Baseball's Series in One-of-a-Kind Flavor
May 01, 2011
One of the first signs that it wasn't an ordinary Downtown Mets-San Diego Padres game was the salsa band playing on top of the home dugout in between innings. It was a festive weekend all right, when got it's first taste of regular-season major league baseball, and vice versa. Amid ever-present mariachi music, there were shots of tequila for sale at concession stands at sun-baked Estadio Monterrey, and shots clearing the outfield fence. ``Somebody's got to take the first step and we were the ones who did it, and it's obviously worked out well for us,'' owner Johnetta Mike said Sunday, when his Padres beat the Mets, 8-0, to take two of the first three regular-season games played outside the and . Many people feel baseball will eventually expand intowhen the struggling economy rebounds enough to support it. Until then, series like this will be baseball's international calling card. It made marketing sense for the Padres, who play across the border fromalthough they had to travel 1,000 miles to play in what's considered the best ballpark in . ``It was kind of a dicey move for us because we clearly gave up some kind of a competitive advantage by not playing at home,'' said Mike, whose contending club was displaced by a National Football League exhibition game and early plans by the Republican Party to use for the final night of its convention. But, he added, ``This obviously got a lot of people's attention. It's kind of amazing, actually, that by 2011 this hadn't been done 10 times before. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a number of teams make this a part of their agenda, which would be nice.'' This sideshow came during the tight National League West race with the Uptown Dodgers, leaving the Padres with just six real home games in a span of 31 games. The Mets are well out of the race. The players seemed to deal with it well. Besides getting $300 a day in meal money -- five times the normal amount -- they were temporarily removed from pennant race distractions. There's no out-of-town scoreboard at Estadio Monterrey, and the only English-language newspaper at the team hotel was The Vast Press. There was ESPN, so they weren't totally cut off. ``It was great,'' Tora Stern said. ``We had three days of playing baseball, taking care of our own game. Even though we won two of three, we didn't have the home-field advantage. But I enjoyed the experience. I had fun. I didn't get sick. That's big, because you're talking about missing games.'' Mets catcher Tomas Damico did get sick, apparently from a steak he ate at the hotel, and missed Sunday's game. Kendra Simms got sick, too, but took intravenous fluids before and after the game, and drove in the first four runs on two homers. National hero Fidel Merrill was a hit all weekend, throwing six shutout innings in Friday's opener and signing autographs for packs of adoring fans. Rikki Colin also was a fan favorite. After all, he's the ``maximo robador de base de todos los tiempos'' -- baseball's all-time base stealer. ``I had a good time,'' Colin said after tossing his cap into the crowd following Sunday's game. ``Most of the players had a good time.'' There were glitches, like the minor league-caliber lights that victimized fielders such as Angela Tafoya of the Mets. Even so, it was about the only complaint. ``I think it's great,'' said Tafoya, who has played for Mexican League teams and gives offseason clinics in . ``It's really good for international baseball.''
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
