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2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros Season Recap - Darrell Carrillo Convinces the Pecos League to Give Las Cruces One More Chance
The 2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros season was built around one last belief that professional summer baseball could work in Las Cruces. Darrell Carrillo believed it.
Carrillo had long been one of the central baseball figures in the Las Cruces area. He had coached and developed players locally and had deep connections throughout the city's baseball community. In 2014, he managed the White Sands Pupfish in Alamogordo and came away believing that Las Cruces deserved another chance to support professional baseball.
The Vaqueros had not played in Las Cruces since 2012. That final team had gone 42-28, reached the Pecos League Championship Series and still failed to generate the attendance and sponsorship support necessary to convince the league that the market was sustainable. Two years later, Carrillo believed the formula had simply been wrong.
He believed Las Cruces could support professional baseball if the team became more connected to the community, operated more locally and created an affordable summer baseball alternative. Carrillo believed the previous Vaqueros had expected the community to support them without doing enough for the community in return. He believed a different approach could produce a different result.
Andrew Dunn agreed to give Las Cruces one more shot.
The Vaqueros returned to Apodaca Park for 2015 with a new identity and Darrell Carrillo as field manager. At the same time, the Pecos League made another important expansion move by adding the Garden City Wind in western Kansas.
The contrast between those two markets would eventually become impossible to ignore. Garden City struggled on the field in its first season, but the market showed enough support to continue and eventually developed into one of the Pecos League's strongest long-term communities. Las Cruces went in the opposite direction.
By the end of 2015, Carrillo, Dunn and the people around the Vaqueros had reached the same conclusion the league had reached after 2012. Las Cruces was not going to support a summer professional baseball team at the level necessary to make the operation work.
The city's baseball energy was going elsewhere. Local high school baseball mattered. New Mexico State athletics mattered. Youth and school baseball mattered. The Vaqueros did not.
After one final attempt in 2015, professional summer baseball in Las Cruces was finished again.
Darrell Carrillo Believed Las Cruces Could Work
Few people had a stronger connection to baseball in Las Cruces than Darrell Carrillo. He was not an outsider arriving in town and trying to learn the market. He already understood the local baseball community and had spent years coaching and developing players in the area.
That local background was exactly why Carrillo believed another Vaqueros attempt could succeed. The original Vaqueros had played from 2010 through 2012. Those seasons produced good players and, in 2012, a championship-caliber team. But the organization never developed enough lasting support from the Las Cruces community.
Carrillo believed the problem had been the formula rather than the city itself. He wanted the new Vaqueros to become more involved locally. He wanted affordable tickets. He wanted players and staff interacting with the community. He wanted businesses to see the Vaqueros as a Las Cruces organization rather than simply another independent baseball operation using Apodaca Park.
He believed that with the right formula, attendance could grow and Las Cruces could become a great Pecos League franchise. Andrew Dunn was willing to find out one final time.
The Vaqueros Return After Two Years Away
The 2015 season represented a revival of a franchise that had been dormant for two summers. The original Pecos League Vaqueros had gone 35-32 in 2011 and 42-28 in 2012.
The 2012 team had been particularly impressive. Casey Dill built a championship-caliber club that reached the Pecos League Finals before losing to Alpine. Yet even that level of baseball had not produced enough support to keep the team active.
The Vaqueros disappeared for 2013 and 2014. Carrillo's push brought them back.
This was not supposed to be simply a repeat of 2010 through 2012. This was supposed to be the corrected version.
A New Identity for the Final Vaqueros Team
The returning Vaqueros received a refreshed identity intended to reconnect the team with Las Cruces. The organization wanted the club to feel local, recognizable and connected to the community.
Everything surrounding the return suggested optimism. There was a local manager, a rebuilt brand, an established league and nearby rivals in White Sands, Roswell and Alpine.
There was one final opportunity to prove that professional baseball belonged in Las Cruces.
