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Thursday, May 8, 2008
Baseball in the Zocalo?
The Zocalo, Mexico City’s massive, utilitarian main plaza, has been used for just about anything you can imagine in recent months: a massive ice skating rink, a traveling museum and of course a number of various and sundry political protests. But I’m not sure the Zocalo has ever been the scene of a homerun. That will change come October when the Zocalo hosts a weekend of baseball, featuring little league action and a homerun derby to promote next year’s World Baseball Classic. The homerun derby will feature some Mexican heavy hitters, including Vinny Castilla, Adrian Gonzalez (of San Diego Padres fame) and Jorge Cantu (the Florida Marlins slugger).
I’m all for baseball in the Zocalo, but it does bring up some unique problems: according to a diagram in this morning’s Reforma newspaper, long blasts could smack off the ancient Metropolitan Cathedral and foul balls could ricochet of the stately National Palace (home to Diego Rivera’s masterpiece mural). Maybe they’ll erect a massive backstop.
