Merida: pitcher perfect weather

Evening clouds chase the day away in a sweet moment of smoky blue. The stadium lights shine like headlights across the vast emerald green field, from home plate to deep center. Parque Kukulcán pumps with an '80s rock soundtrack straight from a Brat Pack flick. Food vendors wend through the aisles of tiny green seats wielding swabs of cotton candy, bags of popcorn, Montejo beer, kibbehs (Middle Eastern hors-d’oeuvres), and cold-cut sandwiches. We stand for the himno nacional and then it’s time to play ball: Los Leones de Yucatán, in crisp home-team whites, versus Los Piratas de Campeche.

Image:Catherine Dunn & Colin McEnearny

Los Leones prowl the diamond at Parque de Béisbol Kukulcan.

Los Leones (the Lions) have been Mérida’s ball club in the Mexican League since 1954, and were 2006 League champions. When we touched down in the Yucatán capital, the team had just won the first half of the season, and American pitching coach Gilberto Rondon was feeling good about making it to the finals again (playoffs begin in August).

In and around Mérida there’s lots to do. You can just amble about the Centro Histórico's grid of flagstone streets, surrounded by the worn grandeur of colonial architecture, or pop into one of the many galleries on 60th Street. Weekend evenings bring musical performances and salsa dancing to the streets. The ruins of Uxmal and Chichén-Itzá are spectacular and just a daytrip away.

But the summertime feel of the place goes well with baseball. So on game night, we taxi-trekked from the Centro Histórico to the 14,500-seat stadium. Ninety pesos on a Tuesday night took us right behind home plate, among the players' pretty wives and girlfriends and adorable kids.

The crowd was thin that night; though judging from what Coach Rondon says, it was no measure of how far Mexican baseball has come in this soccer-crazed country. In the “old” days, traveling umpires would have to sleep in the clubhouse, and the Leones had to travel fifty-five hours by bus for games in Ciudad Juárez. These days games are televised on ESPN, and players make a good living (upwards of $115,000 USD for the “top guys”). Mexican talent has also been attracting more and more attention from Major League scouts impressed by Mexico’s baseball academies.

“Baseball’s changed here,” says Rondon, 54, who sports a crew cut and a tall, thick physique. “These guys are in shape now. They go to the gym. They work hard.”

Born in the Bronx, Rondon logged a few seasons in the Big Leagues before the New York Yankees sold him to Mérida in 1979. So began an international career as a journeyman pitcher and coach. He has plied his fastball and his know-how around the world: Taiwan, Italy, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico—from Tijuana to Mérida, where his daughter was born in the backseat of a Volkswagen.

For Rondon, Mérida is a great place to pitch: the heat makes you sweat and loosens up your arm, unlike the highaltitude stadiums of Mexico City or Puebla.

He has the youngest pitching staff in the sixteen-team league; he calls them his “fourteen sons.” They include Luis Navarro, who is deaf in one ear, and Oscar Rivera, who pitched a perfect game last year. “I speak a different language with each one,” he says.

For the Mérida newcomer, the gift of the game was the pleasant cool of nightfall. Over nine innings, the porras (an unofficial fan club) brass band blared its support from the upper deck. Ball girls in black spandex and bikini tops delivered new baseballs to the home plate umpire. The team mascot --a scrawny-looking lion-- strutted the field. And every time the Leones scored a run, the team emptied the dugout to welcome the runner with high-fives: the Leones eventually beat the Pirates 6 to 1.

It’s not just Mérida that's a baseball town: “the whole south is,” Rondon insists. “They don’t like soccer here.”

When the game was over, fans took over the field, seeking autographs, snapping photos, and playing their own games around the bases. The world felt right—as it should when the home team wins, even when you’re just visiting.

The Stadium: Take a 20-minute cab ride from the Centro Histórico to the Parque de Béisbol Kukulcan. On the web: leonesdeyucatan.com.mx

What & Where to Eat

Breakfast: Have typical huevos moltuleños at Cafetería Pop, Calle 57, bet. Calles 60 & 62.

Lunch: Order anything yucateco at Los Almendros, corner of Calle 50 & Calle 57.

Dinner: Revel in the small, delicious menu at artsy La Casa de Frida,Calle 61 No. 526-A, between Calles 66 & 66-A.

Snack: Order panuchos and salbutes, two types of fried tortilla pockets topped with shredded chicken or the area’s famed pork, cochinita pibil. (We munched at El Trapiche on Calle 62, between Calles 61 & 59). Try Montejo, the regional beer. 

What to see & do

• Catch a live trova set at Amaro: Calle 59 No. 507, between Calles 60 and 62

• Beat the heat in style with a guayabera from Guayaberas Jack on Calle 59 No. 507, between Calles 60 & 62.

• Visit the Museo de la Ciudad for a simple, well-done overview of Mérida’s history, from its beginnings as Maya capital T’oh. Calle 65 between Calles 56 and 56A, Tues-Fri:8am–8pm; Sat-Sun:8am–2pm. Free entry.

• Check out Museo MACAY for contemporary art Calle 60, next to the Cathedral on the main plaza Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs: 10am–6pm; Fri, Sat: 10am–8pm; Tues:closed. Free entry.

• For good walks, stroll Calle 60 and the Paseo de Montejo. Hang around the main plaza on weekends (live music starts in the evening).

• For great city info in English,check out Yucatan Today.