Baseball began in Mexico in the second half of the 19th century, with the first recorded games played by American soldiers and sailors in various cities in the 1840s-1870s. The sport grew more popular due to cultural exchanges with the United States and Cuba through trade and travel. The Mexican Club, founded in Mexico City in 1887, was considered the oldest baseball team in Mexico.

1. BASEBALL
The Baseball in Mexico began in the second half of the XIX century, and in 1925
began the establishment of a professional league. This is according to recent
surveys the third most popular sport in Mexico.
Beginning
Several cities are vying for the distinction of having hosted the first baseball game
in Mexico:
Xalapa, Veracruz
It was probably in the Park "The Watercress" where, in late April 1847, American
invader army soldiers played the first baseball game in Mexico, using the prosthetic
leg ("wooden leg") of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna who had captured days earlier
at the Battle of Cerro Gordo.
Guaymas, Sonora
The story goes that in 1877 the American sailors who formed the crew of the
American ship Montana, visiting Guaymas, stepped on Mexican land and played a
baseball game between them. Other boats, like Newborne, did the same and soon
formed a baseball team in Guaymas.
Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
Being border with the state of Texas in the United States, during the construction of
the railway in the state of Tamaulipas, Johnny Tayson-an American who
supervised the works and new sport-practiced, began teaching among workers,
forming two baseball teams to be enfrentasen, also in 1877. At the border was
easy exchange and Mexican teams had the opportunity to play against American
teams.
Moreover, also in Yucatan soon the game was known because of its proximity to
Cuba. It counts as a fact that in 1890 reached Yucatan Spanish corvette Barcelona
in the family traveling Fernando Urzais. Among the toys of the children had a bat
and a baseball, sport and popular in Cuba and the boys practiced on arrival. On
the Yucatan Peninsula from Cuba arrived several clubs that were on tour.
Nuevo Leon is one of the entities that have claimed to be the original site of
baseball in Mexico, giving the date as July 4, 1889, during the construction of the
highway Monterrey-Tampico under the supervision of Treadwell Ayres Robertson,
who gave day off to their employees who started playing baseball in a field
adjacent to the railway works.

2. In Mexico City from 1887 the birth of the "Mexican Club" which is considered the
country's oldest team.
Question
- When did baseball start in Mexico?
- Why suddenly the game became known in Yucatan?
- What team was considered the oldest of Mexico?
- Reasons why Mexican teams had the opportunity to play with the
Americans?