A relatively new ballpark, the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium was inaugurated on 23 March 2019, with an exhibition game between the home team Diablos Rojos del Mexico, and the San Diego Padres.
The game was attended by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who is a huge baseball fan, and it was the first time since1947 that a Mexican President had thrown the first pitch in a professional game. The Padres won that game 11–2 with the team’s Michael Gettys scoring the first home run at the park, and the homers have continued to add up ever since.
If we were to talk about ballparks favored for home runs in the MLB, the discussion would nearly always center around Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies; however, in Latin America, Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium is the one to watch and with good reason.
The home of los Diablos Rojos of the Mexican Baseball League will for a second year in a row, host an MLB regular season series with the Houston Astros playing against the Rockies as guests. This MLB Mexico City Series is part of the MLB World Tour which started with spring training games in the Dominican RepublicSeries (Red Sox -Rays), regular season opening games in Korea during the Seoul Series (Dodgers-Padres) and will be followed in June with the London Series (Mets-Phillies).
But what is the key from the Mexico City diamond for the ball to constantly fly over the fence?
MLB Mexico City Series: The Harp Helú, a true HR fest
The mile-high city of Denver is well known for being a place where home runs trend, with Coors Field at 5,279 feet above sea level. By comparison, the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium is exceptionally high at 7,349 feet of elevation.
The higher the altitude, consequently the thinner the air becomes, greatly favoring ball elevation and hitters frequently clearing those fences as a result.
When the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants staged a home run fest in the first Mexico City Series match-up last year with 11 homers from 10 different players (tying the MLB record for highest number of homers from the most number of players in a game), it only further proved the point.
T-7th:
LaMonte Wade Jr, April 29 @ SD (Mexico City)
Pitcher: Joe Musgrove
474 feet pic.twitter.com/TkjSSs49tn https://t.co/stxxXAQvTq— MLB HR Videos (@MLBHRVideos) November 6, 2023
Of the hundreds of home runs hit during the 2023 season, three of the 10 longest home runs were hit at Coors Field, while the seventh longest (474 feet) was hit by the Giants’ LaMonte Wade Jr., at the Alfredo Harp Helú Stadium in one of the only two MLB games played at the stadium.
It would be reasonable to expect that in this second Mexico City series edition, the outcome will be similar or exceed those figures; so get ready to enjoy another slugfest when the Astros and the Rockies meet on April 27 and 28.
