Yankees Mag: Bonded By Béisbol

On the surface, it had all the makings of a one-way street. The Yankees -- owners of the most famous and recognizable logo in sports, with more championships than any team among the planet’s major leagues -- visiting Mexico City seemed, at first thought, a bit like the gods descending Mt. Olympus for a spell. They would make just a quick jaunt south of the border before Opening Day, a slight detour between Tampa and Houston. Thrill some fans, have some fun, eat some tacos … simple enough.

The trip from March 23-25 for two exhibition games against the Mexican League’s Diablos Rojos del México definitely thrilled the fans, both the Mexico City locals and those who traveled from different points on the globe. The players had loads of fun. As for the tacos? “I think I had nine,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said of the al pastor street tacos he enjoyed at a lavish party after the first game.

“They were little, but they were incredible,” he said. “I had some other stuff on the grill, which was amazing, too. But I’m like, ‘Nah, I’m just going to keep going back to the tacos.’”

If the feast at the Four Seasons caused the Yankees’ manager any heartburn, he wasn’t saying, but what was obvious throughout the experience, in a sentiment shared by everyone in the team’s traveling party -- those on the field, some with Mexican heritage; those behind the scenes; and those along for the ride -- was how much everyone’s heart was touched by the quick, yet intensely memorable, experience. Indeed, the game’s ever-beating heart was at the forefront of the series, with impacts certain to last for generations.

***

Around Mexico City, baseball fanáticos still talk about the last time the Yankees came to town, a legacy that manifests in different ways. Sure, there were the news stories when the 2024 visit was announced, replete with photos of Mickey Mantle wearing a sombrero back in 1968. Those images were front and center at 6-year-old Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú this past March, on banners that fit in easily alongside those of current Diablos Rojos players.

But, says former MLB infielder Benji Gil, who managed Mexico at the Tokyo Olympics and in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, the connection runs deeper than some decades-old snapshots.

“I’ve met people named Mickey in Mexico,” said the Tijuana native, who was part of the Imagen TV broadcast crew for the exhibition games. “It’s like, ‘Why are you named Mickey?’ And it’s always Mantle. It’s never the mouse.”

To Gil, the Yankees are a baseball team in America, but an incomparable and transcendent brand everywhere else, comparable to Gucci or Louis Vuitton. As for the Diablos Rojos?

“They’re basically the Yankees of Mexico,” he said. “They’re the team with the most championships. It’s a team with great history. And it’s a team that, their fans expect them to win every year.”

The Diablos Rojos, whose 2024 regular season started about three weeks after the Yankees’ visit, brought out a lineup filled with names recognizable to MLB fans. With teams now allowed as many as 20 players born outside Mexico, there were former big leaguers such as Rio Ruiz, José Pirela, Aristides Aquino and ?lex Claudio. Former Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer even started the first game.

“They have a lot of talent,” said Oswaldo Cabrera, one of four Yankees who played in the Mexico City games and also started on Opening Day in Houston. “When I came here, I knew that the experience and the level of play would be high, because I know these teams here in Mexico, they have a high level.”

The star of the series for the Diablos Rojos, though -- the guy who got hearts racing in the leadup and then every time he came to the plate -- was Robinson Canó. The 41-year-old former Yankee, who made five All-Star teams and earned four top-10 finishes in MVP voting during his nine seasons in the Bronx, hasn’t played in the big leagues since July 2022, but he put on a show in the first game, going 3-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs in the Mexican team’s 4-3 victory. His continuing baseball life, whether in the States or on any of the Latin American teams whose jersey he has worn, is about holding on to a passion for the game that transcends geographic limits. “That’s pure love for the game,” said Giancarlo Stanton after watching the Canó Show. “Ride until the wheels fall off.”

