Max Murphy slides home with the first run in the final game of the 2023 Baseball Champions League Americas. It was the only run the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks would need, as they shut out the Caimanes de Barranquilla 8-0. (Photo Courtesy WBSC)
There are less than three weeks until the announced dates for the 2024 edition of the Baseball Champions League Americas arrive, and as the event draws closer, information on the tournament remains scarce.
The Baseball Champions League Americas was first played in September and October 2023 at Parque Kukulkan Alamo in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, and was expected to be played in late September 2024.
On Oct. 10, 2023, the World Baseball Softball Confederation announced that Puebla, Mexico, would host the 2024 BCL Americas at Estadio Hermanos Serdan, the home of the Pericos de Puebla, who won the 2023 Liga Mexicana de Beisbol championship.
And that was the last official information that has been released regarding the event — a short press release 11 months ago. if you go to the 2024 event’s page on the WBSC‘s website, you’re greeted with, well, nothing, save for a blank page with the same headings as any other event on the website, for news, rosters, results, statistics, and event info, but no actual news, rosters, or event info.
Several sources told World Baseball Network earlier in the year that the event might be held at the home of the 2024 Liga Mexicana de Beisbol champion rather than in Puebla. The Diablos Rojos del Mexico and the Sultanes de Monterrey are playing in the Serie del Rey, the LMB’s championship series, with the Diablos holding a 2-0 lead.
Both Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, home of the Diablos Rojos, and Estadio Exxon Mobil Super, the home of the Sultanes de Monterrey, have previously hosted Major League Baseball regular season games, and would be spectacular venues for the BCL Americas.
But nothing is certain, it would seem.
A report from CubaNoticias360 last week indicated that Cuba’s 2023 Serie Nacional champions, the Lenadores de Las Tunas, would not be participating in the 2024 BCL Americas, and that the tournament’s date had been moved from September 2024 to sometime in 2025. The report cited an announcement made by the Federacion Cubana de Beisbol, which was posted on Facebook by Cuban baseball announcer Orlando Cruz. The FCB’s announcement was not published on JIT.cu, a sports news website run by the Cuban government, nor could the announcement be found elsewhere.
Asked whether the event was going to be played in 2025 with six teams, Liga Mexicana de Beisbol’s director of marketing and communications, Alberto Guadarrama, said, “It is still to be determined.”
American Association commissioner Joshua Schaub, whose league sent the Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks to the inaugural event in 2023, has yet to return emails to schedule a phone interview with World Baseball Network. An email to WBSC press officer Riccardo Schiroli regarding this year’s went unanswered.
The RedHawks won the first Baseball Champions League Americas, defeating the Caimanes de Barranquilla of the Liga Colombiana de Beisbol Profesional 8-0 in the championship game at Parque Kukulkan Alamo, the home of the LMB’s Leones de Yucatan, on Sept. 30, 2023. Also participating in the inaugural BCL Americas were the Leones de Yucatan of the LMB and the Alazanes de Granma of the Serie Nacional de Cuba.
Were the tournament to be held later this month, it would conflict with the preparation period for Cuba’s team for the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s Premier12 tournament, which will be played in November. The FBC has announced that Armando Johnson will manage the island’s team at the Premier12, and that a cohort of 60 players would be cut down to a final roster by Johnson and his staff over the next two months, with a slate of preparation games in Asia sometime in October and early November.
Puerto Rico representado en la Baseball Champions League Americas
Los campeones Titanes de Florida firman el acuerdo para participar en la Baseball Champions League Americas, organizada por la @WBSC. El evento se llevará a cabo durante la última semana de septiembre de este año. pic.twitter.com/vc0IwPNp1B
— Liga de Béisbol Superior Doble A (@BeisbolDobleA) August 21, 2024
Earlier this month, Puerto Rico’s Liga Superior de Beisbol Doble-A announced that its champion, the Titanes de Florida, had reached an agreement to play in the next BCL Americas. This would potentially give the event five teams, it’s likely that the next BCL Americas will be a bigger event than the inaugural four-team tournament last September.
A six-team tournament featuring league champions from professional leagues around North and South America would only help to grow the game, create rivalries between professional clubs that don’t normally face each other, give fans and analysts a better opportunity to weigh leagues against each other, and perhaps most importantly, give Pan-American a bigger event that could drive fan interest across the region.
But that said, you don’t need a degree in sports management to figure out that the BCL Americas very likely isn’t happening this month.
Last year’s event kicked off with a game between the RedHawks and the Alazanes — the first game ever played between a Serie Nacional team and a U.S. professional team since the start of the trade embargo. It was a historic game that was attended by far fewer fans than the announced attendance of 400 indicated.
None of the day games at the 2023 BCL Americas, which were all played in the afternoon on weekdays, drew particularly well. The nightcaps, all of which featured the host team, the LMB’s Leones de Yucatan, drew several thousand fans each, as did the final, though there were plenty of good seats available in Merida’s nearly 15,000-seat park.
Another six months to prepare would give each participating league plenty of time to better prepare for the event. More sponsorships could be sold. Travel packages could be marketed to fans. Hype could be built up.
Six months of publicity leading up to a six-team event following the winter ball season could build the next edition of the BCL Americas into the kind of event that fans mark on the calendar for years to come.
Will that happen?
It’s hard to say. For now, the silence is deafening.
