Not MLB related but thought it fit for baseball offseason. Went to the Puerta Vallarta Delfines (Dolphins) baseball game yesterday on vacation. They play in the Nayarit winter league, which is roughly the 3rd tier of Mexican pro ball. Semi-pro, but I was surprised by the quality of the game. Tickets were 50 pesos (~$3) for adults, kids were free. General admission, and we sat third row behind home plate as we arrived at the start time. It didn't really fill up until the 3rd/4th inning.
I don't think they have a website - i found out about it by searching Facebook. It was a family friendly crowd - average per person was probably at least 3 beers but nobody was out of control and the neighbourhood was safe (could walk from the Sheraton). I'd highly recommend it.
The pitching was quite good - all the pitchers had good fastball velocity and decent control on the fastball. The Delfines starter also had good command and threw a change up that visibly fooled the hitters - he used it as a strikeout pitch. The opposing pitcher threw harder, but his main breaking weapon was a curveball that he couldn't really control, and it wasn't effective for him. His fastball was tough for the hitters as it was fast.
I thought the pitching was excellent, the hitting was good/ok, but defense definitely had holes - a couple of misjudged fly balls in the OF and the delfines 3B missed two balls in a row. Granted one bounced off the base but he probably should have charged it.
There was a few weird things like that - including one play where the 2B dropped (on purpose, I think) a routine pop up and they turned a double play with a runner on first. Argument for the infield fly rule to apply with 1 on base.
The fences were 305ft to the corners and 350ft to centre. On lefty on the visiting team hit a fly ball to the track at the right field pole. Must have been a known pull hitter as the RF was playing nearly on the line and made the catch easily. Same guy hit one over the fence but foul earlier.
Anyway, i enjoyed it a lot and it was a great local/authentic thing to do. The tickets were cheap, and we had a great meal at Kosta Taco across the street. Probably the highlight of the whole trip, imo, but with almost no information out there I thought I'd add this in case anyone is interested on a future trip. I think the season is roughly Oct-mid Jan.
My younger (non-baseball loving) son said the highlight was the fresh roasted nuts. At 15 pesos (~$1) he got quite a few packets.
