MEXICO CITY – In the midst of the 2025 Liga Mexicana de Beisbol 100th season heading towards the middle of the year, the league’s all-star game is building up to be one of the most historic events for the sport of baseball in the country and in Mexico City.
Mexico has produced many legends through its two professional leagues with the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, which was founded in 1925, and the Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico, which began in 1945. A total of 148 players from Mexico have played in Major League Baseball, including 93 registered pitchers.
Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Mel Almada, born in Huatabampo, Mexico, became the first Latin American-born player to appear in Major League Baseball during the modern World Series era, making his debut on September 8, 1933.
Almada played with the Red Sox from 1933 until he was traded to the Washington Senators in the middle of the 1937 season, along with Rick and Wes Ferrell, in exchange for Ben Chapman and Bobo Newsom. He remained with the Senators for the rest of 1937 and the start of the 1938 season before being dealt to the St. Louis Browns in exchange for All-Star outfielder Sam West.
Almada put together an incredible stretch in 1938, recording a hit in 54 of 56 games from June 21 through August 19. He fell just two hitless games short of Joe DiMaggio’s legendary 56-game hitting streak.
The following season, Almada started the year hitting .239 before being sold to the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he played the remainder of 1939.
Baldomero Melo Almada Quirós was the 1st Mexican born player to play in MLB when he debuted for the Boston Red Sox in 1933. Mel Almada's story includes Conquistadors, the Mexican Revolution, buried treasure, baseball accomplishments & of course, the Negro Leagues.@nlbmprez
👀👇 pic.twitter.com/m1R2QxDMfF— Legends Sports (@legends_sports1) January 21, 2022
Over seven seasons in Major League Baseball, Almada appeared in 646 games, posting a lifetime .284 batting average with 2,737 plate appearances. He recorded 706 hits, 107 doubles, 27 triples, 15 home runs, 197 RBI, 56 stolen bases, 214 walks, 150 strikeouts and a .710 OPS. In 1940, he signed a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals and was assigned to Double-A Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League, never returning to a major league field.
In 1940, Almada played 104 games for Sacramento, batting .232 with 306 at-bats, collecting 71 hits, 13 doubles, one triple and two home runs. He then explored his options in LMB and joined the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna for the 1941 season under Cuban baseball great and two-way player Martín Dihigo.
The Algodoneros de Unión Laguna did not qualify for the Serie del Rey in 1941, finishing in fifth place with a 45-56 record and 21 ½ games behind the first place Azules de Veracruz.
Almada played in just 26 games with the Algodoneros de Unión Laguna, batting .343 with 82 plate appearances. He collected 24 hits, seven doubles, three triples, 18 RBI, 12 walks and four strikeouts before leaving the team on May 16, 1941. He later joined the United States Army during World War II.
In 1944, Almada enlisted in the Army Medical Corps and trained at Camp Barkeley in Abilene, Texas before returning to baseball. He went on to manage the Mayos de Navojoa in the LMP during the 1953-54 season and had a second stint from 1955 to 1957.
Almada built the bridge not only for Mexican-born players but for all Latin American players to succeed in Major League Baseball. Legends such as Hiram Bithorn, Roberto Clemente, Lou Castro, Luis Aparicio, Alex Carrasquel, Pedro San and Ozzie Virgil Sr. live in the mystique and the hallowed historic pillars of the game, shaping the sport globally.
Baseball lost one of its greatest legends just days before Game 1 of the 2024 World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees on October 22, 2024. Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican icon who changed the sport forever, was honored across the baseball world in the days leading up to the series.
The Dodgers, the team he carried to a championship as a 20-year-old in 1981, dedicated their Fall Classic run to his memory, while fans from Los Angeles to Mexico mourned the passing of the left-hander who had become a national hero.
On January 31, 2025, before the first pitch of the Caribbean Series opener between Mexico and the Dominican Republic, a tribute to Valenzuela was held in Mexicali, Mexico. His family attended the ceremony alongside his former teammate Steve Garvey.
Jaime Jarrín, the longtime Spanish-language voice of the Dodgers who called Valenzuela’s games throughout his career, threw out the ceremonial first pitch in his honor.
