KC’s newest baseball team to play at Satchel Paige Memorial Stadium

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Hormigas are gearing up to play in next season’s Pecos League, they’ll be the newest addition to the independent baseball league and will play their home games at Satchel Paige Memorial Stadium .

“People will be impressed. I think this will be a destination in the Pecos league immediately,” said league director, Andrew Dunn.

“This will be different than anything you have. This isn’t the Royals, this isn’t the T-Bones, this isn’t the Monarchs, this isn’t anything. This is going to be something new.”

The name Hormigas means ants in Spanish. The team chose the Spanish name because most of the players will be coming from other professional baseball leagues in Mexico and Venezuela.

Dunn explained that they took in the players last year, after their leagues added more foreign players, cutting their local talent loose.

“There was nowhere to send their guys that they can play,” Dunn said.

“So, everybody kind of scrambled and we took a bunch of players last year. It really put a spark in the talent of our league, and I never thought it would come together in a place like this.”

Now, many of those players will be based in Kansas City, and local talent will join them on the field too.

Satchel Paige Memorial Stadium was first built in 1903, over 100 years later, the stadium will serve as the home for the Hormigas.

“This is going to be big for the kids that live around here,” said Parks and Recreation Director Chris Cotten.

“Not everyone can get to the Royals stadium or can get out to the Monarchs, so here we go. This is in walking distance from a lot of the neighborhoods around here,” he said.

The city plans to host high school games at the stadium, as well as the Hormigas and others.

Cotten hopes that it will make baseball more accessible to the communities surrounding the field.

“The private clubs are outpricing everything and everybody, but kids just don’t have access. So, let’s give them access,” he said.

“The Hormigas are really going to work with the kids.”

The team is holding open tryouts on Friday morning at 9 a.m. to fill up more roster spots and the Hormigas will play their first game in the stadium on June 1, 2025.

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