The Pecos League Was Stronger Than It Had Been
One of Carrillo's arguments for bringing the Vaqueros back was that the Pecos League itself had improved substantially. The league was no longer the experimental operation it had been in 2011.
Players were moving from the Pecos League into higher independent leagues and affiliated baseball. The league had established recognizable franchises in places such as Roswell, Alpine, Santa Fe and Alamogordo. The level of play had improved, the organization had improved and the schedule was more established.
Carrillo believed Las Cruces would benefit from returning to a more mature version of the league than the one it had left after 2012. That logic made sense.
The problem would prove to be much more basic. The city still had to care.
Garden City Enters the League at the Same Time
The Pecos League did not put all of its 2015 expansion hopes into Las Cruces. The league also entered Garden City, Kansas.
Garden City was a completely different type of market. It was geographically isolated from the league's traditional New Mexico and West Texas base and represented an ambitious expansion into western Kansas.
The Garden City Wind struggled badly on the field in their inaugural season. But something important happened there that did not happen in Las Cruces. The community embraced the operation strongly enough for the franchise to continue.
Garden City eventually became one of the Pecos League's signature markets, known for strong fan support and community involvement.
That comparison would become increasingly important when evaluating what happened in Las Cruces. Garden City did not need a championship team immediately to justify professional baseball. Las Cruces had already been given winning teams and still struggled to generate support.
The Baseball Did Not Go According to Plan
Carrillo had hoped to return Las Cruces to the type of baseball the Vaqueros had played in 2012. That did not happen.
The 2015 Vaqueros finished 18-50, easily the worst record in the team's Pecos League history. Alpine, Roswell and White Sands all finished well ahead of Las Cruces in the Southern Division.
The Vaqueros could play hard and occasionally produce competitive baseball, but they did not have enough talent or depth to stay with the strongest Southern Division teams throughout the summer. There were close games, flashes of quality and players receiving valuable professional experience, but there was never a legitimate playoff race.
A Roster Built Around Opportunity
The 2015 roster reflected the developmental nature of the Pecos League. Many players were receiving opportunities to establish professional statistics and continue their careers.
That remained one of the positive aspects of the Vaqueros operation even during a difficult season. The players continued competing. Carrillo continued managing. But the losses accumulated quickly.
The Southern Division Was Unforgiving
Las Cruces had returned directly into one of the toughest environments in the league. Roswell was excellent. Alpine was excellent. White Sands experienced one of its strongest seasons in years.
The Vaqueros had very little room for error. When pitching depth disappeared or the offense struggled, opponents took advantage immediately.
There were nights when the difference between Las Cruces and the top of the division became obvious. Those games demonstrated how far the Vaqueros were from being able to contend consistently.
Carrillo had successfully argued for bringing the franchise back. He could not manufacture the pitching depth necessary to immediately turn Las Cruces into a contender.
There Were Still Competitive Nights
The final record does not mean Las Cruces simply stopped competing. The Vaqueros could still make strong teams work for victories and occasionally produce a major upset.
The players did not quit because the standings were bad. They played hard, and Carrillo continued trying to develop them.
The issue was much larger than effort.
The Real Test Was Never the Standings
In some ways, the 18-50 record obscures the most important question surrounding the 2015 Vaqueros. Las Cruces had not been brought back simply because the Pecos League needed another baseball team.
The franchise had returned because Carrillo believed the market had another chance to work.
That was the experiment.
Could a locally connected manager produce a stronger relationship with the community? Could affordable professional baseball attract families? Could a recognizable Las Cruces baseball figure convince local businesses and fans to embrace the Vaqueros? Could a new identity and a more established Pecos League change perceptions?
Those were the real questions of 2015. By the end of the summer, the answers were becoming clear.
Las Cruces Still Did Not Embrace Summer Professional Baseball
The fundamental problem remained the same one the franchise had experienced before. The Vaqueros did not become a central part of the Las Cruces sports community.
