The Albuquerque Isotopes announced they will participate with the Copa de la Diversiόn promotion created by Minor League Baseball.
The promotion, which began last season with four teams and expanded to 33 for the 2018 season, is an initiative designed to celebrate Hispanic heritage in markets with significant Hispanic populations.
For four games this season, beginning on May 5, Cinco de Mayo, the Isotopes will become the Mariachis de Nuevo México. As part of this initiative, the teams will compete for the Copa de la Diversiόn, or Fun Cup.
“This initiative is designed to embrace an entire culture and to show our collective commitment to the immense Hispanic fan base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the southwest and, in fact, through the entire country,” Isotopes General Manager John Traub said. “The Hispanic influence on our game is prevalent. Last season alone, 30 percent of players on opening day rosters for the 30 Major League Baseball teams were born outside of the mainland United States, with the vast majority of these people coming from Spanish-speaking homelands.”
The Isotopes worked closely with the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, a longtime partner of the organization on this project, in order to develop the logo and branding of the Mariachis.
Hispano Chamber of Commerce Vice President Jim Garcia said the chamber has “enjoyed a fantastic relationship” with the team.
“This team never ceases to amaze me...The Hispano Chamber is proud to be a member in this gira de la copa, which means cup tour. We’re going to take this pretty seriously, I can tell you right now. We’re going to be doing a lot of extensive marketing with our partnership. We’re going to use all of our resources, because this is a great message for us,” Garcia said.
The Isotopes have picked one night per month to wear special uniforms and plan to turn the ballpark casually known as “The Lab” into “The Plaza” for the event, with traditional decorations, piñatas and mariachi bands playing throughout the ballpark. This will occur on May 5, June 26, July 20 and August 19.
Traub says he expects this promotion will appear again in future seasons and may expand to include more markets.
The Isotopes will play their home opener on April 10 against Las Vegas at 6:35 p.m.
Cameron Goeldner is a sports beat reporter and photographer for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer and softball but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
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