LIGA MAY OPEN IN AUGUST, MEX PAC SETS OPENER

Saltillo's remodeled Estadio Francisco I. Madero

The Mexican League is reportedly considering starting its season in August, with teams playing 51-game schedules (or half the original 102-game total heading into April's canceled openers. However, nothing has been etched in stone as the Wuhan virus panic continues while three LMB teams were even facing the choice of either playing their seasons on the road or canceling altogether, including the defending Liga champion Monclova Acereros.

The LMB Assembly of Presidents held a videoconference early last week to go over their latest options. Saltillo Saraperos president Cesar Cantu told the El Zocalo newspaper that the 16 team owners and league president Horacio de la Vega conferred with Mexican health authorities, who offered advice regarding parameters for when and how the circuit would operate in 2020. According to Cantu, each state with an LMB franchise may make a decision on what kind of events with large gatherings would be allowed (more on that in a paragraph).

Cantu said the Liga is now eyeing an August start, four months after the loop's five-month regular had been slated to begin. Baseball writers south of the border have speculated that the LMB would play a 51-game season, but it would be hard to do that and play a full eight-team, three-stage postseason without stretching well into the winter Mexican Pacific League season, which is tentatively set to open on October 12.

For a short time, there was a question of how many LMB teams might take the field. Coahuila governor Miguel Angel Riquelme last week announced that there would be no more "massive" events in his state through at least September 15 and possibly the end of a year as a preventive response to the Wuhan virus. "We are going to spend many months taking care of sanitary measures," Riquelme was quoted as saying in Puro Beisbol.

Such a measure would affect the champion Acereros, Saltillo Saraperos and Union Laguna Algodoneros. Although there may be options of playing home games in empty ballparks or all games away from their respective homes, Mexican League teams rely on ticket, concessions and ballpark advertising revenue to survive financially and the potential of the three teams simply closing down until 2021 to minimize losses was not off the table. Riquelme backtracked on his statement one day later.

The LMB office had not issued a public comment to that point, perhaps because president de la Vega was trying to dislodge his heart from his throat, but the threat served to heighten the vulnerability of many cash-strapped Liga franchises who lack funds to field a team without recouping the expenses with ballpark income. The bottom line is that the longer it takes for the Mexican League to put its product on the field, the harder it's going to be for the 95-year-old loop to schedule any kind of season in 2020, however abbreviated. As we'll see later, one prominent baseball columnist is calling for the Liga to not play until next year. He won't be the last.

Culiacan averaged 15,000+ in attendance in 2019-20

Meanwhile out west, Mexican Pacific League owners held a videoconference of their own and have confirmed that all ten teams are expected to participate in the upcoming 2020-21 season, which is expected to start on October 12 regardless of what happens with the Mexican League. Although a manpower shortage at the outset of the first half may happen if the two schedules overlap, LMP owners are said to be confident they'll be able to fill their rosters and operate in a state of flux as players complete their LMB obligations.

There has been some debate over the use of imports in both leagues, particularly in the Mexican League, where budget shortfalls make bringing in more-expensive players from the United States a fiscal risk to many teams. Such concerns are not as acute in the Mex Pac, where nearly 10,000 people attended each game last winter (a higher average than any minor league in the hemisphere), but some players who've crossed the border to play winterball in the past may be hesitant to do so if high Wuhan virus concerns in Mexico continue.

LIGA NORTE CONSIDERS WINTER MOVE; NEW BAJA LOOP COMING?

2019 LNM champions San Luis Algodoneros

With their 2020 regular season and playoffs all but scuttled by the Wuhan virus, the Northern Mexico League is now contemplating a move to a winter schedule. However, a group of investors in Baja California Sur is also looking at starting their own league at the same time of year.

During a recent interview posted on the La Paz Delfines Facebook page, LNM president Jorge Rivera said he has not ruled out converting the Liga Norte into a winterball circuit. While stating that his own preference would be to remain a summer league, he noted that economic conditions created by the pandemic might make a move to later in the year more prudent, if not outright necessary. Although Rivera said he would prefer to return to the LNM's traditional April-July schedule in 2021, the changing landscape of baseball in the northwest corner of the country might make a permanent move to a winter schedule more attractive to him and Liga Norte owners.

The LNM, which is considered Class AA within the Mexican baseball system, was dealt a severe blow following their 2018 season when the Mexican League withdrew its official support, along with the player affiliations and 40,000 pesos per team subsidies that came with it. While Liga Norte teams were able to cobble together affiliations with LMB teams last summer, the loss of both their official designation as an LMB "developmental" league and extra cash flow hurt. The LNM fought their way through the 2019 campaign with five teams and had announced expansion to Otay (a suburb of Tijuana), where the Industralies were expected to play in 2020.

