CITY OF MAZATLAN OKAYS 2021 SERIE DEL CARIBE

Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, Mazatlan

Several weeks after evicting the Mazatlan Venados from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal for violations of their lease, the City of Mazatlan has announced that the Mexican Pacific League team will be allowed to use the ballpark for the upcoming 2020-21 season, including hosting the 2021 Caribbean Series in early February.

The City physically escorted Venados front office employees out the stadium in early April, locking the facility up after it had been cleared out. The government claims the team had violated a number of conditions of their ballpark lease, including sponsorship of local basketball players and boxers and delivering Venados game tickets to senior citizens. The team was also asked to let the City use the ballpark to deliver services to seniors in relation to the Wuhan Virus outbreak, but refused the request.

The imbroglio led to concerns that the Caribbean Series would be moved out of Mazatlan if things were not resolved soon, with the Pan American Baseball Confederation (COPABE) giving the Mex Pac until the end of this month to broker a truce between the warring sides.

On Saturday, the Mazatlan City Council released this (translated) statement promising cooperation in allowing the Venados to return for the LMP season and that the Caribbean Series, which brings tourism money to host cities, may go ahead as planned:

The Municipal Government and Mayor Luis Benitez Torres express their commitment to guarantee all the facilities and the granting of permits for the 2020-2021 season of the Mexican Pacific League and the Caribbean Series 2021 at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal.

The City Council and the Mayor know the importance of sports culture and the economic and tourist impact that both baseball tournaments represent for the Mazatlan fans and for the municipality itself.

For this reason, this Government is open to communication with the company "Espectaculos Costa del Pacifico" and with the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation to reach agreements for the holding of the two sporting events here in Mazatlán.

The Municipal President expresses our will to grant the right to use, enjoy and enjoy the facilities of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal as well as any authorization for local activities, thereby guaranteeing that there is no impediment to holding such tournaments.

These measures are considered convenient for the benefit of society between the exploitation of a property in the public domain and the social, sports and tourist benefit of Mazatlecos.

Although the statement appears to give the go-ahead for business as usual at the ballpark, it's also notable for what it DOESN'T say. There is no mention of resumption of the lease between the Venados and the City, nor is anything said about a contract pulled by the City from team owner Jose Antonio Toledo that has allowed his family control of ballpark concessions since 1980 before purchasing the team 25 years later. While there does seem to be a truce, it promises to be an uneasy one.

Relations between the Venados and Mazatlan leaders soured quickly after Estadio Teodoro Mariscal reopened in October 2018 following a US$18 million renovation, when drinking water to the facility was shut off in the wake of a discovery that the team had created a clandestine drinking system there.


TOROS PLAN TO RE-OPEN CAMP JULY 15 IN OAXACA

Tijuana Toros to resume training next month

With an August 7 date tentatively set for finally beginning the 2020 Mexican League season, the Tijuana Toros were planning to re-open their training camp on July 15 in the southern state of Oaxaca. The Toros were training in Tempe, Arizona in mid-March when the LMB office ordered all 16 teams to close their camps and put the regular season on hold after the Wuhan virus appeared in Mexico and started claiming lives. As of last weekend, the number of confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus topped 139,000 nationwide, with over 16,000 deaths attributed to it (over 4,000 of them in Mexico City alone).

Toros sports director Oscar Romero, a former LMB pitcher whose son (Oscar Junior) is an 18-year-old third baseman in the Tijuana organization, said that Oaxaca was the most logical place for the team to spend three weeks prepping for the delayed season.

"This is more or less how the panorama is and all the teams are making the maximum effort so that we have the season with the necessary protocols," the elder Romero was quoted as saying on the El Fildeo website. "Our number one option is to train in the city of Oaxaca and it's for several reasons. The first is that they have the proper facilities there to do a good workout."

