Fun + Pride = A Good Time in El Paso

It looked like rain, but it was the Round Rock Express
that really poured it on in El Paso on Thursday.

It was Margaritas night at Southwest University Park in downtown El Paso as the Chihuahuas began their six-game series with the Round Rock Express. That means the two teams are playing as their Copa de la Diversión (Fun Cup) counterparts, the Chihuahuas as Las Margaritas and the Express as the Chupacabras. It was also Pride night at the ballpark for double the fun, and a big crowd of 6,720 was on hand for the game, the largest I’ve seen at a minor league baseball game this season.

Southwest University Park gets its name through sponsorship, not from the school’s athletic program, which doesn’t exist. The stadium has about 7,500 seats, but it can hold up to 10,000 fans thanks to expansive concourses and many club and party areas. The stadium is situated on the site of the old city hall building that was torn down to make way despite some objections. Its architecture features several old-time references to help it blend in with some of the historic downtown buildings nearby.

A welcome sign outside the stadium appears to be superimposed on a photo,
but it's just a reflection of the El Paso Convention Center next door
on the highly polished marble plaque.

The entry gates lead to a stairway up to the wide concourse level with good views of the playing field and downtown skyline to the right, and an impressive view of Juarez across the Rio Grande in Mexico to the left. A welcome sight for me was a Bahama Buck’s in a row of concession stands a few steps in at the top of the staris. It was another hot day near 100 degrees and I was ready for some coconut flavored shaved ice. The Bahama Buck’s secret is a spinning machine that grinds a block of ice into an ultra-fine snow-like form that melts in your mouth.

Loaded nachos, not in a batting helmet, but a plastic dog bowl.
A new cap with a ball and cross bones. Look close to see where they've been chewed.

After cooling off, I headed for the Guest Services booth to see if they had starting lineup sheets. They did, but there were no full rosters available, and then came worse news. One of the woman noticed I was holding my ballpark passport.

She shook her head and said, “Don’t tell me you’re bringing that here to get it stamped.”

“No,” I explained, “I’m taking it to the team store for the stamp.”

Still shaking her head and, with a sad voice, she replied, “They don’t have it.”

Somehow the store had lost their stamp, which meant no validation for my visit to the stadium. I was ready to suggest that maybe someone could make a thumb print mark if they still had an inkpad. Then another woman chimed in, “Do you want a paw print?”

“Sure,” I said, thinking she was going to get some kind of sticker from the kids’ club booth next door. She came back with an inkpad and holding a rubber stamp of a dog’s paw. I told the rest of the crew that this meant Southwest University Park and the Chihuahuas’ page would stand out from all the others with this one-of-kind stamp.

Meanwhile, the group was impressed with my lanyard full of AAA ballpark pins and told me there were several to choose from at the team store. They also liked my Ninja Trash Panda t-shirt and I told them how I got it as a consolation gift because the Rocket City store in Alabama had no pins for sale.

Then the head-shaker asked the two women inside the booth, “Are there were any of the five-year pins left,” but they couldn’t find any. She took my name and seat number, I gave her my name, and went off to enjoy the game.

The El Paso Chihuahuas in their Margaritas uniforms before the game.

It was quite a game, maybe my first in the Copa de la Diversión series. The Copa promotion is a way for minor league teams to reach out to their local Hispanic/Latino communities by adopting Spanish names and wearing alternative uniforms. The program began in 2017 with four teams, grew to 33 teams in 2018, and 72 teams in 2019. Participation reached 92 teams for 2020 before the season was cancelled because of the corona virus pandemic. Then, after Major League Baseball took over the minor leagues and eliminated 43 affiliations, it left 76 teams out of 120 total with Copa alter egos.

I didn’t realize that both teams would be representing their Copa identities, the Chihuahuas in a blinding yellow-green uniform and the Express in Jerseys with a big Chupacabra logo on the front. I’m not going to try to explain what a chupacabra is, but it’s worth looking up. The Margaritas promotion was coupled with a special price on actual margaritas and a 10 percent discount on any Las Margarita items in the team store.

Did it make the game fun? Well, maybe not for the Chihuahuas. Everything started out fine with El Paso taking the lead on 5 runs in the 3rd, but from that point on, the visitors from Round Rock scored in every inning. They piled it on in the 6th when Leody Taveras hit one out of the park after the Express loaded the bases on a scary beaning that knocked the helmet clear off Ryan Dorow’s head and two walks. That was 4 runs on the only hit of the inning for the Express. By the time it was over, after almost four hours, the two teams had scored a total of 23 runs on 32 hits. Final: Round Rock Chupacabras 18, El Paso Margaritas 7.

Many of the fans had left already, but as the rest of them wandered out, I finished a few final notes in my passport book. Then I heard my name and looked up.

“Are you Donald Parsons?” Standing beside me was another guest services staffer, one I hadn’t seen before. “I was asked to give you this,” he said as he handed me a tiny plastic package. Inside was the 5-year pin, the one they couldn’t find earlier. Yeah, it was another good night back at the ballpark.