World Baseball Classic: Mexico vs. South Africa

On Monday afternoon I changed hotels from the Ramada to the Hilton Aeropuerto. Nicole arrived from Chicago on Monday evening. The Hilton is located in Terminal 1 which is an easy train ride from Terminal 2 – where Nicole was flying into. Since Nicole was not arriving until after the game started and would need to go through customs, baggage claim and make her way from Terminal 2 to the hotel in Terminal 1, I would have time to attend about half the game Monday night before meeting her for dinner.

The Game
The atmosphere on Monday night was completely different when compared to Sunday night even though Mexico played in both games. The only reason I could think of is that none of the Mexican fans expected Mexico to play Monday night. They expected Mexico to win Sunday night in order to play Cuba on Tuesday night.

On Sunday night, a band played and the crowd sang the Mexican national anthem, while the military presented the Mexican flag. On Monday night, the national anthem was played over the loud speaker and nobody in the stands sang anything. In fact, the stadium was half as full as it was Sunday night with only 10,311 in attendance.

South Africa stayed close for the first 6 innings but fell apart late losing to Mexico 14-3 (technically losing by the slaughter rule) after nine innings. Adrian Gonzalez homered twice and had 6 RBI.

Post Game Dining
After the game, I met Nicole at the hotel and we ate at the Bistro Mosaico in the airport by the Hilton.

World Baseball Classic: Australia vs. Mexico

I took a cab back from the hotel to the stadium for Sunday night’s game between Australia and Mexico. I arrived over an hour early for the game and decided to buy a Cuba hat as a souvenir. However, all of the Mexico and Cuba hats were sold at the game Sunday afternoon. I thought to myself – how could the World Baseball Classic not supply enough hats for even the fans attending the second game to purchase?

Just as I had eaten for lunch, I ate at the same taquito concession stand for dinner. The taquitos were only 10 pesos each and were hand made by the concessionaires. Regular beers in the stadium cost 30 pesos whereas the big beers I had purchased Saturday night in Pachuca cost 80 pesos.

The Game
Mexico went down in the top of 1st inning 3-0, but came back in the bottom of the 1st inning and took the lead 5-3. In a back and forth (and very long) game Australia defeated Mexico 17-7 in 8 innings. Australia’s 22 hits set a WBC record for most hits in a game.

World Baseball Classic Rules
There are three major rules that that affect World Baseball Classic games:
1) A game is terminated if one team is ahead by more than 15 runs after the 5th or 6th inning or more than 10 runs after the 7th or 8th inning.
2) No pitcher may throw more than 70 pitches during first round games.
3) Beginning with the 13th inning, teams will start the inning with a runner on first and second base.

I believe rule #1 was created for the disparities between the teams talent in the first round. However, I am sure Mexico never planned to be slaughter ruled by Australia in the first round. If anything they thought it would be the other way around.

World Baseball Classic: South Africa vs. Cuba

About one week before I left for Mexico City, I decided to stay by the Mexico City airport for one main reason: Foro Sol, the stadium where the World Baseball Classic in Mexico City was held, was only one mile from the airport. Meaning I could take a short and cheap cab back and forth to the three games I was planning to attend Sunday and Monday.

Obtaining Tickets
After the cycling event Sunday morning, I arrived at Foro Sol in time for the noon first pitch between South Africa and Cuba. There were a lot of people selling tickets outside of the stadium. When I know there are a lot of secondary market tickets, I usually like to check with the box office first to understand what they still have available.

At the box office, I asked to buy tickets to the three games I wanted to attend: 1) Sunday afternoon, 2) Sunday night, and 3) Monday night. I was informed that I only needed to buy tickets for Sunday and Monday night. Tickets for the Sunday afternoon game were free with the purchase of a ticket for the Sunday night game between Australia and Mexico. I bought bleacher seat tickets for 95 pesos each. The seats were cement similar to Arena Mexico and in the sun.

Foro Sol Stadium
Foro Sol Stadium had a similar feel to Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As with Wrigley Field the bleacher section was separate from the rest of the stadium so I could not wander around the entire venue.

