It’s a Sunday afternoon at PK Park – home of the Eugene Emeralds baseball team and the Oregon Ducks. Music by local Latinx artists permeates the entire stadium hours before the first pitch is thrown. Up the stairs and around the field, long lines have begun to form in front of food trucks and concession stands stocked with Hispanic foods. Through them, local Latinx organizations have set up stands to promote their cause.
For the national anthem, a mariachi band stands behind home plate and plays “The Star Spangled Banner.” As the song ends, the crowd begins to cheer, and the Monarcas run out in their specialized uniforms and begin warming up for the game. On the video board, a graphic of the monarch logo dances on the screen in sync with the music.
Although baseball is considered America’s pastime, the sport is extremely popular in Latin countries. Thirty-two percent of all major league players are Hispanic, and that percentage continues to grow each season. As these numbers are growing, fans are beginning to contribute to the sport’s growing popularity among these Latino athletes.
“The baseball landscape would look very different without the input of Latino countries,” said Candace Dotte, an advocate for Minor League Baseball. “We’ve been able to witness the talents of Roberto Clemente, Sammy Sosa, David Ortiz, and even the Giants’ Juan Marichal. With just over 30% of players coming from Latin American countries, they rank second in demographics .”
These athletes have built a strong following, especially fans from their home countries. A 2017 ESPN Sports Poll report found that more than 18.2 million Hispanic/Latino American individuals identify themselves as MiLB fans or 17.2 percent of MiLB’s overall self-identified fan base.
With a strong Hispanic following, Minor League Baseball launched Es Divertido Ser Un Fan (It’s Fun to Be a Fan) in 2017. It is a multicultural fan engagement platform aimed at connecting with Hispanic/Latinx fans.
The Eugene Emeralds, a senior affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, joined the initiative in 2018 when MiLB took it a step further and announced the Copa de la Diversión (Cup of Fun). It is a season-long series of events that embraces the cultures and values of the participating teams’ local Hispanic communities.
“Monarcas de Eugene provides us with a wonderful opportunity to further provide a safe and inclusive environment for everyone in our local community,” said Patrick Zajac, Director of Promotions and Partnerships for the Eugene Emeralds. “Rather than just doing Latino heritage nights, we feel that committing to hosting Monarcas games every Sunday shows that we’re committed to that all-encompassing effort, making sure that we don’t just wear different jerseys and hats, but to incorporate Latin influences into the food, music and PA announcements throughout the park. This really creates a unique experience outside of our traditional Emeralds games.”
What makes the night so special are the uniforms the players wear in Sunday’s home games. These jerseys stand out because of their unique logo that captures the Hispanic culture in Eugene.
The Monarch butterfly is a symbol of migration. Inside the butterfly, there are 33 dots spread around the wings to represent the 33 different Latin countries.
Within the upper part of the wings, the Three Sisters, a cascading range in the Willamette and Deschutes National Forest, are shown. Above the drawing of the mountains is a symbol of Oregon Bridges to represent the connecting and building roots.
Around the butterfly’s chest, a Nahui Ollin, a concept in Aztec cosmology, is placed to remind everyone to “move and act wholeheartedly; be all in.” On the lower half of the monarch are hieroglyphs portraying the sun, moon, Oregon’s green forests, and roads traveled.
“We reached out to the Latino community and created a focus group consisting of local business leaders, Latino elders, high school students and Mayor Lucy Vinis,” Zajac said. “From there, we asked them questions about what they wanted to see from the name and logo and went from there, incorporating multiple pieces of different stories into the logo.”
The influence of Latin countries on baseball is unmatched. Many current and former Major League Baseball superstars are of Hispanic descent, and each of those athletes went through various levels of the farm system. If MLB wants the game to grow and evolve, embracing Latino culture is essential, and it all starts at the minor league level.
