Cinco de Mayo, Mariachis night and jersey giveaways: A repeated recipe for Isotopes success

Jersey giveaways, Cinco de Mayo and the Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico games at Isotopes Park continue to be music to the ears of diehard fans around New Mexico.

A year ago, a fortuitous calendar having the holiday land on a Friday, some beautiful New Mexico spring weather and the lure of another highly-anticipated Mariachis jersey giveaway led to the Isotopes’ 2023 Cinco de Mayo game drawing an announced crowd of 15,817 — the second highest-attended minor league baseball game in the country in 2023.

This year’s party at “The Plaza” — the temporary rebrand of the stadium’s nickname “The Lab” — again falls on a weekend (Sunday). It once again includes one of the franchise’s most anticipated giveaways of the year, meaning the team is expecting one of the largest crowds of the season.

“Our first first ever Mariachis game was on Cinco de Mayo back in 2018. And that’s when we had the largest crowd in franchise history — nearly 17,000 fans (16,975),” Isotopes general manager John Traub said.

“It was unbelievable. ... And then last year, we were home again on Cinco de Mayo and that marked the fifth anniversary of our very first (Mariachis) game. It’s really starting to become this tradition that has built momentum.”

Not a franchise known for resting on its laurels, the Isotopes went all-in on this year’s Cinco de Mayo game, which starts Sunday at 5:05 on 5/05 in the 505. The team lined up a pregame concert with Al Hurricane Jr., concocted a one-game-only dish called “Hurricane Fries,” and will have a new Cinco de Mayo line of merchandise available in the pro shop and online.

Isotopes players will be wearing their popular red- and green-chile pinstripe Mariachis jerseys as they take on the Round Rock “Chupacabras.” There will also be a postgame fireworks show, and mariachi music and dancers performing before and throughout the game.

Oh, and then there’s that jersey giveaway for the first 3,000 fans through the game.

This year, at the suggestion of Hurricane, known affectionately as “The Godson of New Mexico music,” the Isotopes decided to a fan giveaway of a jersey that actually looked like a traditional mariachis jacket.

In stepped Rebecca Zook, the team’s manager of digital and social media marketing, who has become the go-to jersey designer.

Not only did she design a black jersey with the customary decorative designs familiar to many mariachis outfits, but she worked in the team’s popular sugar skull mariachi logo throughout the design. Players’ numbers on the back are placed over an intricately designed guitar pick design.

“The look of our graphics and the design of these giveaway items, and things of that nature, it’s such an important thing,” Traub said. “We spend so much time during the offseason fine-tuning these giveaways and the concepts of what we want stuff to look like and she’s driving the bus on all that.”

While Zook is being mentioned here because of the jersey design, she is hardly the only one Traub praises at every opportunity for the success of events like Sunday, crediting his entire staff for how seriously they take the responsibility of making promotions both fun and respectful of the culture they represent.

“We all know baseball is America’s pastime and this (Mariachis de Nuevo Mexico promotion) is a great way to showcase it and celebrate it here in New Mexico — and bottom line, it’s just fun,” said Ernie C’de Baca, President of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce.

C’de Baca has consulted with the Isotopes since 2018 on Mariachis promotions.

Oh, and as for that jersey, it received the highest of marks on Tuesday from the man who came up with the idea.

“Oh, I love it,” Hurricane said. “They got it right, just like they always do.”