March 14, 2009 [LINK / comment]

Foro Sol: oddity in Mexico City

I mentioned on Feb. 7 that I have already made diagrams for all of the stadiums that will host WBC games this year, except for the one in Mexico City. Well, guess what? As of today, there is a new diagram (and page) for Foro Sol Foro Sol, which has been home of the Mexican Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) since 2000.

Foro Sol is certainly a weird place to play baseball, because of the odd configuration of the grandstand. There is a big gap in it near third base, and I used to think that the left field grandstand moved to fill that gap when baseball was not played there, but that is apparently not the case. Ironically, the Red Devils used to play in a very nice baseball stadium: Parque Deportivo Seguro Social. (That means "Social Security Sports Park.") The older ballpark opened in 1955, with a seating capacity of 30,000. It was located straight south of downtown Mexico City, and unbeknownst to me, it was demolished in 2003. (D'oh!!! camera) As I was researching the history of Foro Sol and its predecessor, I came across some wonderful photos of Mexico City's older baseball stadium at flickr.com.

WBC Round Two

The four teams that made it to Pool 2 play later today at Dolphin Stadium in Miami: Netherlands vs. Venezuela, and United States vs. Puerto Rico. Tomorrow the Pool 1 games begin at PETCO Park in San Diego: Japan vs. Cuba, and Mexico vs. Korea.

COMMENT by: Chris Knight, of Kansas City, KS on Mar 14, 2009 17:25 PM
The deal about the gap as I saw noted in the page is for the Road Course of Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez which is a multi purpose Race Facility mainly used as a Road Course. (The Facility has the oval you mentioned and is sometimes used for 1/4 mile drag races) There is a Dogleg section of the track that uses the stadium and was used by The Old Champ Car World Series Until 2005. Their 2006 and 2007 Races there didn't use that section of track. A Layout of the CCWS Diagram is here at http://www.libreacceso.org/mov-turismo-autodromo.html and the Google maps of the location shows the track going through it: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=19.405137,-99.095417&z=17&t=h&hl=en Simply put this is a much different take of a Multi-Purpose Stadium.

COMMENT by: Andrew Clem, of Staunton, VA on Mar 18, 2009 20:10 PM
Chris, thanks for that great tip. I knew about the racetrack that encircles Foro Sol, but couldn't figure out what that wide dirt track that goes from third base to center field was. I thought maybe it had something to do with one of the concerts. I wonder if the auto racing events overlap with baseball season? Multi-purpose indeed!

COMMENT by: Andrew Clem, of Staunton, VA on Mar 18, 2009 20:45 PM
Dave Sweeney found a video of that 2005 race going right through Foro Sol, but only with a few glimpses of the stadium itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4XI-JA8SxA