Jarrín, who broadcast Dodgers games from their first season at Chavez Ravine in 1962 until his retirement in 2018, witnessed the rise of Fernandomania firsthand. He once said, “Fernando turned the game into a religion,” a sentiment felt throughout Mexico and beyond. Valenzuela’s skyward glance before each pitch, his towering leg kick and his signature screwball became symbols of hope and pride for an entire generation of fans.
Valenzuela’s defining moment came in the 1981 World Series when he went 3-1 against the Yankees with a 2.21 ERA, averaging eight innings per start. In Game Three, he threw 146 pitches in a complete-game victory. The late Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully summed up the performance perfectly, saying, “This was not Fernando’s best game, it was his finest.”
And indeed, it was Valenzuela’s finest—his performance inspired a wave of Mexican players and a Major League Baseball pipeline just south of the United States.
Valenzuela holds the record for the most All-Star selections among Mexican-born players with six, followed by Bobby Avila with three. Vinny Castilla, Jorge Orta, Joakim Soria and Esteban Loaiza each earned two, while Andrés Muñoz, Roberto Osuna, Isaac Paredes, Aurelio López, Sid Monge, Marco Estrada, Yovani Gallardo, Teddy Higuera and Alejandro Kirk each made one appearance in the Midsummer Classic.
Mexico has won just one gold medal in international competition against other national federations, capturing the title at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador. They secured the gold after the championship game against Cuba at Parque Nacional de Pelota Saturnino Bengoa was rained out, finishing with the best overall record at the tournament.
Manny Bañuelos toed the mound for the Charros de Jalisco and Esmil Rogers slabbed the hill for the Leones del Escogido this past February at El Nido de los Águilas in Mexicali with national pride and bragging rights on the line.
Former MLB closer and three-time World Series champion with the San Francisco Giants Sergio Romo and Mexico Boxing legend J.C. Chavez threw out the first pitch on Friday, February 7 prior to the start of the 2025 Caribbean Series championship game in Mexicali.
En 1933, Baldomero "Mel" Almada se convirtió en el primer pelotero nacido en México en debutar en Grandes ligas. Desde entonces, 129 jugadores, nacidos en 19 distintos estados de México, han sido ligamayoristas. ⚾🇲🇽
🧐¿Quién crees que sea el mexicano 130 este 2020 en la MLB?🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/OqaQTe9l6r
— Bachillerato Deportivo BTED (@BTEDmx) March 20, 2020
Leones del Escogido under now 2026 World Baseball Classic manager for the Dominican Republic Albert Pujols helped secure the franchise’s fifth Caribbean Series title with their 1-0 win in the 2025 championship game against the 2024-25 Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico champion, with manager Benji Gil at the helm.
Mexico has not won the Caribbean Series since 2016, when the Venados de Mazatlán, the 2015-16 Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico champions, defeated the Tigres de Aragua of the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional, 5-4, in the championship game at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It remains the nation’s most recent title at the prestigious tournament.
Mexico has only been part of the Confederación de Béisbol Profesional del Caribe since the nation appeared in the Caribbean Series in 1971.
The only other club teams from the LAMP to win at the Caribbean Series are the Venados de Mazatlán in 2005, the Naranjeros de Hermosillo in 1976 and 2014, the Yaquis de Obregón in 2011 and 2013, the Tomateros de Culiacán in 1996 and 2002 and the Águilas de Mexicali in 1986.
Gil will manage the Mexico national team for the second consecutive World Baseball Classic in 2026, with the country facing the United States, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil in Houston, Texas at Daikin Park from March 6 to 11.
During the 2023 WBC, Mexico made it to the semifinals and lost to Japan 5-4 at loanDepot Park from Munetaka Murakami’s game-winning double to left-center field in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Mexico had never made it that far in a world tournament, such as the FIFA World Cup, FIBA Basketball Championships or the Olympics, in any team sport prior to the 2023 WBC.
Gil remains the manager for the Charros de Jalisco during the 2025 LMB season and is strategizing how to build his roster during the remainder of the year ahead of the 2026 WBC.
The Serie del Rey began in 1970, prior to the league instituting the Zona del Norte and Zona del Sur format, and before the league’s champion was determined by a playoff. Originally, the team finishing the year in first place was crowned champion.
All the listed champions for the Serie del Rey are located on Baseball Reference’s Mexican League page.
