The Charros de Jalisco baseball team has more than 200 children from 5 to 14 years of age training at it’s new academy at the Charros stadium, said Charros administrative director Roberto Castellon. The idea is to continue promoting the sport and build the Charros brand in the metro through this community outreach and also to look for talented youths to bring into the sport in the long term.
“About 90 percent of the kids enrolledhad never played baseball before,” said Castellon.
The academy’s trainers have decades of experience between them: sports director Luis Arredondo played with the Charros in the 1990s as well as other Pacific and Mexican league teams; Roberto Mendes played for the Charros in the 1960s; Luis Macedo was a pitcher in the Pacific League; Fernando Casanova wasa trainer for theDiablos Rojos and Alejandro Aresola has been a baseball instructor in Jalisco for 30 years.
Practice is rigorous: Monday to Friday, 3 to 6 p.m. But costs are very reasonable: a 500-peso inscription fee and 340 pesos monthly, which includes health insurance. There are still spaces available for kids who want to learn the game.
Castellon said next year the team would most likely open a space for 15 and 16 year olds to train.
If they find quality talent he said they’ll sign them up (16 is the minimum age) and send them to Mexican League training schools. The LigaMexicana del Pacifico is a winter league with eight teams (mostly in Sinaloa and Sonora) and no training facilities for young adults as yet. The Liga Mexicana is comprised of 16 teams located throughout the nation and plays from April through October. Both leagues are considered to be AAA quality by Major League Baseball.
The Charros stadium is located at: Av. Santa Lucia 373, Colonia Tepeyac in Zapopan, just a few blocks from the Mercado del Mar. Tels. (33) 3817-5035 and 3817-5163. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">.
If driving to the Charros stadium daily to get junior to practice seems like a long slog, there are other options for young (and young-at-heart) wannabe sluggers.
The American Legion Post three began a baseball league decades ago that continues today, albeit without the somewhat moribund Legion’s involvement. The Liga de Beisbol Legion Zapopan has a number of teams, including the Panteras, Red Sox, Yankees and Miñons. Games are played at its field located just a few blocks from Plaza del Sol at Montemorelos 29, one-half block off Avenida Conchitas.
Although baseball seems somewhat absent from this soccer-mad city it is out there. Fields are hidden, and you won’t find them easily on the web, but there are probably at least a dozen baseball fields in the metro area, some rough hewn, other quite professional where kids, teens and adults play the game know by connoisseurs as the “king of sports.”
According to the director of the Municipal Sports Department of Zapopan, that municipality has the most fields in the state (eight in just one sports complex) and the most leagues as well as a baseball school. For more information about Zapopan fields and leagues contact the head of Recreacion y Deportes, Raymundo Gamez Frias, tel. 3624-2367, ext. 103, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..">This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Some leagues catering to youngsters and adults in the metropolitan area include:
– Liga Infantil Juvenil Guadalajara A.C.
– Cuervos de Zapopan (play at three fields at Zapopan Comude Unidad Deportiva Flores Magon, Calle Industria Textil S/N, Valle de San Isidro, Zapopan—20 blocks north of Periferico Norte, Tel. 333-968-6896.)
– Liga Infantil y Juvenil Guadalajara Sutaj,
– Liga Infantil y Juvenil Alfarera de Tlaquepaque founded in 2000 — 14 teams in that league played at five different parks Sunday, March 22. (email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
– Liga de Beisbol Muelles Gonzalez A.C., in Tonala
– Liga de Beisbol Veteranos UdeG
– Liga de Beisbol de Zapopan
– Liga Municipal Softbol Femenil de Zapopan
– Liga U.C.M.A
– Liga NASA Softbol UAG
– Liga Intersindical.