Professional Softball in Mexico: A New Frontier for Women in Latin America

Professional Softball in Mexico: A New Frontier for Women in Latin America

In many parts of Latin America, baseball is a popular and well-established sport with men’s professional leagues in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela, among others. But women who wanted to play baseball’s cousin, softball, professionally had only one option: walk away. They had to go to the United States or Japan.

Until now.

In what is believed to be the first time in Latin America – a region where men often have more opportunities than women, particularly in sports – a professional women’s softball league has started in Mexico. On Jan. 25, when the inaugural season began, 120 women from six teams were able to call themselves professional softball players, many for the first time.

“Before there wasn’t even the question, ‘Should there be a professional sport for women?’ It was a fact that it didn’t exist. Period,” said Stefania Aradillas, a winger for Diablos Rojos Femenil in Mexico City. “But we are finding our place in society, not just in sports, but in all sectors.”

The women’s softball venture was created by the Mexican Baseball League, the country’s nearly 100-year-old professional men’s baseball league. The regular season runs until March 3, followed by the playoffs that end in mid-March.

Even though it’s a short season, officials and players said it has already shown promise: 13,408 people filled Monterrey Stadium on opening night, a record for a softball game in the Americas, and a half-dozen teams drew a total of 109,000 spectators. fans during the first four weeks, according to the league.

“This project is about breaking barriers,” said Adriana Pérez, a Mexican American who set aside the softball training facility she owned in Lubbock, Texas, to become coach of the Bravas de León, one of the new teams feminine.

Yuruby Alicart, a Venezuelan shortstop for another team, Charras de Jalisco Femenil, added: “This is something extraordinary for our genre.”

Horacio de la Vega, the president of Mexico’s men’s professional baseball league, seeking to grow the sport, first raised the idea of ​​a women’s baseball or softball division at a league meeting three years ago.

Officials opted for softball because of its growing popularity, particularly in the United States, where players often go to play in college, and an encouraging future in Mexico (the national team finished fourth in its first Olympic appearance, at the 2021 Tokyo Games). And with baseball stadiums largely unused during the offseason, a softball league could bring in extra money.

But de la Vega said club owners have raised concerns about a league’s financial sustainability and protecting players from sexual harassment, which has been a major issue in women’s sports such as soccer and gymnastics.

So over the next two years, league officials refined the plan, creating sexual harassment protocols, including a mandatory online course for managers and coaches. Mr. De La Vega said he obtained necessary property approval and secured key commercial deals, such as television rights, last year.

“This is something we should have done a while ago,” de la Vega said, “but things happen for a reason and at the right time.”

The strategy to create a softball league took its cue from the launch of women’s professional soccer in Mexico in 2017, which involved men’s franchises starting a women’s team of the same name. But in that case, almost all 18 football franchises created a team. The softball league started smaller.

Early on, de la Vega said, nearly half of the men’s baseball franchises (there were 18 then and 20 this year) showed interest in starting a women’s softball team. But after requiring an initial three-year commitment from interested owners, the league whittled it down to six clubs: one each in three of the country’s largest cities – Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey – plus in León, Tabasco and Veracruz.

While most of the league’s players are from Mexico, there are also some Mexican Americans, Cubans, Venezuelans and one Colombian.

And most of the teams have female leadership: five of the six managers are women, as are three of the general managers.

Andrea Valdéz had worked in the front office of the El Águila de Veracruz baseball team, where her father is the general manager. But when the softball league formed, Ms. Valdéz, 25, became the general manager of Veracruz softball.

“People always talk about professional sports for men, but this is a great opportunity for women to be showcased,” she said. “I love working in sports and I love that my first such responsibility is with women.”

Some players like Ms. Alicart, 38, of Venezuela, and Ms. Aradillas, 29, of Mexico, both on their national teams at the Olympics, make a living exclusively from softball. Ms. Alicart plays in a semiprofessional league in Italy, while Ms. Aradillas has commercial sponsorships. But many of their teammates work full time in non-softball-related jobs.

Dafne Bravo, 22, a catcher for the Mexico City team, was working on a Star Wars attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., when he heard about the new league.

Ms. Bravo had almost lost all hope about her career after two years of ups and downs playing from California State University, Dominguez Hills. But her mother bought them both a flight to Mexico City last November after hearing about tryouts for the championship there. After being drafted, she was granted a two-month unpaid leave from Disneyland to play in Mexico, where she earns about $3,000 a month.

I represent my family, making them proud,” said Ms. Bravo, whose parents were born in Mexico and emigrated to the United States.

When León catcher Lolis de la Fuente took the field before the season began, she wiped away tears, overcome with emotion as she put on a professional softball uniform in front of her sons, ages 3 and 7.

“I never thought this moment would come,” he said.

Ms. de la Fuente, 31, grew up playing softball in the state of Coahuila, which borders Texas, and representing her state in regional and national tournaments, and Mexico in international tournaments.

After the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games, she said she would have to choose between attending college or pursuing softball, where the dream is usually to get an athletic scholarship to a university in the United States. She chose college in Mexico, graduated and started a family. She teaches English at a school in Coahuila.

For the past seven years, Ms. de la Fuente has remained active in softball, playing in a local recreational league. After being drafted, she said she got two months of unpaid leave from her school to play in the league, where she will earn $1,000 a month and live in an apartment provided by the team.

“A dream comes true,” he said. “I never thought they could do something like this in Mexico because there wasn’t much support.”

Mr. de la Vega said he hopes the Mexican version will last, unlike previous professional softball leagues in the United States that bent over. Starting small, I believed, was an advantage. And, he said, most teams are at least breaking even financially, and the league is profitable thanks to a “real appetite” from sponsors and television networks.

“We’re definitely going to make mistakes,” he said, “like any big project, and we’re going to have to make corrections, but that’s part of growing.”

Mr. de la Vega, who represented Mexico at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics in the modern pentathlon, said the league could also provide a platform for Mexican players to develop before softball return at the Summer Games, in 2028 in Los Angeles.

At the inaugural match in León, the stands were filled with men and women of all ages. The team unveiled a new lioness mascot and the public address announcer thanked the crowd for coming out to support the women on the field.

Montserrat Zuñiga, 36, said she and her 5-year-old daughter, Emilia, had been attending León men’s baseball games for two years. But when the softball league started, Ms. Zuñiga said her daughter asked to watch the women play. For the occasion she bought Emilia a pink Bravas hat.

“It means something these days,” she said, “to be a woman too, not just a man.”

By Morgan Jordan

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