Tucson baseball backers hope WBC qualifier is just the beginning | Michael Lev

You should check out at least one game in the Tucson World Baseball Classic qualifier that starts Sunday at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. Here’s why:

Besides the fact that it’ll be fun, MLB players will be participating and the weather is spectacular right now, it’s a vital event for our city. It could be a springboard to the return of professional baseball to the 520.

That’s what the officials who won over MLB to get the WBC here are hoping, anyway. Leading advocates Edgar Soto and Blake Eager of the Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism & Film Authority (SASTFA) are native Tucsonans who love baseball and want their hometown to grow and flourish. They see the WBC qualifier as an important next step in that crucial, never-ending process.

“If we can be successful,” said Eager, a former Flowing Wells High School pitcher and New York Mets draftee who’s now the executive director of SASTFA, “it puts us in the running for this event every three years. But it shows Major League Baseball that we are a viable market — not just a once-viable market, that we are a current viable market.”

That’s the bigger goal here. SASTFA and its many partners want the Tucson WBC qualifier — which will send two among Brazil, China, Colombia and Germany to the 2026 World Baseball Classic — to be an unqualified success. And they are hopeful that will persuade MLB to bring pro baseball back to Tucson in some form.

As Soto sees it, that would be a boon not just for baseball fans but for the community as a whole.

“We all want the same thing, right? We want good jobs with livable wages so people can live lives of meaning and purpose,” said Soto, a former Tucson High outfielder and USA national coach who’s the chairman of SASTFA, as well as the vice president at Pima Community College’s Desert Vista Campus.

“If we keep that at the center of what we’re trying to do, it’s going to help everybody pull in the same direction.”

Swings, misses, and possibilities

In landing one of the WBC qualifiers — eight cities worldwide vied for them; Taipei, Taiwan, got the other — Tucson registered a base hit. A double at least. Maybe even a home run.

There have been swings and misses along the way.

Eager said he and his group were “very, very far down the road” to bring a minor-league team here. He was referring to the Diamondbacks’ A-ball affiliate, the Visalia Rawhide.

The deal was met with resistance from MLB, Eager and Soto said. Eager said the league put a “hard pause” on minor-league relocation after MLB reduced the number of affiliates in 2021. Visalia also plays in the California League, which, unlike many college conferences, is a literal and accurate description of its membership.

Eager remains “very optimistic” that Tucson will land a minor-league team sooner than later. If MLB were to expand, that would increase the pool of potential candidates. Becoming part of the Mexican Baseball League is also a possibility.

“We’re gonna look at every single possibility we can,” Eager said.

SASTFA also wants to bring spring training back. That wouldn’t mean a team or teams moving from the Phoenix area to Tucson. Rather, it would be six to eight games played in a format similar to the Mexican Baseball Fiesta.

Soto said the Diamondbacks are “open to the possibility of playing some games here.” A Diamondbacks spokesman confirmed that team president and CEO Derrick Hall strongly supports Tucson’s push. Soto said other Cactus League clubs also have expressed interest.

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“We’re still working on that,” Soto said. “We’re hoping maybe next year, 2026. So that’s still in the works. We’ve got to get through this WBC thing. But as soon as this is over, that’s our next hill to climb.”

Tucson has a long history with professional baseball. Some would say a sad one, at least the way it ended. As recently as 2008, Tucson was home to three teams for spring training: the Diamondbacks, White Sox and Rockies. By 2011, they were all gone.

“At one point you had a three-team spring training,” Eager said. “USA Baseball’s headquarters were here. You had an Arizona Fall League team here. You had triple-A baseball. And that all went away. I feel when that happened, we lost a little bit of our identity, a little bit of our soul.

“We are so fortunate to have the Tucson Roadrunners. We’re so fortunate to have the Sugar Skulls, FC Tucson. (Professional baseball is) a piece of the puzzle that belongs back here.

“This is not just (from) a professional-sports standpoint. It’s workforce development. It’s bringing in jobs, hopefully good-paying jobs, developing in different areas, (having) an opportunity to create a career that’s based out of Tucson.”

‘A labor of love’

Tucson was set to host a WBC qualifier in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and shut everything down. Winning that bid didn’t guarantee anything for 2025. So officials here upped the ante.

Kino Stadium underwent renovations that would make it MLB-compliant. The field and bullpens were fully resodded using an MLB-preferred vendor, said Sarah Horvath, director of the Kino Sports Complex and Stadium District. It was the first complete resodding since 1998.

A Daktronics video board was installed, replacing the original scoreboard (also dating to 1998). Padding around the field was upgraded. A new field cover and other batting-practice equipment were purchased. Locker rooms were updated with new furniture, paint and showerheads.

“It’s been a labor of love,” Horvath said. “Kino has never been more ready to be in the spotlight to bring back MLB play.”

MLB players dot the roster for Colombia, the favorite to win the qualifier. They include Jose Quintana, Julio Teheran, Gio Urshela and Harold Ramirez.

Every game features a promotion of some sort. Fireworks will follow the Brazil-Colombia matchup Sunday night. Free tickets have been distributed to schools and youth-sports organizations for Monday and Tuesday’s games. The Thursday finale — which will determine the final spot in the 2026 WBC — is being billed as “college night.” Five-dollar beers and $1 hotdogs are on the menu.

In a phone interview Monday, Eager described ticket sales thus far as “good ... not great.” He’s hopeful walk-up customers will provide a boost.

“We’re in an OK place right now,” Soto said later that day. “But we want to blow it up. We want to do so well that every game is packed.”

Soto conceded that he’s feeling “a little anxious” about the WBC qualifier. It’s a litmus test to determine Tucson’s capacity to host big-time professional baseball.

“But it’s a good anxious because we have something positive going on,” said Soto, a fourth-generation Arizonan who’s been working on getting baseball back for over a decade. “I just want to make sure people know about it and they come and support it.”