The Game
Cuba dominated South Africa 8-1. Cuba set a WBC record by hitting 6 home runs in one game. The prior record was 4 when the Dominican Republic did it against Venezuela in the 2006 WBC.

Post Game
Rather than hang out at the Festival de Beisbol in between the Sunday afternoon and Sunday night games, I chose to go back to the hotel and relax. As I stated earlier, the main reason I chose a hotel by the airport was because it was close to the ballpark.

Stage 8 of Vuelta Mexico

After reading the sports section of a Mexican newspaper on Saturday, I discovered that the Tour of Mexico’s last stage was taking place in Mexico City Sunday morning. In addition, they were riding through Mexico City’s El Centro which is where most of Mexico City’s tourist attractions are located. Since I was planning to go to the city center on Monday afternoon, I figured I should just go Sunday morning and watch the event as well. Also, with stage 8 scheduled to last around 2 hours, I would have just enough time to make it to the start of the first World Baseball Classic game which was scheduled to start at noon.

The Event
My cab driver dropped me off at the Palacio Nacional and I walked the course as the cyclists would ride by every 10 minutes or so. Rather than a typical stage in which the cyclists ride from one city to the next, this stage was a circuit where the riders complete a pre-determined number of laps. Floyd Landis was racing in his second event after completing his two year doping ban. The last time I saw Floyd Landis race was in the 2006 Tour de France where he failed his famous drug test. The event was over in one hour and 36 minutes which gave me plenty of time to get to the World Baseball Classic.

Primera División: UAG Tecos at Pachuca

To my disappointment, the Primera Division did not schedule any soccer matches for the weekend in Mexico City. Three teams could have been home (America, Cruz Azul, or Pumas UNAM), but none were. The next best option was to travel to Pachuca which is 88 kilometers from Mexico City.

On Friday night I had negotiated with the cab driver to drive me to Pachuca – about a 90 minute drive from Mexico City accounting for some traffic. Before the soccer match Saturday night, I could not figure out how to purchase tickets to Pachuca before the match. This made me a little hesitant to pay the cab 1700 pesos for the roundtrip, but I figured tickets would be available at the stadium since most Mexican soccer matches do not sell out.

Possible Pre Game Dining
One option for eating while driving to Pachuca is to stop at one of the barbacoa tents on the side of the road. Even though they have seating for 20-30 people, there is nobody in the tents and there are approximately 20-30 places to eat on the drive. The cab driver wanted to stop along the way, but I said no since the tents seemed shady and I would prefer to eat at the stadium.

Obtaining Tickets
We arrived at Estadio Miguel Hidalgo around 5:30 pm for the 7:00 pm start time. I walked up to the ticket window and bought a ticket for 100 pesos. The stadium only had general admission seats except for one section at midfield. After buying my ticket, I asked the cab driver if he also wanted to attend the match (thinking he would have to buy his own ticket) rather than wait for me outside the stadium. He informed me (in Spanish) that the ticket I purchased was actually good for 3 people and that he would like to go to the match. Since that was the case, I paid 20 pesos to park the cab in the parking lot and we both entered the stadium with the ticket I had purchased.

Estadio Miguel Hidalgo
The stadium consisted of one level with mainly general admission seating. One good thing about Mexican sporting events is that the concession prices are cheap. One 940 milliliter beer (about two 16-ounce beers) at Pachuca only cost 40 pesos (less than $3). A paste (basically a warm sandwich) cost 10 pesos and sodas cost 17 pesos.

The Match
About 20 minutes into the match I began to realize my cab driver was a Pachuca supporter. He was singing all of the Pachuca songs and cheering for Pachuca the entire time. Also, he told me his Dad grew up in Pachuca. However, he had not been to a match for a long time since moving to Mexico City so at least he had not been planning to attend the match anyway.

Pachuca defeated UAG Tecos 3-2 after scoring the winning goal in the 90th minute. Before the winning goal, I made the cab driver move to the other side of the stadium where we had parked the car in order to avoid traffic. After the winning goal, we left and discovered the Mexican parking attendants had blocked the taxi with another car in the parking lot. After about a 5 minute wait the car that was blocking us left and we were able to leave without too much traffic.