Then, after the first of the year, the Liga Norte was dealt a couple of body blows that will be difficult to recover from. The first was the Wuhan virus itself, of course, which has caused baseball across Mexico to shut down and created uncertainty as to when it will be allowed to resume. The second blow, the resurrection of the Sonora Professional Baseball League (or Liga Sonora), may have more longterm implications for the LNM, which itself broke away from the original Northern Sonora League in 2012. The LNS survived two summers before shutting down in 2014 while the LNM carried on, but the revived Liga Sonora appears to be coming back with a vengeance. Leaders were in talks with LMB president Horacio de la Vega earlier this year about affiliation agreements and two of their proposed eight franchises appear to be current LNM teams, the 2019 Liga Norte champion San Luis Algodoneros and Caborca Reds.

La Paz' Estadio Arturo C. Nahl reopened in 2019

If the Mexican League does indeed make the Liga Sonora their Class AA farm league in 2021, the Liga Norte's best chance for long-term survival may be to make a permanent move to winterball and serve a similar role as a feeder circuit for the Mexican Pacific League. The Mex Pac used to be able to call up players from both the Liga Noroeste (in the state of Nayarit) and the Veracruz Winter League, but the LNB shut down as a professional circuit in 2015 and the LIV went dark last winter with prospects no brighter for 2020-21, as sisters Regina and Fabiola Vazquez (who underwrote the LIV in 2018-19) now appear to be pursuing the return of the Mexican League to Veracruz instead. LMP sports managers had difficulties finding in-shape players last winter to fill roster spots when their own players were injured, released or left the team, so there's reason to believe an agreement could be worked out between the Mex Pac and LNM.

The Liga Norte may face a potential challenger in winter baseball. Editor Fernando Ballesteros of Puro Beisbol reports that businessmen representing the proposed Southern California League (or Liga Sudcaliforniana) approached the Mexican Pacific League earlier this year inquiring about an affiliation agreement of their own. The director of municipal sports in La Paz, Guillermo Ortalejo, reportedly already has that city's Estadio Arturo C. Nahl (home of the LNM Delfines) in mind for games this winter, but Ballesteros writes that while the LMP certainly could use a new in-season source of replacement players, leaders there were not prioritizing the new league. One potential outcome is a merger of sorts between the Liga Norte and the upstarts, who may need each other more than either might be willing to admit.

BENCOMO: "MEXICAN LEAGUE CONDEMNED TO STOP IN 2020"

One of Mexico's most-respected baseball writers, Hitazo.com editor Hector Bencomo, wrote a May 18 column urging the Mexican League to shut down for the current year in order to avoid steep financial losses while regrouping to come back stronger in 2021. Here is a Google Translate version of that column, with minimal translation from Googlese for grammatical clarity:

Every year, most teams in the Mexican Baseball League announce that they lost money by operating their ball clubs.

Perhaps the Sultanes, Tijuana and maybe Diablos could boast of having "won" a little in the last two seasons, but they are profits that are reinvested to continue giving baseball to their loyal fans.

Mexican teams depend on three main factors to stay afloat: advertising, box office and concessions (sale of beer, food, souvenirs).

On some occasions they have depended on the great fortunes of their owners, for whom spending on their team was like taking a cat's hair. But those times seem to be over.

With the Covid 19 pandemic, the national (and world) economy has plummeted and many companies have closed, many people have lost their jobs, and business sales have fallen, so advertising has started to drop out of the screens, radio, newspapers, etc.

Without advertising and with the only option to start a mini season with empty stadiums, what is the point of playing the 2020 season of the LMB?

For the record, I am not being insensitive, but realistic.

I am sure that all the LMB executives want to carry out the campaign and I applaud them. But given the country's conditions, which businessman wants to go and throw millions of pesos in the trash right now?

Closing the offices and thinking of returning stronger in 2021 would be the healthiest thing for Mexican summer baseball. It is true, the big losers are baseball players, stadium workers, chroniclers and all the businesses that depend on baseball activity, such as vendors of bats, balls, uniforms, etc.

Journalist David Medrano published last May 8 in the newspaper Récord that Mexican soccer would lose 2.5 billion pesos (US$108.7 million) if its 2020 season does not end. But it will lose 800 million (US$34.8 million) when playing without people in the seats. Can you imagine how much money a packed house generates at Estadio Universitario to watch the Liga MX Tigres play?

Soccer is a much better business than baseball in Mexico, so that's why it's in their best interest to lose money now to try to get it back in the next tournaments.

