3 things MLB needs to change the next time they play in Mexico City

The SF Giants and San Diego Padres had an exciting series in Mexico City over the weekend, but there were a few things MLB should correct going forward.

The SF Giants were swept by the San Diego Padres in Mexico City, Mexico over the weekend, but the trip was an undeniable success for MLB. Players on both teams appeared to have a great time experiencing the city and the environment at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú was memorable. MLB will surely consider returning to Mexico City in the coming years, but there are a few things the league needs to change the next time they schedule regular-season games in Mexico City.

1. Juice the humidor

Everyone knew going into this series that home runs would be abnormally common. Fly balls go further at higher altitudes and Mexico City is nearly than 7,350 feet above sea level. For comparison, Denver, Colorado-home of the Coors Field launching pad-is less than 5,300 feet above sea level. Yet, for some reason, MLB chose to have game balls prepared in a humidor at sea-level settings. A person who traveled with the Giants told The San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser that it was a "joke" for the humidor to be on such settings and it's hard to disagree. There's a case to be made that MLB should experiment with even more dramatic settings, but at the very least they can make sure the baseballs are no more favorable to hitters than the ones used in Rockies home games.

I learned after the game that the humidor here is NOT set at Colorado levels or lower. It’s set at the same 70 degrees and 57 percent humidity as the 29 not-Colorado parks. “That’s a joke,” one member of the Giants traveling party said.

— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) April 30, 2023

2. Off days on each end of the series

MLB got half of this one right, giving both teams an off day prior to the two-game series. And, to be fair to the league, they gave both team an extra spot on their active roster to add an extra pitcher if they wanted. Perhaps that would have been enough if the humidors had been going at full blast, but given how both teams churned through pitchers after the series was probably necessary.

There's obviously a trade-off to this since both teams would end up losing an off day elsewhere in their schedule. Maybe the compromise is putting the off day at the end of the series, maybe it takes a doubleheader, but either way, there probably is some improvement to be made. Neither team feels great about the state of their pitching staff coming out of the two-game series, and it could have been much worse if not for a pair of impressive starts on Sunday.

3. Leave the U.S. anthem at the border

I've been quite critical of the anthem, and its involvement at sporting events over the years, but I think plenty of folks with different political beliefs still felt weird watching the American flag display on the scoreboard at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú during the U.S. national anthem in Mexico City. Even if you enjoy hearing the U.S. anthem prior to a game, there's something confusing about MLB, a league that advertises itself as international, playing the U.S. anthem in another country.

MLB has done this for years in Canada with the Montreal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays, and there probably was never any consideration for removing the U.S. anthem from the pregame festivities. However, there's an added dynamic to the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico that makes obligatory American patriotism have an even more disturbing feel.

Beyond the Mexican-American War and the U.S. subsequent unjustified conquest of a massive portion of Mexico, the U.S. has actively subjugated Mexico and Mexican people for centuries. The lynchings of Mexican-Americans in the decades following the war, the exploitation of traqueros (Mexican immigrant laborers who played a pivotal part in railroad expansion to the Western U.S.) and agriculture workers, involvement in empowering elites during the 20th-century Mexican Revolution, constant economic pressures to limit Mexican autonomy, and heinous treatment of Mexican immigrants outline some of the most notable ways the U.S. has directly harmed people throughout the Mexican diaspora and the country itself.

If MLB's aim is to connect with people in other countries and draw them to the sport/league, they need to recognize that the U.S. is not a globally beloved figure. Polling has found more than a third of Mexican people believe closer relations with the U.S. would harm the country. Leaving the anthem at the border would barely be noticed, and would be entirely justified in the context of games in Mexico, but it would also be a powerful step towards MLB embracing internationality.