We made it back to the hotel by 10:30 pm.

Davis Cup Americas Zone Group II: Jamaica at Mexico

Since my cab driver was not a minute late Friday night, I hired him to drive me to two events Saturday. First was the Davis Cup Americas Zone Group II match between Jamaica and Mexico. I found out about the event from reading the Mexican sports newspaper Aeromexico handed out on the plane Friday.

Estadio Rafael Osuna
The event took place at Estadio Rafael Osuna which is a clay surface. The stadium is near Bosque de Chapultepec which contains some of Mexico City’s main tourist attractions.

Obtaining Tickets
I bought a ticket for 40 pesos. Since the stadium only had 8 rows in the main section I felt it made no sense to pay anymore. Rows 1-4 cost 80 pesos and rows 5-8 cost 40 pesos.

The Match
The event felt similar to most tennis matches I have attended. As with all Davis Cup matches Saturday’s event is doubles. Luis-Manual Flores and Santiago Gonzalez represented Mexico while Damar Johnson and Damion Johnson represented Jamaica. Jamaica played respectably during the first set losing 6-3. However, it appears as though Jamaica gave up after they fell down 2-0 in the second set – eventually losing the match in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, 6-1.

Bosque de Chapultepec
After the match I walked around the park for 90 minutes until the cab driver picked me up.

Lucha Libre en la Ciudad de México

A few months ago, Nicole and I decided to spend a week in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Since she teaches ice skating and had a synchronized skating competition over the weekend of March 7-8, I decided to fly to Mexico City for the weekend to watch the World Baseball Classic and some other events.

Since most of the Mexican leagues do not plan very far ahead, the only event I knew was taking place in Mexico City that weekend was the first round of the World Baseball Classic. However, I knew soccer matches for the Primera Division would be scheduled for Saturday and Sunday and I had read that Lucha Libre took place on Friday nights. With that information in hand, I decided to fly to Mexico City on Friday in order to have the chance to attend multiple events in addition to the World Baseball Classic.

About a week before I was scheduled to leave, I checked ticketmaster.com.mx and www.arenamexico.com.mx to find out what events were taking place. I discovered that Lucha Libre was scheduled for Friday night at Arena Mexico. Since I decided to stay at the Ramada by the Mexico City airport I took a cab to the event. The cab cost 360 pesos for the roundtrip to the arena.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived about an hour early for the 8:30 pm start time. Ticket prices for the event ranged from 30 pesos ($2) for the upper deck to 300 pesos ($20) for ring side seats. I bought the upper deck seats.

Arena Mexico
As I tried to enter the arena, security told me cameras were not allowed inside. I tried to convince the guards (in lousy Spanish) that I would not take any pictures but to no avail. I was forced to check it while being assured it would be at the check point after the event.

Arena Mexico, which seats 16,500, has a lower and upper deck. However, there are no seats in the upper deck – just concrete rows for fans to sit on. Rather than walk around with beer and soda, the vendors in the arena sit within the crowd and shout “cervezas y frescos” frequently. One Corona or Victoria costs 25 pesos while sodas are 15 pesos.

At first food vendors were only on the first level, so for a time I thought I should have sat there. However, the food vendors eventually came up to the upper deck. For the first time ever, I happened to negotiate with a vendor. I bought a torta which was supposed to cost 25 pesos. However, I only had a 200 peso bill or 20 pesos in coins. The vendor accepted the 20 pesos since he did not have change for the 200.

Lucha Libre
Lucha Libre is pretty similar to the WWE, but does not have as much drama – although it is highly likely I did not understand everything they were saying in Spanish. In addition, the event was much more acrobatic as wrestlers seemed to have more of a connection with their opponent in moving around the ring. At certain points I was amazed at how the wrestlers would launch off the ropes, outside of the ring, and land on their opponent while both wrestlers maintained their balance. A few times the wrestlers would land on empty seats in the front row directly next to a patron. Next time I may spring for the seats closer to the ring.

My camera was at the check point after the event just as promised and my cab was waiting for me at 10:45 pm just as I had wanted. I picked the perfect time for him to arrive as the event had just ended.