Hitazo.com editor Hector Bencomo

In Mexican baseball the figures are not so abundant but in the same way, it will hurt the owners to lose up to 20 million pesos (US$869,000) in an adventure that they do not even know how it will end because if a new outbreak comes or the players catch it, things are going to get worse when they are all back on the field and have to stop again.

And not to think that the government will provide money to save the season...it would be foolish now that attention should focus on the health sector, where there are still deficiencies.

And that is the panorama that we see from here to August or September. In Nuevo León, they expect the peak of infected for mid-June. Massive events in many states will be banned for months, leaving little room for the LMB to even aspire to start its season.

If you rush me a little, the Mexican Pacific League will have to take out the calculator because perhaps in October there will also be no permits for the public to attend massive events.

They will also be subject to the parity of the dollar against the peso, which would make them think of a season with fewer foreigners or to outright play with pure Mexican talent, something that would put Guasave and Monterrey on the ropes, teams that just arrived in the league who have not solidified their national base.

This being the case, the LMB may do better to follow the wise advice to "stay home" and return to 2021 with more force than ever. Remember that I am telling you this first of all, much to my regret.

What do you think?

hbencomo@hotmail.com

#hitazo #hectorbencomo

AMID VENUE DOUBTS, CARIBBEAN SERIES TIX ON SALE

Tickets here being sold for '21 Caribbean Series

Even though the organization that oversees the Caribbean Series has threatened to move the event elsewhere in 2021 if an ongoing dispute involving the ballpark where it would be played isn't resolved soon, the host Mazatlan Venados have begun selling prime tickets for the weeklong Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball.

Last week, the Venados announced prices for seven-day tickets in prime seating at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, with five days of doubleheaders between Sunday, January 31 through Thursday, February 4 for first round games preceding a semifinal twinbill on Friday, February 5 and the title game on Saturday, February 6.

The highest prices for the 13-game event are 28,600 pesos (US$1,187) for Deluxe Supreme seats in the ballpark's lower level behind home plate. The next tier involves Diamond seats, where patrons will pay 22,580 pesos (US$936) per lower-level seat from above both dugouts into shallow left and right fields, respectively. Finally, there are the Platinum seats at 19,570 pesos (US$811), which span all the second level of seats above the interior walkway from shallow left past home plate and into shallow right right. No tickets for upper deck, foul territory or outfield seats have been put up for sale. Online ticket broker Boletomovil says seats can be reserved for a deposit of 1,000 pesos (US$41), with the remainder to be paid by October 15.

In comparison, when Mexico hosted the 2018 Serie del Caribe in Guadalajara, the top price for a weeklong ticket was 19,500 (US$809) for lower level seats between third and first bases.

While putting premium CS tickets on sale in May would be standard operating procedure for both the Mexican Pacific League and the Venados, the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (COPABE) recently issued a press release stating that if the ongoing dispute between the Venados and City of Mazatlan is not resolved in short order, the Caribbean Series could potentially moved from the Sinaloa city to another venue. Citing various violations of the ballpark lease, officials from the City last month physically evicted the Venados from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, placing padlocks on the facility, and terminated a concessions contact team owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family have held since 1980.

Although the imbroglio is being called "political" on several Mexican baseball websites, where writers expect things to be resolved in time, a May 12 story on El Fildeo was headlined, "Don't Buy the Tickets Yet!" and detailed how COPABE will convene a meeting next month where if a signed letter from the Mazatlan City Council granting the Venados (and, by proxy, the LMP and COPABE) full control over the stadium for the Caribbean Series is not presented, the tournament may be moved to another city.

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC CANCELLED FOR 2021

WBC qualifiers in Tucson were already cancelled

Major League Baseball has cancelled next year's World Baseball Classic and a New York Post writer says it may not be played until 2023. The cancellation was first reported by Enrique Rojas on ESPN Deportes.

Joel Sherman of the Post says the WBC may be moved to 2023 amid the current Wuhan virus panic. The 2021 edition had been scheduled for March 9-23 with games in Taiwan, Tokyo, Phoenix and Miami. The postponement comes as no surprise, according to Rojas, because WBC qualifier events in March were called off indefinitely as MLB and other baseball organizations throughout the world placed their seasons on hiatus in reaction to the spread of the Wuhan virus. "It's not a priority right now," a source reportedly told Rojas.

Despite their close proximity to source country China, however, Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League opened their season on April 11 as scheduled while the Korea Baseball Organization began their schedule a few weeks later. Both circuits played early games in front of empty stands before the CPBL allowed up to 1,000 spectators per opening recently and are poised to increase that number to 2,000 live fans soon.

