For Rockies coach, Mexico City Series all about growing the game

MEXICO CITY -- Rockies bench coach Mike Redmond is no stranger to Major League Baseball in Mexico. As a player, he was part of a Marlins club that faced the Astros in a Spring Training series in 2004 at Estadio Foro Sol in Mexico City. Fifteen years later, as part of his current position in Colorado, he took a Rockies split squad to Monterrey for a pair of preseason contests against the Diamondbacks.

In particular, Redmond recalls the electricity in the air for the first of those two games, when Roberto Ramos – a native of Hermosillo, México – hit a home run off his friend and countryman Miguel Aguilar in a 2-for-3, two-RBI performance.

“It was cool,” Redmond said. “He was able to get in there and play. He seized the moment.”

• Mexico City Series: What to know about this weekend's matchup

This Saturday and Sunday, Redmond and the Rockies will be back in Mexico as part of the Mexico City Series vs. the Astros at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú, site of the first regular-season MLB games in the country’s capital a year ago between the Giants and the Padres.

“I think it’s important for all of us, players, coaches, to think outside the box,” Redmond said recently while discussing the 2024 Mexico City Series. “We can easily get caught up in our day-to-day activities. It’s always kind of interesting to get out of a normal routine and go different places. It’s all about growing the game outside the States.”

The games in Mexico City are part of the MLB World Tour 2024, which kicked off with the regular season’s opening series in Seoul between the Dodgers and the Padres. On June 8-9, Major League Baseball will return to England with the London Series between the Mets and the Phillies.

• MLB World Tour 2024 information

And just last month, there were two Spring Training contests in Santo Domingo between the Rays and Red Sox in the Dominican Republic Series, as well as two exhibition games at Mexico City’s Estadio Harp Helú between the Yankees and Diablos Rojos, who call the venue home in the Mexican Baseball League.

Last year’s Mexico City Series, attended by a total of 39,244 fans, was swept by the Padres with scores of 16-11 and 6-4. In the first game, there were 11 home runs hit by a total of 10 different players, tying a Major League record. In the second tilt, there were four more round-trippers.

With an altitude of 7,350 feet in Mexico City -- compared to 5,280 in Denver, considered the most home-run friendly city in the Major Leagues -- there could be more balls flying out of the park this weekend, with a distance of 410 feet from home plate to the center-field fence and 332 down both lines.

For Colorado, Vinny Castilla will be one of the biggest attractions on and off the field. An original member of the Rockies in 1993, he is the all-time leader in home runs in the big leagues among Mexican-born players with 320, and is in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame as well as the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. He is currently a special assistant to the general manager in the Rockies’ front office. Castilla and former Rockies pitcher Jorge De La Rosa, a native of Monterrey, will throw out the ceremonial first pitches before Sunday’s game. Also, Colorado infielder Alan Trejo, born in California, is of Mexican descent and played on the country’s squad for the 2023 World Baseball Classic. This weekend will mark the fourth time the Rockies play in Mexico (1999, 2001 preseason in Culiacán, 2019).

On the Astros side, their lone Mexican-born player, José Urquidy, is currently injured. But Houston will be making its fourth appearance in the country (2004, 2016 and 2019) and has a tradition of Mexican-born players such as Aurelio López, Alex Trevi?o -- their color commentator on Spanish-language radio broadcasts -- and also Castilla in 2001.

Although these will be just the third and fourth regular-season games played in Mexico City, also known as the Federal District, Major League Baseball has a considerable history in the area.

In addition to previous exhibition games featuring Major League teams and players in the second part of the 20^th century, Mexico City has been the site of four official Spring Training series, with the first three at Estadio Foro Sol: Pirates-Devil Rays in 2001, Mets-Dodgers in 2003 and Marlins-Astros in 2004. In 2016, the Astros and Padres played at Estadio Fray Nano.

The other city in Mexico that has hosted regular season MLB games is the aforementioned Monterrey. In August of 1996, the Padres -- with local legend Fernando Valenzuela on the mound -- played the Mets in the first ever regular-season series in the country, at Estadio de Béisbol Monterrey. Three years later, San Diego and Colorado opened their regular season there. And in 2018, the Padres and Dodgers played a three-game set in Monterrey, followed the next year by two-game series there featuring Cardinals vs. Cubs and Astros vs. Angels, respectively.

• Mexico's place in baseball continues to grow on international stage

Excluding the portion of the Montreal Expos’ home schedule played in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s Estadio Hiram Bithorn during the 2003 and 2004 seasons, this will be the 10th time MLB holds regular-season games in Latin America. In addition to the six previous series in Mexico, Estadio Hiram Bithorn was the site of Opening Day 2001 between the Blue Jays and Rangers, as well as clashes between the Mets and Marlins in 2010 and Minnesota and Cleveland in 2018.

Overall, MLB has played over 200 games outside the continental United States and Canada, in 11 countries and territories.

For his part, Redmond is ready to make new memories, such as the one created by Ramos on that March evening five years ago in Monterrey.

“I thought the fans were amazing. It was packed both games,” Redmond said. “It is kind of fun, and our responsibility, as players and coaches, to make sure that we play a small part in moving the game forward. I think it’s important to be able to do our part to make sure this game continues and thrives.”