will not yield to what they consider a “blackmail” Eighty six Mexican-


Americans played in the Liga Mexicana in 2016, representing 13.4 percent of the 640 players on ros- ters of the 16 teams.


“Because f**k him!” I made it back out to Esta- dio Gasmart for Game 2 of the Campeones Serie Zona Norte (champion- ship of the league’s north division) versus Sultanes de Monterrey. This time with Antonio Ley, local nightlife promoter and political advocate on both sides of the border. Like for most weeknight games, we head for the stadium amid Tijuana rush hour traffic.


The 17,350 seat sta-


dium is a 15-20 minute drive (sans traffic) from the San Ysidro border crossing. It stands just off Via Rapida in southeast Tijuana. Its Colonia Cap- istrano neighborhood, at the base of Cerro Colo- rado hill, one of the city’s highest points, is less than desirable. The stadium was con-


structed in 1976 in what was then cheap land on the outskirts of Tijuana. Now, it’s surrounded by barrio sprawl. The sta- dium sits about 24 miles from Petco Park. It’s not easy to get


to this ballpark. A one- lane road leads in, and another out. Tickets for high-demand games are


bought up by scalpers. The stadium has room for approximately 500 cars, so people park in the neighborhood, on the streets, and wherever else they can. At Game 2, two fist


fights break out. There are no Monterrey fans to be seen. Chango the gorilla and Torin the bull, get married in a ceremony atop the Toros dugout with a chicken mascot as their witness. Ami- nowana the lizard gives lap dances to men. He uses his tail between his legs as a phallic symbol, and crowd chants, “Joto! Joto! Joto!” — the Mexican putdown for “faggot.” Ley quips, “I don’t


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Randy Arms. In the last games against Puebla, Toros


management began introducing Randy as the team’s number- one fan.


Gay Men’s choir would do in TJ.”


On the scoreboard,


those in attendance are fat-shamed, bald-shamed, shamed for being on the cellphone, and so on. The Padres Friar, and Padres girls — The Pad Squad — come out for a half inning. Between innings, cheer- leader teams represent- ing Toros, Gasmart (a Baja supermarket chain), and Tecate perform dance routines, mostly in front of Toros dugout. The play-


ers watch while chew- ing on sunflower seeds and tobacco. Toros’ little person batboy, Chevale, cheers on the team. And the cheerleaders. Though it wasn’t


served opening night, Lagunitas, which entered into a partnership with Tecate parent Heineken in 2015, was served in the stadium for 50 pesos ($2.75). Tijuana beats Monterrey by a wide margin. They clinch the north


championship series a few days later in Game 7 in Monterrey. They face Pericos de Puebla, south division champions in La Serie del Rey, the season’s final series. We buy tick- ets online. It takes several tries as the team’s servers seem to be slow. Ley and I procure four tickets for Game 1 of the series. Tijuana has home-


field advantage for the series. The team is report- edly told by Liga Mexicana de Beisbol it can no longer stream the games live on


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its Facebook page, as it had done throughout the playoffs. The games are still pirated and streamed on Beistv.mx and its Face- book page. In Game 1, Tijuana


fans yell at former Wash- ington Nationals and Milwaukee Brewers, cur- rent Perico (parakeet) left fielder, Nyjer Morgan. You can tell, as he dances to the music in the outfield, that Morgan likes the atten- tion. He looks over at the crowd and points, runs by and yells some stuff back at the crowd. He’s smiling and having fun. But when he throws a ball at the two who had been yelling “Tony Plush” — his Major League nickname, they throw it back. The mood turns. Morgan is pissed. So is an umpire, at Morgan for having thrown the ball into the stands. Morgan shakes his head and, annoyed, inaudibly yells at the fans. He yells at them again after the third out is recorded. Gets close as possible on his route to the third base-side visi- tors dugout. A couple innings later,


I talk to the fans about why they threw the ball back. One of them, a Mex- icali native says: “Because fuck him, he’s on the other team. Plus, he struck out in his next at-bat!” In the ninth inning,


Martin hits a game-win- ning, walk-off home run. The crowd goes wild. Ley and I try not to spill our Lagunitas, bought before the start of the top of the ninth, as we leap out of our seats to watch the ball fly over the left-center field fence. As Martin is about to touch home plate, he points towards his family in their box seats. Fifteen minutes after the game ends, I see former Padre, current Perico, Ruben Rivera buying a Tecate at the concession stand. As I readied myself


22 San Diego Reader April 6, 2017


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