The delay of the World Baseball Classic puts the future of the event in doubt, Rojas says. He notes that the event was negotiated in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between MLB (which oversees the WBC) and the MLBPA players union. However, the CBA will expire in December 2021 and the WBC would have to be renegotiated.

Mexico manager Juan Castro to focus on '21 Oympics

The two sides are at odds over an MLB proposal to slice player salaries in half because a proposed shortened season that would begin in July would include about half of the 162 games usually played in a full schedule. American League 2018 Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell of Tampa Bay articulated, "Y'all gotta understand, man, for me to go, for me to take a pay cut, is not happening...No, I gotta get my money. I'm not playing unless I get mine, OK? And that's just the way it is for me." Snell signed a guaranteed five-year, $50 million contract extension last year that is scheduled to pay him $7.6 million in 2020.

Mexico has played in all four previous World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017), winning seven of 18 games, reaching the second round twice and defeating the United States in both 2006 and 2013. Cancellation of next year's WBC means National Team manager Juan Gabriel Castro will devote his full attention for the Verdes Grande on the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games, which were rescheduled for next year after being postponed for 2020 due to the Wuhan virus.

PROBEIS BUYS BALLPARKS IN HERMOSILLO, OBREGON 

Estadio Hector Espino will need renovations

"Psssst...hey, buddy...wanna buy a used ballpark?"

While it's certain that such a sales pitch never took place, Mexico's federal government has indeed purchased a pair of former longtime Mexican Pacific League facilities for a combined 1.075 billion pesos (US$44.2 million) with an eye to using them as baseball academies in the future. Lots of numbers and currency conversions coming in this story, so be prepared:

According to Septima Entrada, Sonora's State Treasury Secretary Raul Navarro announced that Estadio Hector Espino in Hermosillo has been bought by federal agency Probeis for 511.7 million pesos (US$21.4 million). The ballpark served as home to the LMP Naranjeros between 1972 and 2012 before the team moved into the new, state-of-the-art Estadio Sonora in 2013. The older facility, renamed in 1976 after Mexican baseball legend Hector Espino (who played 24 winters in Hermosillo), seats 15,000 spectators and was the first ballpark in Latin America with a big screen and LED scoreboard, although the site has fallen into some disrepair. It was the site of six Caribbean Series tournaments and hosted a number of Arizona Diamondbacks exhibition games. The Naranjeros won 11 of their 16 Mex Pac titles playing there.

Probeis previously agreed to purchase Obregon's Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan for 548.7 million pesos (US$22.9 million) in May of last year. Funded by the Sonora state government (as was Estadio Hector Espino) and opened in 1971, the 13,000-seat Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan was home of the Obregon Yaquis for 45 years until Estadio Yaquis was christened in 2016. The older ballpark was named after a longtime baseball figure who served as Sonora's state treasurer from 1967 until his death in a car accident in 1973. The Yaquis, who won six of their seven LMP pennants playing at their former stadium, have not been able to recreate the magic at their new ballpark, where high ticket prices, a less accessible location and a less-competitive team on the heels of Obregon's three-time pennant winners between 2011 and 2013 have resulted in lower attendance figures.

Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan, Obregon

Probeis' stated purpose in acquiring the older facilities is to create regional baseball schools, in keeping with their mission of developing domestic interest and players for the sport, but they are not necessarily getting a bargain in either case. According to an April 20 story in El Heraldo de Mexico, Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan was given an overall value of about 221 million pesos (US$9.2 million) a year ago, which suggests the government paid 347 million pesos (US$14.3 million) more than the ballpark was worth. In an April 17 story, on the other hand, El Sol writer Enrique Hernandez says the federal government saved nearly 118 million pesos (US$4.9 million) in the purchase of Estadio Hector Espino, which was valued last year at 626.5 million pesos (US$26.2 million).

When the numbers are added up, that's a net loss of 229 million pesos (US$9.6 million) for the feds, who are paying for the ballparks out of a National Infrastructure Trust Fund created by former president Felipe Calderon in 2008 as an investment vehicle in several areas, including the "operation and transfer of projects with social impact or economic profitability." Current president (and Mexico's Number 1 baseball fan) Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is seeking to make the fund "disappear," Hernandez says.

IS HE OR ISN'T HE? CASTILLA OUT IN HERMOSILLO

Vinny Castilla fired as Naranjeros manager

After a period of time during which the general public was unsure of his job status in Hermosillo, Vinny Castilla was formally fired last week as manager of the Mexican Pacific League Naranjeros. The former Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman was officially shown the door despite leading the Orangmen to a 38-27 overall record, second-best in the LMP, before being bounced in six games by Mazatlan in the first round of the playoffs. It was Castilla's first season at the helm in Hermosillo, where he'd played parts of four winters between 2006-07 and 2010-11.

