get to here. So much work has gone into this and we’re so excited about it. To have this caliber of baseball is huge.”

Plus, there were initial concerns for visas for international-born players, coaches and staffers to play in Tucson.

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“We had to go through that first in order to announce coming here,” said team president and owner Victor Cuevas. “We took care of that and that was one of the main issues.”

The Mexican Baseball Fiesta, an annual four-day showcase in Tucson that features teams from the Mexican Pacific Winter League, “helped a lot with” potential visa issues, Cuevas added.

Cuevas said moving Mayos de Navojoa to Tucson was fast-tracked once “the fans (in Mexico) kept going away and away and away, so we didn’t have the income.”

“That’s why we were looking to move the team some place else,” Cuevas said.

The Mexican Baseball Fiesta has drawn an average of 20,000-22,000 in recent years, according to Mexican Baseball Fiesta CEO Frank Gamez.

Pima County spent $1.12 million — $700,000 for a video board and $425,000 for a new playing surface — on renovations for Kino Veteran’s Memorial Stadium leading up to the World Baseball Classic qualifiers in March.

Allen said Kino Veteran’s Memorial Stadium brings in more than 500,000 visitors annually for baseball games and other sporting events.

“Despite that success, we still didn’t have a tenant for the stadium. We wanted professional baseball back at (Kino) Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. I’m thrilled to say that professional baseball at Kino Sports Complex is back.”

For Tucson’s inaugural season, the club will be known as the Tucson Baseball Team. Tucson’s home uniforms will be cream-colored with brown lettering and red trim. The away uniforms will have a pinstriped Navy blue jersey with white lettering. The logo is a “T” akin to the Texas Rangers logo.

Fans will have a chance to suggest team names throughout the season, then three finalists will be unveiled at a later date.

“Instead of rushing and picking out a random name, we want the community to be a part of the name-choosing,” Cuevas said. “We need the community to get behind baseball and embrace the Tucson Baseball Team as their own team. That’s the goal.”

Voting for Tucson’s mascot can be done on the team’s social media accounts and at Kino Veteran’s Memorial Stadium during the season, which officially begins on Oct. 15 against Naranjeros de Hermosillo on the road. The Mexican Baseball Fiesta is on Oct. 2-5.

Tucson’s first home game will be against Hermosillo on Oct. 16. The Mexican Pacific Winter League’s 68-game regular season starts in October and ends in late December, with the postseason in January. The champion will play in the Caribbean Series, an annual tournament with the top teams from leagues in Latin America.

All games will be broadcast on linear television in Mexico, and the league is “working on deals to have that in Tucson — and Arizona for that matter,” Cuevas said. Games are also streamed on LAMP’s YouTube channel.

In Tucson’s first season, Cuevas vowed to have an “intense program with the kids and we’re getting involved in Little League,” he said.

“We know the value in that,” Cuevas said. “We’re really focused on kids. That’s the next generation of fans.”

The team is also prioritizing fan outreach and making a splash in its inaugural season.

“We’re going to play in the Mexican Pacific (Winter) League, but the team is for Tucson and the community,” Cuevas said. “We want to make that point really clear. We want to have that vision that it’s Tucson’s team. ... We’re here to create a unique experience with Sonoran and American cultures coming together through food, art and entertainment all while enjoying baseball in a family-oriented environment.

“We need the community to get behind us. ... We’re a team that’s here to stay for a long time. ... With that being said, let’s play baseball.”