The much-loved Charros de Jalisco franchise has purchased the Algodoneros de Guasave and will play in next season’s Liga Mexicana del Pacifico (LMP), which runs from October to February.
“Fans in Guadalajara have been starved of baseball for too long,” LMPB President Omar Canizalez said Wednesday after the announcement of the switch.
The Charros de Jalisco last played in Mexico’s other professional league, the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (LMB), in 1995.
The Telmex Athletics Stadium built for the Pan American Games will be the Charros’ new home. Temporary seating will be installed to bring spectators adjacent to the first and third bases closer to the action. The LMP demands a minimum stadium capacity of 10,000.Formed in 1949, the Charros began in the LMB but switched to the LMP in 1952 after their stadium near the Agua Azul Park was demolished to make way for the (now old) Bus Station. The franchise dropped out of the LMP in 1955 but returned to the LMB in 1964, winning two championships, in 1967 and 1971, playing at the Tecnologico Stadium on Avenida Revolution owned by the University of Guadalajara.
The franchise disappeared again in 1975 and did not resurface until 1990. The team scored a coup by signing aging Mexican pitcher Fernando “El Toro” Valenzuela, the 1981 Cy Young and Rookie of the Year winner and hero to Los Angeles Dodgers fans. Valenzuela threw two seasons for the Charros, posting a 10-9 record with an ERA of 3.86 in 1992 and 10-3 with an ERA of 2.67 in 1994.
Economic problems saw the franchise sold to Oaxaca in 1995 and once again Guadalajara fans were without a team. The Tecnologico Stadium was demolished in 2007 and many efforts to bring baseball back to the city in the interim failed.
The Charros will inherit the entire Algodoneros roster for next season, including several standout players. Jose Manuel “Manny” Rodriguez owns the league record for the most runs hit in consecutive games, while third base Zealous Wheeler from the United States has previously been on the rosters of the Yankees, Orioles and the Brewers.
The Algodoneros made the LMP playoffs last season, so the Charros are expected to be competitive next season.
The eight teams that make up the LMP are the Mexicali Aguilas (Eagles), Los Mochis Cañeros (Sugar Cane Growers), Navojoa Mayos, Hermosillo Naranjeros (Orange Growers), Culiacán Tomateros (Tomato Growers), Mazatlán Venados (Deers) and the Ciudad Obregón Yaquis.
The Charros begin their preseason in September.