Durango wins two in Mexico City, fewer than 2K attend series

There may not be two more different franchises in Mexican League baseball than the Mexico City Diablos Rojos and the Durango Generales.  The Diablos have existed in the nation's capital since 1940, they've won 16 pennants since they broke through for their first title in 1956, they're owned by Alfredo Harp Helu (Mexico's version of Paul Allen, a billionaire who likes to dabble in sports) and they'll move into a brand-new ballpark in 2018. South of the border, the Red Devils are baseball royalty.  After a halting beginning to the 2017 season, the Diablos won 8 of 10 games in early May to pull into contention for a playoff berth.

Then there are the Generales, who moved from Carmen during the winter, had an abbreviated training camp because there was nobody to run it for the first few weeks (manager Joe Alvarez wasn't hired until February), had to play their first month in the LMB on the road because renovation on Estadio Francisco Villa was delayed until well after the first of the year and have had to endure at least rumors of missing paychecks for players because owner Virgilio Ruiz is undercapitalized.  After a surprising start during which the Generales went 11-10 away from home, never being swept in a series while actually winning sets against LMB North powers Tijuana and Monterrey, the team hit the proverbial wall by being swept in Monterrey and Laguna before finally playing their first home game.  That came on May 2 against Monclova, who went on to sweep Durango and extend the new team's losing string to nine games while dropping their record to 11-19.

That was the background of the two franchises when the last-place Generales took a 20-31 record into Mexico City for their first-ever meeting against the 28-23 Diablos Rojos, who were hoping to pick up at least a couple wins and perhaps a sweep against the upstarts.  Instead, Durango left Estadio Fray Nano Thursday night after winning two of three games against one of the Liga's flagship franchises, leaving the Diablos wondering both what happened and where their fans were.

Durango pulled out a 5-3 win in Tuesday's opener when a two-out Daniel Hinojosa single brought in Jesus Loya and Javier Salazar to break a 3-all tie in the top of the ninth inning, followed by closer Tiago da Silva's scoreless frame (with two strikeouts) for his LMB-leading 19th save.  To their credit, the Diablos fought back Wednesday with a 13-8 slugout win keyed by a six-run sixth inning.  Mexico City shortstop Ramon Urias continued his career year by going 2-for-4 with four RBIs, including a three-run homer (his 10th) in the bottom of the first while leadoff man Carlos Figueroa had three of the Diablos' 17 hits on the night.

It was Thursday's rubber match, however, that left the home team scratching their collective heads as the visitors won by a 6-0 score.  Generales starting pitcher Amilcar Gaxiola, a former Braves farmhand who went 10-7 with Tabasco in 2014 but has struggled since (going 0-8 last year), tossed seven innings of six-hit shutout ball to earn his third consecutive win since May 20.  Durango rightfielder Yadir Drake, having a career year himself, belted a three-run homer in the top of the first off former LMB Rookie of the Year Juan Pablo Oramas to set the tone and the Diablos never came close to catching up.

The 27-year-old Drake (pictured), who defected from Cuba to the Yucatan Peninsula on a boat in 2011, is leading the Liga with a .406 average after bouncing around the minors since arriving on the mainland six years ago.  He actually spent time with a Diablos affiliate before signing with the Dodgers, who released him early last year.  Drake's career was floundering until last winter, when he hooked on with Los Mochis and hit .232 with 6 homers in 39 games for the Mayos.  Not eye-popping numbers, true, but enough to earn an invite from the fledgling Generales, who return home Friday night to open a weekend series against Tijuana.

While the Generales have earned respect around the LMB for showing fight under difficult circumstances, even by Liga standards, and winning 11 of their last 15 games, the Diablos are left wondering what's next. Since their May run (capped by a five-game win streak), Mexico City has gone 4-8 heading into a weekend home set against Union Laguna.  While they are a long way from being out of the race for a postseason berth at 28-26, good for a fifth-place tie with Aguascalientes and three games behind fourth-place Laguna, the Diablos are back to looking to regain some mojo.

The Diablos are one of two in the Liga (Harp's Oaxaca Guerreros being the other) who've decided to field all-Mexican rosters this year in reaction to MiLB president Pat O'Connor's edict last winter that there will be no limit to the number of Mexican-American players in the Liga.  Both teams, to their credit, have played credibly thus far (Oaxaca is one game out of fourth in the LMB South), but going all-domestic with one of the circuit's most potent offenses, including a .303 team batting average, has not translated to support at home for the Diablos.

