D-backs visit Mexico and president Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Feb 26, 2020, 1:40 PM | Updated: 2:10 pm
A contingent of Arizona Diamondbacks executives visited with Mexico president Andrés Manuel López Obrador while on a promotional tour for the team’s April regular season games.
President and CEO Derrick Hall, senior adviser and former player Luis Gonzalez and others met Wednesday with López Obrador in Mexico City.
“We are proud of our growing fan base across Mexico and really enjoyed our conversation with President López Obrador, who has made the growth of our sport an important part of his administration,” said Hall in a team release. “We want to be known as Mexico’s team and we always raise our hands when given the opportunity to play here, whether in Hermosillo, Monterrey or now Mexico City.”
Nos reunimos con Derrick Hall, director de los Diamondbacks de Arizona. Nos acompañaron Edgar González, Graham Rossini, Erubiel Durazo, Rodrigo López, Josh Rawitch, Miguel Valdés y Luis González, leyenda por batear el hit que dio el triunfo a Arizona en la Serie Mundial de 2001. pic.twitter.com/gK54OtoQAk
— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) February 26, 2020
Special Assistant on Mexico Erubiel Durazo, a former infielder for the D-backs, and Spanish-language broadcaster Rodrigo Lopez also were on the D-backs’ visit.
Arizona’s two-game series against the San Diego Padres on April 18-19 will mark the first-ever MLB regular season games played in Mexico City.
The games at Alfredo Harp Helu Stadium will be the first meetings between the National League West teams during the 2020 season, and the D-backs will debut their black Los D-backs uniforms for the series after Nike became the official outfitter of MLB this offseason.
It will be the 12th time Arizona has played in Mexico. Last season, the team played in Monterrey, Mexico, following 10 exhibition games in Hermosillo, Sonora, from 1998-2015.
The D-backs faced the Colorado Rockies in Monterrey last year, and played the Brewers (1998 and 1999), the Angels (2000), the Athletics (2001), the Padres (2002), the Royals (2003), the White Sox (2008), Team Mexico (2009) and the Rockies (2010 and 2015) in Hermosillo.
Arizona also flew to Australia and opened the 2014 MLB regular season against the Los Angeles Dodgers.