Besides being home to the Guerreros of the LMB, Oaxaca is also the site of a baseball academy owned and operated by Alfredo Harp Helu, who owns both the Guerreros and Mexico City Diablos Rojos. All three teams are expected to use the facility for training and warmup games until the regular season opens.

Tijuana is considered one of the preseason favorites to win the LMB North Division championship and a contender for copping the Serie de Rey. First-year manager Omar Vizquel will field a veteran outfit including everyday players like first baseman Ricky Alvarez, second baseman Isaac Rodriguez and outfielder Jesus "Cacao" Valdez with catching tandem Xorge Carrillo and Gabriel Gutierrez receiving pitches from Yoanys Quiala, Manny

Academia de Beisbol Alfredo Harp Helu, Oaxaca

Barreda, James Russell and closer Jake Sanchez.

Vizquel takes the reins in Tijuana from Oscar Robles, who managed the Toros to a 75-45 record in 2019 to tie Monclova for the LMB's best regular season record before falling to the Acereros in the LMB North Championship Series in seven games. Monclova went on to win their first pennant by beating Yucatan in the Serie del Rey. After a playing career likely to land him in Cooperstown as a sweet-fielding shortstop and timely batter, Vizquel managed two seasons in the Chicago White Sox system before parting ways with the Chisox after serving as dugout boss in AA Birmingham last year and is no doubt aware that Tijuana ownership will likely not accept anything short of the city's first pennant since 2017.

Meanwhile, Romero allows that the August 7 target for inaugural Liga games is a tentative one. "The first days of July are contemplated approximately to define whether or not there will be a 2020 season," he told El Fildeo, "and all this is conditioned on improving the difficult situation that we are going through with this pandemic."

KBO HOMER LEADER RAMOS SHELVED WITH ANKLE, BACK PAIN

Roberto Ramos raising eyes (and arms) in Korea

Hermosillo native Roberto Ramos' sensational debut season in the Korea Baseball Organization has been placed on hold after the LG Twins slugger was placed on the injured list last week with ankle and back problems. Ramos had played both games of a doubleheader on Thursday before the decision was made to sit him down for at least a three-game home series last weekend with the Busan Lotte Giants.

At the time he was shelved by the Seoul-based team last Friday, Ramos was leading the KBO with 13 homers while sitting in third place in both batting average (.391) and runs batted in (31). His .777 slugging percentage and 1.226 on-base plus slugging percentage both ranked second as Ramos was a prime reason the Twins were tied for second with the defending champion Doosan Bears in the standings at 21-12, four games behind the 25-8 NC Dinos.

"He had some discomfort in his right ankle after the double header, and he woke up this morning with a sore back," Twins manager Ryu Jong-Il said about Ramos in his pregame media availability Friday. "He took an injection in his back. We'll see how his recovery goes, but it looks like he won't be available this weekend." In Ramos' absence, the Twins called up first baseman Kim Ho-Eun from the minors. A 2016 sixth round draft pick, Kim made his KBO debut over the weekend.

Ramos going deep for LG Twins

The KBO has instituted a new procedure for injuries in 2020. Previously, whenever the league removed a player from their active roster due to an injury, they were required to sit for at least ten days before being reactivated. Now, there is no minimum number of days to remain out of the lineup, theoretically allowing a player placed on the IL on Friday night to sit one one game on Saturday before returning to the lineup Sunday afternoon.

Born in Hermosillo, the 25-year-old Ramos was a 2014 draft pick of the Colorado Rockies out of College of the Canyons in California. He spent six years in the Rockies farm system, socking 98 homers and batting .292 (including 30 longballs and 105 RBIs with a .309 average last season for AAA Albuquerque in the Pacific Coast League). Ramos signed a one-year free agent contract with the Twins in the offseason for $400,000 with a $50,000 signing bonus.

Ramos has played parts of six winterball seasons with his hometown Hermosillo Naranjeros, but without the same level of success that he's seen during the summer. Over 175 Mexican Pacific League games, he's hit .253 with 26 roundtrippers and 88 ribbies.

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.