There were baseball fans in the city. There were talented baseball players, coaches, youth programs, high school programs and New Mexico State University. Baseball absolutely mattered in Las Cruces.
But the form of baseball that mattered was increasingly obvious. The community's emotional investment was centered on local players, local schools and New Mexico State athletics.
Summer independent professional baseball existed outside that structure. Once the novelty wore off, the Vaqueros struggled to become important enough to generate consistent attendance and sponsorship.
The High Schools and NMSU Had the Real Baseball Loyalty
That became one of the central lessons from the repeated attempts to operate the Vaqueros. Las Cruces was not a city that disliked baseball. Quite the opposite. It was a strong baseball community.
But local loyalty followed familiar institutions. Families supported their high school teams. Parents supported youth baseball. Former players and alumni supported local programs. New Mexico State had an established identity, alumni base and place within the community.
Those teams represented Las Cruces in a way an independent summer roster filled largely with players from outside the region struggled to duplicate.
That distinction was critical. The Vaqueros could have good players, affordable tickets and a respected local manager. They could wear LAS CRUCES across the front of their jerseys.
But they still had to compete for people's emotional investment. High school baseball and NMSU already had it.
Darrell Carrillo Had Tried the Formula He Believed Would Work
This is what made the end of the season particularly significant for Carrillo. He had been the person arguing that Las Cruces deserved another opportunity.
He had not simply accepted a managerial job after somebody else decided to revive the franchise. He had helped make the revival happen.
Carrillo believed the previous Vaqueros had failed to build the proper relationship with the community. He believed local leadership could fix that. He believed affordability mattered. He believed community involvement mattered. He believed Las Cruces could become a strong Pecos League market if the organization approached the city correctly.
The league gave that philosophy a season to prove itself.
It didn't.
That did not make Carrillo wrong to try. It provided an answer that could not really be obtained any other way.
Andrew Dunn Had Seen Enough Too
For Andrew Dunn, the 2015 season completed a much longer experiment. The Vaqueros had originally been part of the Continental Baseball League in 2010. They continued into the Pecos League in 2011. They produced a championship-series team in 2012. The franchise then disappeared for two years.
Carrillo convinced the league to try again in 2015. By that point, Las Cruces had essentially experienced every possible version of independent professional baseball.
It had experienced an unstable league, a new league, a winning team, a championship contender, a two-year absence, a locally connected manager and a relaunch with a different approach.
There was very little left to test.
Garden City Provided the Comparison
The arrival of the Garden City Wind in the same season made the conclusion even easier to understand. Garden City was not a larger market than Las Cruces. It did not have Las Cruces' population or the same previous history of professional baseball.
Its inaugural team also struggled badly on the field. Yet Garden City developed the kind of community connection the Pecos League needed.
The Wind continued. The market grew. Over the following years, Garden City became one of the league's premier organizations.
The difference was revealing. A market did not need a championship-caliber roster in its first season to become successful. It needed people to care enough about the team for the organization to survive while the baseball improved.
Garden City had that.
Las Cruces did not.
The Vaqueros Finish 18-50
When the season ended, the final record was 18-50. It was easily the worst record in Las Cruces Vaqueros history.
The original Pecos League Vaqueros had gone 35-32 in 2011. The championship-series club went 42-28 in 2012. The revived Vaqueros went 18-50 in 2015.
2011: 35-32. 2012: 42-28. 2015: 18-50.
But the final decision to leave Las Cruces was not simply a response to 50 losses. The league had already learned in 2012 that even winning did not solve the market problem.
2015 merely removed the remaining uncertainty.
There Would Be No 2016 Vaqueros
At the end of the season, the people most closely involved understood what the record alone could not explain. Darrell Carrillo had given the idea everything he reasonably could. Andrew Dunn had agreed to revive a market the league had already left once.
The Vaqueros had returned with local leadership and a promise to approach the community differently. It still did not create a sustainable professional summer baseball operation.
