Mexican Baseball Fiesta set to celebrate its ‘quinceañera’ in Tucson this fall

The Mexican Baseball Fiesta is about to celebrate its 15th year as a rite of fall in Tucson. It’s being promoted as the event’s “quinceañera.” Stakeholders are hopeful that it will be bigger and better than ever.

“It's great for Tucson. It's great for our community,” J. Felipe Garcia, president and CEO of Visit Tucson, said during a news conference Monday at Sluggers.

“Congratulations for 15 years. Excited for the next 15 years to come.”

The 2026 Mexican Baseball Fiesta is set for Oct. 1-4 at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium. It will feature four teams from the Mexican Pacific Winter League, plus the University of Arizona baseball team.

In a departure from previous years, Arizona will play in the first game of the Fiesta against Hermosillo at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 1. The two are planning to play another exhibition game Oct. 9 at Hi Corbett Field as part of a cross-promotional partnership.

That’s the foundation upon which the Mexican Baseball Fiesta was formed. Francisco Gamez, who had played in Mexico and the minor leagues, moved from Hermosillo to Tucson in 2006. Five years later, he presented a concept to Mike Feder, who was running the Tucson Padres.

“I played for 10 years in professional baseball,” said Gamez, who played in the Milwaukee Brewers organization in the summer and for Naranjeros de Hermosillo in the winter. “I remembered training and playing games in little towns before we started the season. So my first thought was, why don't we bring the Naranjeros to train here?”

“Francisco cold-called me,” Feder said. “He didn't know me. He said, ‘I have a crazy idea that I would like to talk to you about.’ He came out to the office and said, ‘Would you consider spring training with the Mexican Winter League?’ ”

Feder was intrigued but wanted to know more. He didn’t know anything about the Mexican Pacific Winter League. After doing some research on the Internet, Feder quickly came to a realization: This isn’t just baseball; it’s a party. It was something different and therefore appealing.

“So I came back to Francisco, and I said, ‘I got a deal: If we run the Fiesta like the Mexican Winter League does, then I'll do it. I'll try it,’ ” Feder said. “‘If we do it like we run minor-league baseball, I have no interest in it whatsoever.’

“Obviously his eyes lit up. I said we'll try it, and I loved it. So here we are, 15 years later, and it’s never disappointing.”

Making it fun

The distinguishing features of Mexican baseball remain: music blaring right up until the pitcher gets set; authentic food options; and mascots entertaining the crowd.

Garcia compared Mexico’s unique brand of baseball to the Sonoran hotdog. Both are American inventions with a Mexican twist.

“Baseball was created in this country, moved to Mexico, and in Mexico they put sour cream and other things on top, made it fun,” Garcia said. “This event fits our culture, fits our DNA, fits Tucson.”

It has become something more than a four-day event.

Naranjeros recently hosted a youth baseball camp here for the eighth time. The first one had 15 participants. This year’s had 120.

Three Mexican Baseball Fiesta participants — Hermosillo, Yaquis de Obregón and MBF newcomer Jaguares de Nayarit — will hold a good chunk of their preseason training in Tucson. Hermosillo has spent two-plus weeks here for the past 12 years.

Economic impact

The presence of those teams is one of the ways in which Mexican baseball impacts the Tucson economy — and helps make up for lost opportunities over the past year.

Feder said the Mexican Baseball Fiesta brings in over $1 million. That’s just the four-day event itself.

“These teams, when they're coming here, they're staying at local hotels, they're eating at local restaurants, they hire local people and they're paying taxes here in our community,” Garcia said. “That affects every one of us sitting here in this room that love our community.”

The Mexican Baseball Fiesta has grown while other attempts to bring sporting events to Tucson have failed. Since last fall, an Arizona Fall League tripleheader at Kino Stadium was canceled because of weather; a Mexican Pacific Winter League team was unable to follow through on its announced move to Tucson because of visa issues; and the Iranian World Cup team was forced to relocate its training base from Tucson to Tijuana because of the ongoing conflict between Iran and the U.S.

Visit Tucson estimated that the Tucson Baseball Team would have generated more than $12 million in economic impact in its inaugural season had it been able to complete its relocation from Navojoa.

“It was going to be a substantial amount of money, and it also was creating jobs here in the community because we knew they were gonna hire local people,” Garcia said. “So it definitely was a lost opportunity, lost business for Tucson.”

Meanwhile, the Mexican Baseball Fiesta keeps chugging along. Gamez is now the general manager for Hermosillo. Feder is semi-retired. Their shared vision endures.

“I could not do it by myself,” Gamez said. “It was my idea, but he put me in the right direction.”