1957 Little League Baseball® World Series Champion,
The only perfect game in the minor league world league
The Monterrey Industrials The Monterrey Industrials started in 1956, when Monterrey was one of the largest cities in Mexico. The Small Industries Alliance was established in Monterrey. Four teams from different factories formed this alliance of small industries: Boteleros, Minos, Tubitos and Inca. This alliance is for the employees of the factory, except for Inca, a cotton trading company, they don't employ children.
In 1956, Monterey tried out for a youth team representing the city. Coach Cesar Faz — who has a meticulous approach to perfecting his moves and an extraordinary way to inspire youth baseball teams — recruited these kids.
In 1957, after two victories in two exhibition games against Salinas de Hidalgo in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, the Monterreys embarked on a minor league trip to the United States.
Many of these children are members of low-income families who have a job need to raise money for the team's first overseas game. Trekking across the northern border of Mexico, from Reynosa to McAllen, Texas, the entire team traveled for miles trying to reach their destination.
Most of the Monterey Industries kids are too young, averaging 4-foot-11, a foot shorter than the rest of the team, to wear any of the uniforms provided by the minor leagues, so the team wears the front of the jersey with " Monterey" home uniform. In fact, before the team entered the U.S. tournament two weeks ago, their average weight was 80 pounds, 30 pounds lighter than the rest of the team. When the World Series really started, many on the Mexican team gained 10 to 15 pounds each. "We just play with them, we don't have to carry them," said first base Ricardo Trevino when asked by reporters if he was concerned about America's older kids.
Originally just hoping to play one game in McAllen, Texas, Monterrey Industrial LL's championship run into Williamsport has turned into a 12-game winning streak. At the time, the tournament format continued from the district tournament all the way to the World Series, with losing teams eliminated at any time. At that time, Mexico hadn't made a direct entry to the Minor League Baseball World Series, so the team had to play in the Texas State Championship and the Southern Regional Championship. But they kept winning, and every time they won, they relied on strangers to help them through the racist South. Receiver Norberto Villarreal had never slept in bed before leaving Monterey to chase the title.
In the end, the scrawny player overcame the odds and became the first foreign team to win the minor league World Series. A year later, the Industrials became the first team to win the Minor League World Series two years in a row, having won in both 1957 and 1958.
US President Dwight Eisenhower invited the Monterey team to the White House. They also met future presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon
1957 Minor League Baseball® World Series Champion Angel Macias Named a Minor League® Award of Excellence
After the minor leagues, Mr. Macias went on to sign with the Los Angeles Angels, where he served as an outfielder for two years before returning to Mexico for 12 years in the Mexican League.
His "perfect game" remains the only game in the Minor League World Series Championship game.
As a member of the first Mexican team to play and subsequently win the Minor League World Series, Mr. Macias is in a position to help Mexican youth baseball develop to new heights. He and his teammate on that championship team, Jose "Pepe" Maiz Garcia, are active volunteers promoting and helping the Monterey minor leagues. Until his retirement, Mr. Macias was the dean of the Mexican Baseball Academy.
Eight years after Angel, Sandy Koufax is finally playing his own perfect game.
Jose "Pepe" Maiz also played in the 1959 Colt League World Championship (batting) and the 1961 Colt League World Series, and was drafted by the New York Giants, and then in Monterey Institute of Technology and Higher Education earned a business degree and worked for his father's construction company, which built and owned Monterey's 35,000-seat baseball stadium. Since the death of Elder Metz in 2006, he has served as the head of the company. Purchased the Sultanes in 1986 and was drafted into the Mexican baseball team Salon de la Fama in 2002. He also served as the director of Mexican minor league baseball in 2008 and 2009.
Enrique Suarez Enrique Suarez received a lifetime scholarship but left school after tenth grade. He had to work to make a living.
The original 1957 Monterey Industrial Minor League had 14 players and 2 coaches, Don César L. Faz and José Gonzales.
In 2008, Don César L. Faz (1918-2017) and Maria celebrated their 50th anniversary.
In the opening credits, the angry man showing the potted plants damaged by the boy's firecrackers is director William Dear. Also, he was the man who climbed the ladder with the speaker at Monterey Church.
The black uncle Cool Papa Bell in that stadium is called James Thomas who played for the Kansas City Monarchs. But the episode where cool dad Bell's character and Biloxi pitcher telegraph pitches isn't in the books.
World-famous clown Emmett Kelly, on loan from the Brooklyn Dodgers rooklyn Dodgers, drew crowds between innings in the 1957 World Series.
The heavily used black and white footage is from Lospequeños gigantes (1960) ("Little Giants"). This is a documentary about the team made in 1960.
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