The Tijuana Cimarrones were a professional independent baseball franchise based in

Tijuana, Baja California Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most pop ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. They were originally a minor league baseball team in

Liga Mexicana de Béisbol The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

(Mexican Baseball League), but joined the

Golden Baseball League The Golden Baseball League was an independent baseball league based in San Ramon, California, with teams located in the Western United States, Western Canada and northwest Mexico. The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the org ...

as an expansion team in 2009. The team started play at Estadio Nacional de Tijuana (Tijuana National Stadium) in 2010, which was the last year of play for the Golden Baseball League. In 2011, the Golden League and two others consolidated to form the North American League, but the Cimarrones did not participate in that league. The Tijuana Embajadores was a proposed team from Tijuana that had at one time been scheduled to participate in the North American League (NAL), but that team also failed to start the season with the NAL.

History

Liga Mexicana de Beisbol

The team was originally known as the Tijuana Potros. Los

Potros de Tijuana The Potros de Tijuana (English: Tijuana Colts) were a professional baseball team based in Tijuana, Baja California. The Potros played in the Mexican Pacific League and later in the Mexican League. The team played their home games at the Estadio N ...

(Spanish for Tijuana Colts) originally played in the

(Mexican Baseball League). They played their home games at Estadio Nacional de Tijuana (Tijuana National Stadium) from 2005 to 2008. The franchise started as a Double-A team that played until 1991 when they folded. This team actually was a descendant of the Triple-A Los Toros de Tijuana (Tijuana Toros) before the Mexican League reportedly to have stripped the Toros owner of his franchise and gave it to new owners who renamed that team the Tijuana Potros after the original Double-A team that folded in 1991. The Toros ownership kept the team name, logo, uniforms and history as a result of the alleged political wrangling that went on in that league.

Golden Baseball League

The Golden Baseball League had originally planned on bringing the Tijuana Toros in as one of the charter teams, but that plan was dropped as a stadium agreement could not be reached between the Toros and Estadio Nacional de Tijuana. They had been playing in the Mexican League since 2005, but on December 15, 2008, the GBL signed a letter of intent to bring an expansion franchise to Tijuana after the 2008

Mexican League The Mexican Baseball League (, or LMB, ) is a professional baseball league in Mexico. It is the oldest running professional sports league in the country. The league has 20 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games ...

franchise was disbanded and relocated to

Reynosa, Tamaulipas Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico which also holds the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAlle ...

. On January 13, 2009, the league officially welcome the Potros. They would join fellow expansion teams, the

Tucson Toros The Tucson Toros were a professional baseball team based in Tucson, Arizona, in the United States. The original Toros were a Triple-A minor league baseball team in the Pacific Coast League from 1969 to 1997, where they won the PCL Championship in ...

and

Victoria Seals The Victoria Seals were a professional baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Seals were a member of the North Division of the independent Golden Baseball League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball (MLB) o ...

. On May 7, 2009, the GBL announced the postponement of the Potros' inaugural season until 2010 due to Mexico's swine flu outbreak and the subsequent health risk and precautionary measures that resulted from it. Before the season was cancelled, the 2009 Potros had three

Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame The Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Mexicano (in English, Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame), commonly called the Salón de la Fama (Hall of Fame) is a baseball hall of fame and museum located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, inaugurated on 10 ...

members on the coaching staff including Manager Mario Mendoza, Pitching Coach José Peña, and Bench Coach Jorge Fitch.

Name change

There were rumors floating around that the team is now being called the "Tijuana Cimarrones". These rumors were confirmed with the launching of the team's website, which was subsequently taken down. A "cimarron" may be many things - a wild or un-tamed animal; a rough or uncouth individual; a runaway slave (in Cuba & Latin America - see "El Ultimo Cimarron" by Miguel Barnet); or a fruit-topped snow cone (in Sonora, MX). In the

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

(late 19th century western US) the Spanish word "cimarron" was used to describe a wild horse, wild cowboy-drifter, or a renegade Indian (i.e. Native American). Since the team is probably not named for snow cones or runaway slaves - and was formerly known as Los Potros (The Colts) - the most suitable translation would seem to be "The Wild Horses" or "The Wild Bunch." Due to not being able to maintain financial obligations with the stadium, the league took over the team and they played their remaining home games at the Ray Kroc Baseball Complex in

Yuma, Arizona Yuma is a city in and the county seat of Yuma County, Arizona, United States. The city's population was 95,548 at the 2020 census, up from the 2010 census population of 93,064. Yuma is the principal city of the Yuma, Arizona, Metropolitan ...

. After the season ended, the team became inactive.

References

External links