“It’s easy to tell someone, ‘Just go retire,’” said Canó, who caught the ceremonial first pitch from his former teammate, Yankees legend Mariano Rivera, before the first game. “But I think as long as I can do it, and I can play and be on the field, I will do it.” Canó, though, wasn’t using the Yankees games simply as showcases for big league scouts. Playing for the team that his father, José, pitched for in 1991, Canó quickly picked up on familiar sensations from his previous baseball life. Some of it was emotional, other elements uniquely resonant; the Diablos Rojos have their own version of the “Roll Call,” with the stadium PA announcer introducing the players’ first names, as the fans follow by shouting the last names in unison.

“This is a great organization -- like the Yankees -- and they’re good,” Canó said. “They treat you like family right away; make you feel comfortable.”

***

That familial feeling might have been the overarching story of the Yankees’ visit. It was everywhere among the traveling party, some connections distant, others directly in the spotlight.

For Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, who has Mexican heritage, it was a chance to capture the experience he had wanted back in 2023, when he hoped to catch for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic before injuries and a desire to work with the Yankees’ pitching staff kept him in Tampa. But his aunt and uncle came to Mexico City for the games, and the catcher was excited to have tour guides for the few days.

“He’s raved about the city,” Trevino said of his uncle. “He’s like, ‘Man, this is the best city you can come to. This is the best stadium. It’s going to be a great series.’”

Other connections were a bit more immediate. Jonathan Loáisiga is from Nicaragua, but when he entered the first game in Mexico City, it was the first time his mother got to see him pitch in person. Similarly, 19-year-old Mexico native Luis Serna got to start the second game on the mound for the Yankees, the day after his cousin, top 20 Yankees prospect Jared Serna, cracked a ninth-inning single. Both Sernas are likely years from playing in the Bronx, but the chance to play for the Yankees in their home country was an unforgettable experience.

“I’m very proud to be a Yankee, to be able to wear the pinstripes and represent the organization,” Luis Serna said after the second game, assisted by Yankees bilingual media relations coordinator Marlon Abreu. “For them to give me the opportunity to pitch here in my country of Mexico, it means a lot.”

Yet much of the attention in the leadup to the Mexico trip focused on new Yankees reliever Victor González. The Tuxpan native had about 15 members of his family in town for the games, including his mother, who -- because of visa issues and bad luck with a poorly timed Minor League demotion -- had never seen Victor pitch in the big leagues. González also was looking forward to finding out the gender of the baby he and his wife were expecting (it’s a boy!).

“I’d be in tears, man,” Trevino said in the Yankees’ clubhouse, watching González pitch on the television. “That’s just a special moment for anybody.”

Those connections and the moments are inherently meaningful, but they’re also impossible to see coming. No one pursues big league success with illusions of getting to play in Mexico. It’s not just something that wouldn’t have been on the radar; it’s a radar that never even existed. “It’s almost one of those dreams that you run into along the way,” Gil said, imagining the experience for Major League veterans and Minor League hopefuls to suddenly and unexpectedly have a chance to play in their home country. “Let’s say you want to get to the big leagues, and all of a sudden, you’re at an All-Star Game. It’s like, ‘Whoa. I ran into this dream that I never even dreamt of.’”

González has pitched in World Series games as a member of the Dodgers. He is an established big league pitcher who was brought to New York to handle high-leverage situations. Yet as he discussed the experience of pitching against the Diablos Rojos -- whose academy he pitched in as a youngster -- he insisted that the inning in an exhibition game was the most excited he had ever been on a mound. “I’ve never felt that feeling,” the 2020 World Series champ said, assisted by Abreu. “What I felt yesterday, it was the first time I’ve experienced that kind of feeling.

“You feel it in the moment, and you don’t know what to do. The level of excitement is so high. The amount of pressure you feel, because you want to put on a good show and you want to make sure you give the fans a great outing, all of that, all the emotions, everything tied together, it was so much. Even when they said my name and people were clapping and cheering, I didn’t know what to do.”

After the game, González celebrated with his family, reliving the experience of a lifetime. The next day, the smile hadn’t faded at all. It wasn’t just the baseball, and it wasn’t just the family. It was the feeling of being at home, of hearing Mexico’s national anthem on a baseball diamond, of fighting nerves he didn’t know how to control.