Last Wednesday's announcement by the Naranjeros front office ended speculation as to whether or not Castilla was still employed by the club. The questions arose after Hermosillo sports manager Juan Aguirre told Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros that Castilla was expected to manage the team in the 2020-21 season. This brought a response from his namesake nephew, Vinicio Castilla, who said, "How strange. My uncle was fired a month ago." A Naranjeros fan named David Orantes added to the confusion by saying, "I saw a live interview on TUDN (a Hermosillo TV station) when he said he'd been fired a month ago. I don't understand what's happening with the directors."

The Naranjeros responded a day later by finally issuing a formal (if somewhat convoluted) statement that Castilla had indeed been let go, opening with this: "Yesterday afternoon, a social media and some sports portals circulated news mentioning firstly that Vinicio Castilla was still our manager, and later it was also denied by other sports portals and social media accounts associated with sports journalism."

After blaming the Fourth Estate for conflicting information about their own managerial position, the press release went on to say that Castilla had been cut loose. "The decision to do without his services as Manager was not at all easy, mainly due to not having reached the objectives set and having been again eliminated in the first series of playoffs," it reads. "The decision was made at the end of March, during the same dates that the health contingency situation arrived in our country and travel restrictions prevented the knowledge of Vinicio made this decision personally, as he himself stated last night. On April 14, the decision was communicated to him by telephone so that he would know it directly from the club."

MLB All-Star Castilla playing 3B for Hermosillo

Ballesteros listed the Hermosillo skippers fired under Naranjeros owner Enrique Mazon since Matias Carrillo was canned in November 2014, nine months after leading the team to their last Mex Pac pennant and a Caribbean Series title: Lino Rivera, Jose Luis Sandoval, Delino DeShields Senior, Lorenzo Bundy, Bronswell Patrick and now Castilla. For those scoring at home, that's six pilots in less than six years.

Now the search is on for a new hot seat occupant in Hermosillo, where the club stated, "the situation has been complex at the moment but once this is achieved, we will give news to our fans directly and in all certainty. Unfortunately our intention to respect the fans, Vinicio and our next manager did not materialize due to the publication of said news" regarding Castilla's termination. Ballesteros speculates the new Naranjeros helmsman will be former MLB catcher Geronimo Gil, who served as Castilla's bench coach and has managed Ensenada to a Liga Norte championship.

No press release announcement of a managerial firing in Mexico would be complete without gratitude being expressed to the newly-unemployed, and the Orangemen did not disappoint: "We take this opportunity to thank Vinicio for his dedication, his passion for baseball and his love for both the Naranjeros and the Hermosillo fans." Selah.

MAZATLAN DISPUTE CONCERNS LMP AHEAD OF CARIBBEAN SERIES

Playing dates for the 2021 Caribbean Series in Mazatlan have been tentatively set and Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales may be breathing a sigh of relief that it will not begin earlier during what may be a shortened season due to the Wuhan virus. However, the LMP leader is concerned that the ongoing dispute between the City of Mazatlan and the Mazatlan Venados (slated to host the Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball) may compel the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, who oversees the Serie del Caribe, to move the event elsewhere.

Canizales recently announced that the Caribbean Series has been scheduled to run between Sunday, January 31 and Saturday, February 6 next winter. "Right now, we're fortunate that the Super Bowl is scheduled for Sunday, February 7," Canizales told Septima Entrada. "That means we won't have any conflicts since that's a week where there are no NFL games because it's the Media Week there." The NFL's championship game will be held in Tampa, Florida.

During last February's Caribbean Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Mex Pac's presentation to COPABE did not include specific dates because there has been talk of moving the tournament back to the last week in January, allowing players some extra rest time before Major League Baseball training camps begin opening a week into February while creating more space between the CS and the Super Bowl, which consumes the lion's share of attention among sports media outlets.

However, Canizales expressed worries about the present imbroglio between Mazatlan's political leaders and the city's LMP baseball club, which led to the Venados' office staff being evicted from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal a month ago. The many-layered dispute between city and team has not been resolved, an impasse Canizales frets may cause COPABE to step in and relocate the Serie del Caribe to another LMP city or out of Mexico altogether because the Venados would not have control over the venue.

"I confess that I'm a little concerned that COPABE has the authority to decide to change countries or if it requires some other things from us, "Canizales explained to Septima Entrada. "I am concerned about Mazatlan but, hey, let's wait. Rather than speculate, we will wait."

