"I just want to invite you to be part of the history that we are making here in Tucson," LAMP president Salvador Escobar Cornejo said at a press conference. "It's not easy to open the doors for baseball in other countries, so we are together building bridges between two countries. That is very important today."
The return of professional baseball to the Kino Sports Complex is the culmination of more than a decade’s worth of hard work by County officials to turn the facility into a world-class sports destination, including serving as the host site for the 2025 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. The press conference was held in a clubhouse originally intended for Major League spring training, which left Tucson after the 2010 season.
Blake Eager, the executive director of Southern Arizona Sports, Tourism, & Film Authority, emphasized the role played by the staff of the Kino Sports Complex and Stadium District, including Director Sarah Horvath, in bringing in the team that previously played in Navojoa, Sonora, Mexico.
“Sarah Horvath and her team at Kino Sports Complex are the gold standard for what a stadium district should be,” Eager said. “I don’t mean just in Tucson or Arizona, but in the world.”
Jennifer Allen, the Vice Chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, echoed those sentiments, also noting the work of County Administrator Jan Lesher and Deputy County Administrator Carmine DeBonis.
“Having a team from a Mexican professional baseball league established in Tucson creates a truly international baseball league,” Allen said. “It reconnects us to the strong and deep cross-border traditions we all share.”
With the inaugural season scheduled to begin in mid-October, team ownership is reaching out to the community to begin building on the long and rich history of baseball in Pima County. Part of their plans is to have public participation during the season in the naming of the team.
“We need the community to get behind baseball and embrace the Tucson Baseball Team as their own team,” said Victor Cuevas, president and owner of the Tucson Baseball Team. “That’s the goal.”
For more information about the Tucson Baseball Team, visit www.tucsonbaseball.net.