“It’s the first time I’ve sung the anthem in a long, long time,” he said. “When it was the fifth inning, I kept taking my pulse, and I kept telling myself, ‘Man, I’ve got to slow it down a little bit. I’m going too fast.’ Eventually I got into the game, and I can tell you that the level of adrenaline that I felt was so high, but I want to feel that again. I want to feel that level of excitement. I enjoy that. So, hopefully, I get another opportunity where the adrenaline level goes up like that and I can replicate that moment again.”

***

It wasn’t just hometown pride that had pulses racing during the two-game visit. Mexico City’s altitude makes Colorado’s Coors Field seem like sea level, and before the game, Boone joked that between the 7,400 feet of elevation and the lingering effects of nearby volcanic activity from the previous month, the coaches were feeling it just walking up the dugout steps. Even the players admitted to noticing the strange air. Cabrera said he felt the odd sensation the first time he tried fielding grounders during pregame warmups. And Stanton struggled to explain the unique mixture of elevation, heat and humidity.

“Right when you go out there, it’s like you’ve got a little less lung capacity or something,” Stanton said. “You don’t have as much oxygen, but it also seems slightly humid and 90 degrees. It all smacks you in the face at once. It’s odd.”

The trip to Mexico City came at a tricky time, which contributed to some of the players staying back in Tampa. There were just six players on the team’s travel roster who also dressed for the March 28 opener in Houston -- Cabrera, Trevino, Stanton, Loáisiga, González and Anthony Volpe. Yet however impacted he was by the on-field conditions, Stanton was determined to create an unforgettable experience for the Mexican fans.

Never exactly a player who seeks the spotlight, the former MVP went out of his way to be visible and accessible throughout the trip. He spent long stretches signing autographs for fans at Harp Helú. He put on a show during batting practice, wearing a lucha libre mask while smashing dingers. He exchanged hugs and jerseys and signed baseballs for members of the Diablos Rojos. If fans were bummed not to see Aaron Judge or Juan Soto in Mexico City, Stanton did all he could to make up for it.

“I think Big G was one of the guys from the outset that wanted this and wanted to go,” Boone said. “He’s a man of the world, and you could tell he definitely embraced it. And then once experiencing it, I think he really enjoyed it. Very cool to see him enjoy that experience, kind of lead the experience, and in a lot of ways be the face of that experience.”

Stanton had visited Mexico City in the offseason after 2022. He toured the pyramids, enjoyed the Mexican food and loved seeing all the culture on display. But it was during a Bad Bunny concert at famed soccer coliseum Estadio Azteca, as he took in the energy of the crowd, that he realized how special it would be to play baseball in front of those same fans. “The atmosphere there was insane,” he said.

Whatever Stanton hoped that a baseball crowd could offer, the Mexican fans certainly exceeded. ?Bienvenidos al Infierno! read the Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú ribbon boards throughout the weekend -- “Welcome to Hell.” As wordplay, you couldn’t argue (Diablos Rojos translates to Red Devils). It might have been a bit off the mark, though. While the vibes were wild, and the crowd loud throughout the games, the environment -- with a mix of Yankees fans and Diablos Rojos fanáticos -- was a bit more welcoming than what you might find down in Hades’ realm.

Yet to a man, the Yankees who made the trip kept repeating how big the event felt, an atmosphere you aren’t likely to find in the last Grapefruit League games in Florida. Whatever the calendar read, the exhibitions never felt like anything less than major events.

“We went out, and we wanted to compete, and this atmosphere definitely gets the juices flowing,” said Volpe, who slammed his helmet to the ground after striking out in the first game, a reaction more befitting October than March. “I think in certain ways, it prepares you for the season in ways that maybe some Spring Training games couldn’t.”

