The Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks made history in 2023. That year in Mérida, Mexico, the Red Hawks, members of the American Association, an MLB Partner League, defeated Colombia's Caimanes de Barranquilla in the inaugural Baseball Champions League Americas. They may not have been able to take the title of true world champions, but they could certainly say they were the champs of the Americas, finishing ahead of Cuba's Alazanes de Granma and Mexico's Leones de Yucatán for the title.
Now, after taking the 2024 season off to move the tournament from the fall to the spring, the Baseball Champions League Americas has returned for 2025 and has grown from four teams to six, with Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, and Curacao joining -- Colombia the only nation not returning following '23. The action will take place from April 8 to 13. First pitch between the Kane County Cougars and Santa Marìa Pirates is at 4 p.m. ET.
The concept is familiar to European soccer fans (and European baseball fans, too), but the idea is simple: While events like the World Baseball Classic pit the world's best nations against each other, the Champions League pits the world's best teams against each other. Now, the Americas Champions League will see last year's American Association winning team, the Kane County Cougars, take on last year's champions from the top summer leagues in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua and Cuba.
The number of teams isn't the only thing that's grown: Now the games will be hosted at Mexico City's remarkable Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú.
"The Yucatan was great: It's a great setup and great stadium," Joshua Schaub, commissioner of the American Association, said over Zoom recently. "The Mexico City Diablos are like New York Yankees of LMB. So the stage is much, much bigger than what we had on the first go around. It's still being broadcast on ESPN Mexico, so we're going to reach a ton of people in Mexico with the American Association product."
It's not just the fans who are excited for the return of the Champions League: The teams and players are ready to step back out on the field for these unique international ballgames, too.
"The cultural enrichment of playing internationally and playing against foreign countries' champions [was very exciting]," Schaub said. "It's a very high level of competition on a grander stage. Those LMB stadiums are 15,000 seats-plus and we had some big crowds, especially when we played the LMB. That's a cool experience for players to play internationally."
There should be some familiar faces for MLB fans, as well: The Cougars roster features former big leaguers Chris Mazza, Shed Long Jr. and Dillon Thomas, while the Diablos counter with Robinson Canó, Francisco Mejía, Dan Straily and Aristedes Aquino, to name just a few. Their full roster below:
The goal following this year's Americas tournament is for similar Champions Leagues featuring teams in Asia and Europe to begin play as well. What would follow would be a true, worldwide club baseball tournament with the top teams from each of the regional Champions Leagues to face off against each other.
"The goal is to actually come to a world championship," Schaub said. "So, we'll have BCL Americas, BCL Europe, BCL Asia, and it will cycle up to a world champion, which would be absolutely amazing."
The games will be available on Fubo, Unbeaten, RYZ, Gray TV (in Las Vegas), ESPN (in Mexico), AABaseballTV, and on the WBSC International broadcast.