Fernandomania Is Alive and Well and Living in Monterrey

MONTERREY, Mexico —  The seasoned scalpers outside Estadio Monterrey thought they’d seen it all until Friday night. But, as history was being made at this 25,644-seat Mexican League ballpark about 100 miles from the Texas border, all they could do was shrug.

“Tonight’s game? Forget it,” said the eldest of the group, clutching a fistful of dollars and tickets for tomorrow. “Saturday and Sunday, no problem: two in the shade--$100. But tonight, no way. Tonight is El Toro. Tonight is history.”

It was. It was the first American major league game ever played outside the United States or Canada. It was also the first regular-season slugfest on Mexican soil, as the San Diego Padres--led by one of Mexico’s favorite sons--outlasted the New York Mets, 15-10, before the historic crowd of 23,699.

But from the moment Fernando Valenzuela--a native of the nearby state of Sonora--lobbed the ceremonial first pitch and took the mound, until he left the game to a standing ovation 97 pitches later with a punishing 15-1 lead in the seventh, the historic game often sounded more like a bullfight.

“Toro! Toro! Toro!” shouted Monterrey’s fans for seven innings, proving Met Manager Dallas Green a master of understatement when he predicted before his apprehensive team took the field: “The fans obviously are going to do a lot of rooting for Fernando.”

The crowd didn’t just root, they ranted and rode home-plate umpire Joe West with each close call against Valenzuela. They “ooohhhed” at the 35-year-old pitcher’s whiff during his first at-bat in the second, then gave him a standing ovation when he flied out to center. They rose in salute again in the fourth, and they applauded again when Fernando struck out.

But it wasn’t only Valenzuela. Even after he left the game, the fans didn’t--right to the end, when they applauded politely as the Mets scored seven runs in the ninth.

From the first inning, roars and fireworks showered the Padres for 3 hours 14 minutes, starting with applause for center fielder Steve Finley when he lined his 20th homer into the right-field bleachers.

More fireworks and trumpet charges followed John Flaherty’s two-run double in the third. And when Ken Caminiti bombed his 24th home run of the year--past the “Keep the Faith” billboard in right--and Flaherty followed one out later with a solo homer to left, Monterrey’s masses made it clear that the Padres had found themselves a new home in Mexico.

As a bombed and beaten Met starter Robert Person (2-3) left in the sixth for the stadium’s new visitors’ locker room--the Padres had to build one in the Mexican League park that teams visit by bus in full uniform--the fans executed a perfect Monterrey wave.

Greg Vaughn’s third career grand slam in the sixth iced it, giving the Padres a 13-0 lead, driving out Derek Wallace and prompting some to ask whether Mexico has a mercy rule. And yet, not a single fan made for the exits--even after the Padres added two more runs in a comedy of Met errors.

Behind the scenes, Padre Special Events Vice President Andy Strasberg paved the way for Friday night’s success, taking his title seriously right down to the seams of the balls: They’re stitched with green and red thread to match Mexico’s flag. A nine-member mariachi band crooned in the stands, and 24 floodlights were added to brighten the series for live television broadcasts as far off as Taiwan.

Bringing the field up to major league standards was no easy task. Steve Wightman, Padre head groundskeeper, said he and his staff worked 14-hour days all week replacing the rocky crushed-brick infield base lines, the mound and home plate with proper dirt and mowing the turf down from 2 1/2 inches to 1 inch.

Although most of the Mets said they were relieved when they saw the stadium--and Padre pitcher Tim Worrell concluded: “Everything looks pretty much up to standards and a first-class operation”--a few outfielders complained about anthills in right and divots in left.

And, when asked how he compares Estadio Monterrey with Jack Murphy Stadium, Wightman smiled: “Well, I don’t.”

Monterrey, in fact, is under the major league microscope of future expansion this weekend. National League President Leonard Coleman was asked no fewer than five times during a Friday news conference about the role that the series will play in the awarding of a major league franchise in Mexico.

The Monterrey stadium’s owner, Jose Maiz, applied for such a franchise during the last expansion, and, with a preface that no such plans are in the works, Coleman indicated that he hopes Maiz tries again.

“We’re a little early yet,” Coleman said. “But Mexico is not only on our minds but in our hearts right now in looking for places for possible expansion.”

The feeling in Monterrey--a city of 4 million with baseball fever--was mutual.

“First Series” souvenirs that include memorial Valenzuela key chains, commemorative plastic Valenzuela cards and Valenzuela portraits were selling swiftly, and attendance is peaking at Mexico’s baseball Hall of Fame--conveniently tucked under the towering vats at Monterrey’s Cuauhtemoc Brewery.

Juan Filizola, director of the Hall of Fame, where visitors need walk only a few steps from shrines to such Mexican League baseball greats as Jose Luis “Chile” Gomez to a beer garden serving free Carta Blanca, summed up the feelings of most everyone here--except the Mets.

“It’s a dream,” he said.