Boone, who was trying to put the finishing touches on prepping for a new season while also taking part in the festivities, echoed his shortstop’s sentiment. As the team spent March getting ready to turn the page on a frustrating 2023 season, there was something to be said for seeing the fire burning a bit earlier than normal.

And it wasn’t just the big leaguers who stood to benefit. The manager also noted that for the many young prospects on the trip, getting to experience the ultra-hyped atmosphere and the big league treatment -- from luxury lodging to first-class meals to a security apparatus that would be familiar to President Biden -- could only pay dividends down the road.

“I think it was some great experiences for some of our Minor League players to come play in this kind of big-time atmosphere,” Boone said. “I think it’s great for their experience and their development. Anytime you can play in an environment like this, I think it’s beneficial.”

***

Beneficial, but certainly not easy. Omar Minaya, a Yankees senior advisor of baseball operations, took the lead in making the trip happen, an endeavor that involved much more than packing a bunch of baseball players onto a flight to Mexico. But the value of the experience was plain to see. “Because this is not only a Mexico experience,” Minaya said. “This is a world experience.”

The Padres and Giants played regular-season games in Mexico City last year, and the Rockies and Astros will do the same this year. Those are massive events, both on the baseball calendar and in the stands at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú. And you might think that, even for a Spring Training game, it would have been special to see the Yankees taking on a big league rival.

But that would have taken away from so much of what made the Yankees’ visit special. It wasn’t just about the Yankees, or even Major League Baseball. It was the intermingling of the ultimate American sports brand with the finest that Mexico has to offer.

“It brings the culture out a little bit more,” Stanton said. “To play the Red Sox or another big league team would be awesome, but this experience is something special on its own.”

That cultural exchange was evident throughout the two days. From the party on Sunday night, where Yankees prospects rubbed elbows with the likes of Canó and Rivera, to say nothing of Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, to the nonstop music that played throughout the stadium, to the genuine love the fans showed throughout the games, it was impossible to leave Mexico unmoved. Boone, who enjoyed learning about a league he had never really known about, said he looked forward to following the Diablos Rojos all season, and enthusiastically endorsed similar trips for any teams considering games in Mexico City.

The Yankees brand is already massive in Mexico. No doubt, the team brass that agreed to uproot half of the Spring Training operation and close things out in an unfamiliar country had high hopes to build that up even more. Gil compared it to the Dallas Cowboys; he says that there are full flights from Mexico City to Dallas in the days leading up to Cowboys games. He predicts that even just by spending a few days in Mexico, the Yankees can expect the same to be true. As he explains, the Yankees and the Dodgers have the two biggest fanbases in Mexico, and it’s easy to see why that would be the case in Los Angeles, which sits just a short drive from Tijuana. There’s a massive Mexican community in Southern California, one that was nourished by Fernandomania and further fed by more recent Mexican stars in Dodger Blue. “What’s kind of impressive,” Gil said, “is that the Yankees haven’t had a huge Mexican star. Yet it’s right on par with the Dodgers.

“With the Yankees coming in and playing here in the Mexican capital, that’s going to make them more identifiable to the Mexican fans. Because it’s like, ‘They came to us.’ So, we identify. We grab on.”

They grab on to something they’ve held for a while. The Mexican fans, indeed the whole experience, reached deep into the souls of the Yankees. It also proved what might have been somewhat backward about the whole trip. The Yankees lost both games of a two-game series, and left having had the time of their lives. The effort to spread the baseball gospel encountered a country teeming with insight, enthusiasm and certainly ability. For however many hearts the Yankees touched during two days in Mexico City, the players, themselves, left with even greater rewards.

“There’s a certain aspect of you that thinks we’re coming down here to kind of grow the game,” Volpe said. “But as soon as we got here, I think the game is as prevalent as it is in the States. You definitely feel that.”

Jon Schwartz is the deputy editor of Yankees Magazine. This story appears in the May 2024 edition. Get more articles like this delivered to your doorstep by purchasing a subscription to Yankees Magazine at www.yankees.com/publications.