Memories of Padres' Mexico City Series will linger long after music, cheering stop
MEXICO CITY - Padres players arrived in the visitor's clubhouse at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú on Saturday to find brown T-shirts hanging in their lockers. On them were four words that beautifully summed up their Mexico City experience: Beisbol no es aburrido.
Baseball is not boring.
Not when it's played at a mile-and-a-half high. Not when the stadium is packed with 20,000 screaming fans, most of them wearing Padres colors.
Not when Manny Machado is belting homers. Not when Mason Miller is pumping strikes as part of a franchise-record heater. Not when Gavin Sheets is having a moment.
Here are seven decidingly not-boring thoughts from the Padres' two-game split with the Arizona Diamondbacks in Mexico City:
1. Mr. Popular
Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. were the most popular Padres this weekend.
But Eduardo Ortega might have been a close third.
The club’s longtime Spanish-language radio broadcaster was a hit everywhere he went.
Minutes before the start of Sunday’s game, Ortega - who has been with the Padres since 1987- signed autographs for fans crowded behind his makeshift broadcast booth. (It wasn’t the first thing he signed in Mexico City, or the last.)
Ortega was honored the day before by the Mexico City Diablos Rojos’ museum for his 39-year career with the Padres.
Padres fans love their broadcasters, whether it’s the TV duo of Don Orsillo and Mark Grant or the radio team of Jesse Agler and Tony Gwynn Jr. But this was Ortega’s weekend.
2. Mason's moment
Mexico City sits a mile and a half above sea level, a setting that players compare to "playing baseball on the moon."
Don't tell Mason Miller: The Padres' closer retired the Diamondbacks in order in Saturday's ninth inning, extending his scoreless-innings streak to a club-record 34⅔ and counting.
"Right now, Mason Miller is one of the best pitchers on the planet, you're right about that," manager Craig Stammen said. "He's also a great human being, great in our clubhouse, and a leader."
Next up: Miller will try to eclipse baseball's all-time scoreless innings streak for a closer of 41 innings, set by Baltimore's Gregg Olson in 1989 and 1990.
3. El Rey
Wearing a lucha libre mask in Padres colors and a City Connect jersey with the number 619 on the back, famed wrestler Rey Mysterio introduced the Padres' starting lineup from center field before Saturday's game, then gave fist-bumps to the players as they lined up for the national anthems of both Mexico and the United States.
Mysterio is a Chula Vista native and a bit of a good-luck charm for the club; he's bound to be even more popular after introducing Padres slugger Sheets as "Gavin ‘Holy' Sheets." Sheets admitted hearing the introduction, complete with the kinda-dirty-but-super-cool nickname, "wasn't on my bingo card."
4. La ropa
It was a colorful weekend, with both the Padres and Diamondbacks wearing their City Connect uniforms and fans buying up T-shirts, jerseys and hats by the bagload. (For those keeping score at home, colors worn over the weekend include brown and gold and sand and obsidian and pink and marigold and Sedona red and teal and purple and black.)
The most in-demand gear was designed by Mexican artist Giovanni Bautista and the New Era company. While the souvenirs weren’t cheap - fashion-forward Padres hats sold for 1,500 pesos, or $88 - they were popular, especially among locals.
By Sunday afternoon, only a scant few remained in the stadium’s team shop.
5. La presidenta
The Padres' trip to Mexico included a visit with the country's president.
Chairman John Seidler, CEO Erik Greupner and former All-Star Jake Peavy, now a Padres ambassador, met with Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday, presenting her with a No. 26 City Connect jersey with her name on the back.
Sheinbaum posted to X (formerly Twitter) that she hoped the series would "foster oster among young people the passion for the king of sports: a sport that demands discipline, mind, and a lot of heart."
6. Going local
The Padres didn't just camp out at their luxury hotel. The club hosted a baseball camp for youth baseball and softball players on Friday; other players took part in various events.
"Not speaking much Spanish, I wasn't sure what to expect," Miller said. But "seeing the joy" in the kids' faces, he said, was the highlight of his weekend - maybe more than the record-breaking appearance.
On Friday, Padres outfielder Ramon Laureano cooked hot dogs alongside famed Mexican chef Enrique Olvera at a food truck outside the El Angel de la Independencia statue in the Reforma District. The chef gave away 1,000 of the Mexican-American fusion-inspired frank dogs to locals.
"It was pretty cool seeing the culture, the people here in Mexico," he said, "and I had a blast."
7. The universal game
It’s been said before, but worth repeating after the Mexico City Series: baseball brings people together, even when team affiliations, national origins and languages get in the way.
Consider: A Padres fan visiting Mexico City this weekend could bond with a Diablos Rojos fan over Robinson Canó, a Dominican star who played for San Diego in 2022 before signing with the Mexican League club in 2024.
Or they could talk Tatises: Not only Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres’ star, but Fernando Tatis Sr., who manages the Algodoneros de Union Laguna team that includes former Padres Alfonso Rivas, Brian O’Grady and Eguy Rosario.
Perhaps the best way to describe Mexican fans is “Vivir y morir jugando beisbol,” the title of Alfredo Harp Helú’s autobiography and the name of a burnished clay piece of art on the concourse of the stadium that bears his name.
The translation: “To live and die playing baseball.”
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This story was originally published April 26, 2026 at 4:53 PM.