PRESEASON TOURNAMENT BEING PLAYED IN TIJUANA

Winter league baseball has returned to Tijuana, if only for one weekend. The border city is hosting a Beisbol Fest this weekend featuring four Mexican Pacific League teams at 18,000-seat Estadio Calimax.

The Beisbol Fest was slated to open Thursday, October 1 with a doubleheader as the Culiacan Tomateros were to play the Obregon Yaquis in the opener, followed by a nightcap contest between the Hermosillo Naranjeros and the Mexicali Aguilas. The four teams were scheduled to play a three-day round robin.

After the Mexican League’s Tijuana Potros moved to Reynosa following the 2008 season, a franchise in the independent Golden Baseball League was awarded to Tijuana for 2009, but the swine flu outbreak in Mexico earlier this year pushed back the team’s first season to 2010. A recent story announced a Golden League expansion team in Hawaii made no mention of a team in Tijuana for 2010, stating the new Maui club would play home games against teams “from Canada, California, Arizona and Utah.”

Tijuana is a past member of the Mexican Pacific League, and won pennants in 1988 and 1991.