The Caribbean Series was awarded last winter to Mazatlan, where the LMP and Venados were planning to showcase the Pacific coast city's renovated 16,000-seat ballpark, which was reopened October 13, 2018 after over 400 million pesos (US$18 million) in renovations increased its seating capacity by 2,000 while adding modern amenities throughout the facility.

Instead, the City has seized control of the stadium, Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo has apparently lost the concessions contract his family has held since 1980 (years before they bought the team in the 1990's) and an injunction the franchise sought to regain control of the ballpark was rejected by a local judge. While there are expectations that the City and Venados will resolve their dispute in time for the upcoming season, it's not a sure thing.

Canizales concluded, "I want to clarify the situation as soon as possible to give certainty to COPABE and not run the risk that they'll want to make a change in relation to the venue or the country." While the former may be a possibility, the latter is highly unlikely given how Mexican cities are now drawing the highest attendance of all the Caribbean Series' host nations.

DORMANT LEAGUE HOPES TO RESTART, BECOME LMB AFFILIATE

Estadio de Beisbol Martires 1906 in Cananea

Leaders of a longtime Class AA league based in one of Mexico's baseball hotbed states but dormant for the past six seasons are hoping to fire the circuit back up in the summer of 2021, with its member teams serving as Mexican League farm clubs.

Puro Beisbol reports that in January, LMB president Horacio de la Vega met with representatives of the eight-team Sonora Professional Baseball League (LBPS), who had planned to begin play on April 12 this year before the Wuhan virus led to the cessation of all professional baseball south of the border and elsewhere, save for Taiwan and South Korea. Now the Liga Sonora is looking at playing a 2021 schedule.

The LBPS hopes to create an affiliation agreement with the Liga, who had a similar arrangement with the Northern Mexico League in which each LNM team received a 40,000 peso stipend and had players supplied by LMB teams before the latter severed the agreement after the 2018 campaign. The Liga Norte struggled through a 2019 season in which its five teams cobbled together informal agreements with LMB teams as the San Luis Algodoneros won the pennant.

The eight clubs who'd planned on suiting up this year were the Agua Prieta Vaqueros, Caborca Rojos, Cananea Mineros, Magdalena Membrilleros, Nogales Internacionales, San Luis de Rio Colorado Datileros, Sonoyta Misioneros and Puerto Penasco Tiburones.

Caborca and San Luis fielded teams in the Liga Norte last summer, leading to questions whether both have officially withdrawn from the LNM, which had planned to expand this year before their own season was halted by the Wuhan virus. A story on their website from last November states that the Rojos and Algodoneros had both confirmed their participation in 2020. Now, however, LNM president Jorge Rivera Marquez is saying that his league may play a winter schedule instead while seeking affiliation agreements with Mexican Pacific League teams. More on that next week.

Estadio Dr. Alberto Hoeffer in Nogales

The Sonora Professional Baseball League can trace its roots through numerous name and structural changes as far back as 1944, predating the winter Mexican Pacific League's origins by two years. The loop was known at various times as the Sonora League, Northern Sonora League, Northern Mexico League and (after a 2011 split that led a number of teams to leave and take that title with them) once again the Northern Sonora League until it went on hiatus following the 2014 season. The Magdalena Membrilleros led all teams with ten pennants, won between 1956 and 2005, while the Hermosillo Diablos won the last LNS title by beating Caborca in four straight games in the 2014 championship series before the loop shut down for financial reasons. That a Hermosillo team would win the league's final crown seemed fitting, since the Hermosillo Chueliteros had won the first flag sixty years earlier.

VERACRUZ TO RETURN TO MEXICAN LEAGUE IN 2021?

Will Mexican League baseball return to Veracruz?

Although nearly all the attention in the Mexican League's Mexico City office has been focused on when (or if) their 2020 season will get underway due to the indefinite delay because of the Wuhan virus, a group of businessmen in Veracruz are looking ahead to 2021 as their target for bringing the port city back into the LMB fold.

The El Fildeo website reports that Liga president Horacio de la Vega says that investors have approached him about the possibility of Veracruz returning to the circuit for the first time since the 2017 season, after which Rojos del Aguila owner Jose Antonio Mansur moved the franchise to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and Laredo, Texas, renaming them the Dos Laredos Tecolotes. The Tecos are the only team in professional baseball shared between two countries.

“Veracruz is a large city,” de la Vega told El Fildeo. “We have had contact with businessmen there. The Aguilas have a great baseball tradition, not only in the city of Veracruz but from many other parts of the state.” He also said the effort comes from “businessmen and possibly the government who want to reactivate a team with the tradition that Veracruz has had.”

