The Venados play in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, composed of teams from cities along the Northwest Coast. (Nothing to do with Pacifico beer, but you might wonder about that at the games or souvenir stands.) The Pacific League is technically minor league, but forget any ideas you may have from North American minor league ball. There is nothing second rate about AAA baseball in Mexico—it’s better than AAA to the North, and actually better than the Mexican big leagues! Oddly, the Pacific League of smaller North Coastal cities shines brighter on the sports map than the Mexican League, where big cities like Mexico and Monterrey compete. The Venados play against seven other teams in the Liga Pacifico: the Mexicali Aquilas, the Obregon Yaquis, the Navajoa Mayos, the Guasave Algodoneros, the Los Mochis Cañeros, the Hermosillo Naranjeros, and the Culiacán Tomateros. Other than the Venados and the Mexicali “Eagles” and two teams named for Indian tribes, the league tends to favor working class names: the Guasave Cotton Pickers, the Mochis Canecutters, Hermosillo Orange Pickers, and the Culiacán Tomato Pickers. The Pacific League is “Mex-ico’s League” and

plays a better brand of baseball than the Liga Mexicana because it’s a winter league, so better quality American players can sign on here during the off-season in The Bigs, and partly because of the status of the league itself. And the Pacific League season is the only game in town—there is no MLB competition on television, so fans around the country turn to the coastal league for their baseball fix. Another reason for the prestige of this league is the special post-season prize: whoever takes the league pennant represents Mexico in the Caribbean Series. Last season Culiacán edged Mazatlán out of the championship, then thrilled the entire country with their electrifying win over Venezuela in Bogotá. So this year’s Venados are gunning for more than local bragging rights: their goal is to dominate the entire geographical region. But however the season turns out, you can be sure that Mazatlán will be hosting the best baseball in Mexico.