The Little Giants of Monterrey

When I look at the game of baseball, I don’t see black-and-white newsreels of white players from the ’50s, I see Latino ballplayers and Latino fans, here and now. Seeing accents on the backs of jerseys, Latino-inspired food at stadiums and hearing Latin music played during walk-ups evokes a real sense of pride.

As a Mexican-American living in the United States, I have a lot of pride in Mexico — my family’s homeland. From the national soccer team to cultural and religious traditions, la sangre azteca runs deep within me.

Although there aren’t a lot of Mexicans or Mexican-Americans currently on Major League Baseball rosters, the ones that are there represent El Tri well: Sergio Romo, Adrián González and Yovani Gallardo, to name just a few. During global sporting events like the Olympics, World Baseball Classic, World Cup and the Little League World Series, Team Mexico always holds a special place in my heart and earns an inner standing ovation from me.

And though many fans recall the fervor of Fernandomanía in 1980s when Valenzuela came up with the Los Angeles Dodgers, there is an earlier group of Mexican players whose achievement we take pride in as people of Mexican ancestry.

That story takes us to lesser-known ballparks and a much younger group of players whose accomplishments remain compelling even as years go by. Adding to that is the fact that, in many ways, the story of the 1957 Industrial Little League of Monterrey is one familiar to many Mexicans; it is the story of our parents, of our tíos and tías, of our grandparents.

On the biggest stage the Monterrey team ever played on, it not only won each of its contests, but took the championship game in rare fashion: With an Angel on the mound — the aptly named Ángel Macías — Mexico captured the 1957 LLWS title with a perfect game.

This week, on the 60th anniversary of his historic game, Macías is back in Williamsport, Pa., to savor those golden memories and be inducted into the Little League Hall of Excellence, an honor only two other Latinos have earned: his teammate on that Little League team, José “Pepe” Maíz García; and former New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

“Even today, people remember us and that world championship,” Macías, now 72, told ESPN this week.

Turning Back the Clock

The LLWS kicked off last week with great fanfare, many mascots and 16 teams, including eight international entries. And for the first time, the event featured an official regular season game, the MLB Little League Classic, with the Pittsburgh Pirates beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-3, at BB&T Ballpark in Williamsport.

But imagine the LLWS 60 years ago, when life — at least on TV and in newspapers — was viewed in black and white. When folks traveled mainly by bus or train. If they flew, it was by turboprop, not jets. To put it in a baseball context, everyone was still using wooden bats. And only four teams advanced all the way to Williamsport via single-elimination tournaments.

The Mexican kids entered the tournament with little knowledge of what to do or where to go. Monterrey had received its Little League franchise only a year earlier. The players came from mostly poor families, played in fields with broken glass and practiced with homemade gloves and equipment.

The Little Giants

This team averaged 4-foot-11. They were outweighed by at least 35 pounds. But you couldn’t measure their hearts and souls. Overcoming adversity almost from the start, the kids from Monterrey were dubbed Los pequeños gigantes — The Little Giants.

Before their first game, Monterrey had to walk across the bridge over the Río Grande from the Mexican border city of Reynosa toward McAllen, Texas, to play in a U.S. subregional tournament. The team swept through that bracket and the ensuing Texas state tournament, defeating teams from Mexico City and Houston. In the Southern Regional, Monterrey unleashed its bats on Biloxi, Miss., 13-0, and Owensboro, Kentucky, 3-0, to clinch the trip to Williamsport.

The players’ visas expired during their stay in the United States, as no one expected them to last past one game. The U.S. ambassador to Mexico intervened to keep them in the country, allowing them to keep playing — and winning.

Their time in the U.S. was a challenge for them. They were young and away from their families and didn’t have a lot of money for food, sometimes going without meals.

“We had a tough time. We had two meals a day for many days because we had no money to eat. At that time, it was one game and you were out,” said Maíz García, a pitcher and left fielder who today at age 73 owns a successful construction company and the Triple-A Mexican League Monterrey Sultans.

It was through the kindness of strangers who fed them and supported them financially that they kept going. After their victorious regionals run, homesick and with little money, they were on their way to Pennsylvania to compete in the four-team final round.

More than Good — Perfect

In the semifinals, Monterrey defeated a team from Connecticut, 2-1, to face La Mesa from California in the title game. The kids who had been away from home for weeks, who literally walked across the border to their first Little League regional tournament, then did what had never been done before.

In Macías, Monterrey had the advantage of a pitcher who could throw both left- and right-handed. Not only that, but he was seemingly unflappable. Throwing right-handed for the final, Angel was masterful, winning 4-0, to this day the only perfect game recorded in a LLWS championship game.

“Let me tell you how perfect was his game,” Maíz García said. “Not one ball was hit to the outfield. I was the left fielder and I could have gone to sleep out there. No ball was hit to the left fielder, the center fielder or the right fielder. Eleven strikeouts and seven pop-ups or groundballs in the infield. Not one ball to the outfield.”

The victory was huge for Los pequeños gigantes and for Mexicans everywhere. Their participation that year remains a wonderful source of inspiration. Not only were they the first team outside of the U.S. and Canada to reach the LLWS, they became the first international squad to win it all.

“It was a beautiful moment,” Macías said. “One that everyone of us on the team fully enjoyed. We jumped up and down, leaped and ran around, putting on a whole show because we had just won a world championship that we never imagined we could win.”

After their win, the Mexican players traveled to New York City to watch the Brooklyn Dodgers, and to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Dwight Eisenhower. When they arrived home in Mexico, they were greeted with a hero’s welcome in both Mexico City and Monterrey.

To me, Mexico’s first LLWS championship, 60 years later, is still a symbol of Mexican resilience and pride. In 2008, then-President George W. Bush acknowledged Macías and his teammates at a White House event. Two films have been made about the team, including “The Perfect Game,” in 2009 featuring Cheech Marín.

More currently, at a time when President Donald Trump has portrayed Mexicans as criminals, rapists and drug dealers, it’s the stories and accomplishments like those of the 1957 Monterrey team that remind me of the incredible contributions Mexicans have made, to not only the game of baseball, but to this country.

Featured Image: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Team Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Other Inset Images: Charlie Vascellaro