There would be no need for another experiment in 2016.
The Vaqueros were finished.
This time, the end felt much more permanent.
2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros - By the Numbers
Manager: Darrell Carrillo Home: Apodaca Park - Las Cruces, New Mexico Regular Season Record: 18-50 Playoffs: Did Not Qualify Previous Vaqueros Season: 2012 2012 Record: 42-28 and Pecos League Championship Series appearance 2015 Significance: Final season of the Las Cruces Vaqueros
A Final Lesson About Baseball Markets
The 2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros became an important lesson in the difference between a baseball city and a professional baseball market.
Las Cruces was unquestionably a baseball city. The area produced players. It produced coaches. It supported high school baseball, youth baseball and New Mexico State athletics. Darrell Carrillo himself was evidence of the depth of the local baseball community.
But being a baseball city did not automatically mean Las Cruces would support an independent professional team playing through the summer.
That distinction had now been tested repeatedly. In 2011, the Vaqueros finished above .500. It wasn't enough. In 2012, the Vaqueros nearly won the Pecos League Championship. It wasn't enough. In 2015, the franchise returned under one of the city's most connected baseball figures with a completely new approach.
It still wasn't enough.
The support that did exist for baseball in Las Cruces was going to remain focused largely on the institutions the community already identified with: the high schools, youth programs and New Mexico State.
Those programs had roots that an independent summer team could not recreate simply by putting Las Cruces on a jersey.
Darrell Carrillo Was Right to Try
The failure of the 2015 Vaqueros does not mean the attempt was pointless. Carrillo had a legitimate argument.
Maybe the original organization had handled Las Cruces incorrectly. Maybe the market needed a local leader. Maybe the team needed more community involvement. Maybe the Pecos League had become strong enough that the experience would now be different.
There was only one way to know.
Try again.
Andrew Dunn agreed. The Pecos League returned. Carrillo managed the team. The Vaqueros played the season.
And by the end, everyone had their answer.
The Legacy of the 2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros
The final Las Cruces Vaqueros team will never be remembered for its record. Eighteen wins and 50 losses was not what Darrell Carrillo envisioned when he persuaded the Pecos League to come back.
But the true importance of the season was not whether Las Cruces finished 18-50, 30-38 or 40-28. The league had already seen a 42-win Vaqueros team fail to create lasting support.
The 2015 season was about determining whether a different operating philosophy could change the market. Carrillo believed it could.
He brought credibility within the local baseball community. He brought experience from managing White Sands in 2014. He brought a belief that the Vaqueros needed to give something back to Las Cruces rather than simply asking Las Cruces to support them.
Andrew Dunn gave the city another opportunity. At the same time, the Pecos League entered Garden City, Kansas.
One market immediately demonstrated the beginnings of the community relationship necessary for long-term survival. The other confirmed that its previous problems had not been temporary.
Garden City remained.
Las Cruces did not.
By the time the 2015 season ended, Carrillo, Dunn and others around the league had seen enough.
Las Cruces loved baseball. It simply loved its own baseball.
High school baseball. Youth baseball. New Mexico State baseball and athletics.
That was where the city's support was going to remain concentrated.
The Pecos League could continue trying to compete with those institutions, or it could put its resources into communities where an independent professional baseball club could become one of the central summer attractions.
Garden City helped show what that kind of market could look like. Las Cruces had now shown three different times that it was not going to be that market.
The 2015 Las Cruces Vaqueros finished 18-50.
Darrell Carrillo had convinced the Pecos League to give Las Cruces one final opportunity.
He believed the right manager, the right community approach and the right formula could turn the Vaqueros into a successful franchise.
By the end of the summer, even the people who most wanted that idea to work understood the reality.
Las Cruces would support baseball.
It just wasn't going to support the Vaqueros.
And after 2015, the Pecos League finally stopped trying.