Media reports indicate that the person most interested in bringing the Mexican League back to Veracruz is Regina Vazquez, who (along with sister Fabiola) owns the Acayucan Tobis of the Veracruz Winter League, which the two sisters led in 2018-19 before it went silent last season due to lack of funds for meeting payroll, among other expenses. The Vazquez sisters reportedly asked Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for federal pesos last winter so they could operate the LIV, but the request was not granted. They are daughters of a prominent Veracruz politician and have both been active in local and state politics as well.

However, de la Vega insists his main concern is determining the future of the current Mexican League season. “The first thing is to play the 2020 season. Within this transitional time in many things, we can explore different possibilities for Veracruz, but it's not something the Liga will provoke.”

Josh Gibson in Veracruz, 1940

Veracruz has been represented by several teams over the 95-year history of the Mexican League, winning a total of six pennants between them. Baseball strongman Jorge Paquel owned his hometown Veracruz Azules prior to becoming the LMB president in 1946, by which time he had integrated modern pro baseball by signing various Negro League stars. Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin, Roy Campanella, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Willie Wells and Martin Dihigo all suited up for the Azules at one time or other. Gibson, Irvin, Campanella, Dandridge and Dihigo are also members of the Salon de la Fama in Monterrey. The Azules won three championships between 1940 and 1944. The city's most recent LMB pennant came in 2012 under manager Pedro Mere, now the dugout boss in Tabasco.

Although baseball has a long history in Veracruz, which is also considered the best state in the country for producing players outside the western states of Sinaloa and Sonora, support in the stands has been tepid even in the best of times as Veracruz reflects Florida as a player-rich, fan-poor state. A revived Rojos del Aguila team would be the sixth club to use that name since the early 1950's. Veracruz' last LMB team finished 13th in the attendance derby with 2,661 turnstile clicks per game over 57 home opening for a total of 151,671. Mexican League teams have played at the 7,762-seat Estadio Universitario Beto Avila since 1992.

Where a new Veracruz team would come from would be a topic of conjecture, as several LMB teams have struggled financially in their present homes for years. Although the Campeche Piratas drew only 1,762 per home game in 2019, their ownership appears committed to remaining in the Walled City in the foreseeable future. A more likely target for a purchase and franchise shift may be the Aguascalientes Rieleros, for whom 2,001 fans per game turned out to watch the perpetually-underfunded Railroaders perform at Parque Alberto Romo Chavez in 2019.

MAZATLAN PULLS OFF TWO TRADES TO BRING IN IF PAREDES, C SOSA

Isaac Paredes in batting practice

Although the imbroglio with the City of Mazatlan regarding their eviction from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal has not been settled, the Mazatlan Venados have not stopped working to build their roster for the upcoming 2020-21 Mexican Pacific League season. The team swung a pair of trades last week that netted them a highly-touted infielder and a veteran catcher.

The Venados first traded veteran relief pitcher Adrian C. Ramirez to Monterrey for catcher Humberto Sosa. Although he'll only turn 32 this month, Ramirez will be entering his 15th season of professional baseball this summer when the Mexican League season gets underway. The Veracruz native was a starter early in his career before converting to middle relief in 2010. He's had some good seasons in both circuits but only pitched in eight games for Mazatlan last winter, with no record and a 9.00 ERA to show for seven innings.

Like Ramirez, Sosa saw little work for the Sultanes last winter, batting .042 with one RBI in 12 games. The 34-year-old Veracruzano spent four years in the Reds' system before making his LMB debut with Minatitlan in 2010. Although he was a three-year starter for Veracruz between 2012 and 2014 and a member of the city's last LMB championship team in 2012, Sosa has primarily been a backup catcher most of his career in both leagues. In five LMP seasons, he's batted .212 with five homers in 112 games.

With Sosa giving them an extra catcher on their roster, Mazatlan then shipped backstop Sebastian Valle to Obregon for the rights to infielder Isaac Paredes in a swap of higher-profile players. A 29-year-old Los Mochis product, Valle spent eight years in the Phillies system and showed some promise but had injury problems along the way. He also bounced between Pirates, Yankees and Mariners farm teams before making his Mexican League debut with Yucatan in 2017. He's no stranger to the LMP, however, having spent 12 winters in the loop and batting .236 with 62 homers and is considered a solid defender.

