Mexico has a feather in its cap after Major League Baseball‘s Wednesday announcement that the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants will play the first-ever regular season game in Mexico City in 2023 as part of the league’s push to make the national pastime an international pastime.
The two games between the Padres and Giants will be played on April 29 and 30, 2023, at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu Beisbol in Mexico City, with the Padres designated as the home team. The games will be the first to be played in the capital city of Mexico.
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The Mexico City series was originally set to be played in April 2020 between the Padres and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but it was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Next year’s games will mark the first time the Giants have played in Mexico at all, but not the first time the Padres have played in the country.
The game in Mexico continues a recent trend by the MLB of attempting to expand the game of baseball internationally via games played in foreign countries.
The league recently announced the return of regular season games in London, England, with series scheduled for 2023 and 2024, after the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox played a two-game series in London in 2019. The MLB also reportedly has plans for games in Paris, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and South Korea.
Despite the push for international expansion, MLB declined to allow its star plays to participate in the baseball event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, in 2021.
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The World Baseball Softball Confederation is also actively pursuing a bid to have baseball included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California. It is unknown whether MLB would allow star players to participate if the sport is included in 2028.