Humberto Sosa takes a swing

Paredes, a 21-year-old from Hermosillo, is currently on Detroit's 40-man roster after hitting .282 with 13 homers in the Eastern League for the Tigers AA Erie affiliate. He was hitless in six plate appearance for the big club during during training and expected to open the season with Detroit's longtime AAA affiliate Toledo of the International League. Primarily a shortstop but also a capable third baseman, Paredes has spent the past three winters with the Yaquis, batting .283 with seven homers in 105 games. He'll likely play second base for the Venados for manager Juan Jose Pacho.

The Venados staff was escorted out of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal in early April after the City claimed breach of contract by the team, specifically that the Venados denied the City ballpark access for Carnival or politically-related events while neither adequately supporting local basketball or boxing, maintaining the playing field nor delivering ballgame tickets to the elderly. According to Isac Chavez of El Sol de Mazatlan, the team filed an injunction against the City to allow them a return to the ballpark, but the injunction was denied. The City is also seeking the return of the facility's concessions business, the domain of Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family for 40 years.

CLEVELAND P OLIVER PEREZ DELIVERS 500 MEALS TO POOR IN CULIACAN

Oliver Perez handing out meals in Culiacan

Veteran major league pitcher Oliver Perez recently purchased 500 meals for people in the most marginalized neighborhoods of his hometown, Culiacan, Sinaloa. The Cleveland Indians reliever then literally went one step further by delivering the meals himself. Perez also sent several boxes of pizzas to medical personnel working the so-called “front lines” in response to the spread of the Wuhan virus in the city of 785,800 residents.

According to Puro Beisbol editor Francisco Ballesteros, Perez first bought the packaged meals and then traveled by car to various neighborhoods in Culiacan to personally deliver each of them to people who came up and requested one. He also made other contributions to the Iglesia del Carmen church in town. Ballesteros says this is not the first time the 38-year-old left-hander has made similar efforts. Other current or former MLB players from Mexico like Joakim Soria, Jose Urquidy, Jorge Cantu and Jaime Garcia have shown support for people affected by the Wuhan virus, which had been contracted by over 22,000 Mexicans as of last weekend, resulting in more than 2,000 deaths.

Perez is preparing for his 22nd season of professional baseball in a career that began after signing a free agent contract with the San Diego Padres in 1999. Then 17, Perez broke in that summer with the Padres' Arizona League team and posted a 1-2 record with three saves and a 5.08 ERA as a closer for the Rookie level team. He remained in San Diego's system (plus a short stint with Yucatan in the Mexican League in 2000) until he made his MLB debut at age 20 on June 16, 2002 when he made a home start against Seattle in an interleague contest. He had his rocky moments, allowing four hit and four walks in five innings, throwing a wild pitch and dishing up a two-run homer to Dan Wilson, but Perez also struck out seven Mariners and allowed just two runs to earn the 5-3 victory. He remained in San Diego for the rest of the season.

The 6'3” 225-pounder has certainly been well-traveled ever since, wearing the uniform of no fewer than eight teams over that time. He's had success as a starter, going 12-10 with a 2.98 ERA for Pittsburgh in 2004 and winning 25 games over two seasons (2007-08) for the New York Mets, leading the National League with 34 starts in the latter campaign. He signed a three-year, $36 million contact with the Mets after the 2008 campaign.

Perez delivers more than pitches

From that point, things went south for Perez, who was placed on the disabled list twice with tendinitis in his right leg in 2009 and refused minor league rehab assignments two times. When he did pitch for the Mets in 2009 and 2010, he only won three of 21 starts and allowed 85 earned runs in 110.1 innings. He was released following the 2010 season even though he had one year and $12 million remaining in his contract.

After spending the 2011 season with the Nationals' AA Harrisburg affiliate and going 3-5 with a 3.09 ERA in 15 starts, Perez returned to MLB with Seattle as a reliever in June 2012 after spending two months with AAA Tacoma. He spent two with the Mariners and did well as a setup man, posting a 3.16 ERA with four wins and two saves out of the bullpen in 93 trips from the bullpen. Perez moved to Arizona for the 20shington and Cleveland. Last year he made 67 appearances for the Indians, going 2-4 and earning a save while posting a 3.98 ERA for manager Terry Francona, striking out 48 batsmen and walking 12 in 40.2 homeinnings.

Following the shutdown of major league training camps and the delay of the regular season, Perez returned  to train with an eye on becoming the first Mexican to perform in 18 MLB seasons. He'll go into the 2020 campaign with a 72-91 career record and 4.38 ERA in 670 outings (including 197 starts). Perez has also pitched in six winterball seasons with the Culiacan Tomateros, with an overall 7-8 record and 3.54 ERA in 74 appearances, and took part in the 2014 and 2017 Caribbean Series (winning one game in each).