A number of Mexican League teams have struggled at the gate in 2017, but nobody expected a legacy team in a city of more than 20 million people to draw fewer than 2,000 fans TOTAL for their series against Durango.  None of the three contests against the Generales drew as many as 700 aficionados at Estadio Fray Nano and a number of writers have noted that both Mexico City and Tabasco are now routinely drawing fewer than 1,000 onlookers per game, whether or not the announced attendance figures reflect that. reality.  The Diablos are officially averaging 2,805 fans per opening after 27 home games, ranking 12th in the 16-team loop, but it's clear that Mexico City residents are not coming to a ballpark that was never more than a stopgap after the team moved there from Foro Sol in 2014.  Perhaps people are waiting for the unnamed 12,000-seat (expandable to 16,000) facility to open.  It's been speculated that the new ballpark will be ready for play next month, making the decision by Diablos management to delay their first game until April 2018 a curious one, since Fray Nano has obviously never worked out for the team.  Ironically, a Durango team that was perilously close to not even playing this year is seventh in the LMB with an average of 3,604 fans after 15 home dates.

With the midway point of the season on the horizon, it's still too early to make any long-term predictions, dire or otherwise.  But even though a look at both Durango and Mexico City LMB franchises would give all the advantages to the latter at first glance, the two clubs appear to be heading in opposite directions.  Although there is certainly no chance of the Diablos folding or leaving Mexico City (the Yankees will leave New York first), the team needs some positive things to start happening soon to keep 2017 from becoming a proverbial “lost season.”

Mexico City ballpark to be ready by July, Diablos will wait to play in it

Construction of Mexico City's new 13,000-seat ballpark will apparently be completed by July and ready for occupancy, but Mexico City Diablos Rojos owner Alfredo Harp Helu says his club will remain at 5,200-seat Estadio Fray Nano for the entire current season and open the new facility in 2018.

At a recent press conference, Harp told assembled media that he is the owner of the as-yet-unnamed stadium, which he added was costing him US$80 million, rather than the original US$60 million pricetag.  Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso said the media outlet has confirmed the cost at US$90 million and that a uniquely-shaped roof over the grandstands will cost just over US$20 by itself to erect.

While Harp may indeed be financing the ballpark and is thus its legal owner, the land it sits on within the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City is being leased from the city.  Pereyra quoted Harp as saying, "I am the owner, not the government of the city.  I created a partnership with my family to get all the resources. There is no help from anyone, like in other cities or states. It's my family's money. The land was given through a special loan, first for 12 years but that can be renewed.  We will have to pay somehow because in the long run they stay (the government) with everything."  Harp, who Forbes magazine has listed as the 974th richest man in the world, says the city will take ownership of the facility after his passing.

Whoever owns what for how long, the new stadium will end a somewhat uncertain ballpark stuation that has existed for the second-largest metropolitan area in the Western hemisphere since the 25,000-seat Parque del Seguro Social (pictured) last hosted baseball on June 1, 2000, when the then-Mexico City Tigres topped the Diablos, 7-5, in a game that lasted until 12:34 the next morning.  Current Diablos skipper Miguel Ojeda belted the old park's last home run.  Parque de Seguro Social was eventually razed to make room for a shopping center.  The two teams inaugurated Foro Sol for baseball the following day, something that won't be repeated in 2017.

While Foro Sol is comparable in seating capacity to its predecessor, it was built in 1993 primarily as an outdoor concert venue and was never considered a "baseball-friendly" stadium during the 15 seasons it was used by the Diablos (the Tigres moved to Puebla following the 2001 season).  After announcing in 2014 that a new ballpark would be built in Mexico City, Harp moved the Diablos to Estadio Fray Nano, where he invested in renovations and expansion to 5,200 seats there.  Over the past two seasons serving as a placeholder for the team until their new digs are ready, attendance at Diablos games has been negligible at best.  Mexico's most storied ballclub has drawn just 283,004 fans to 107 home games over the past two seasons for an average of 2,645 per opening, finishing 13th in the Liga attendance derby both years.

Harp also owns the Oaxaca Guerreros, where there don't appear to be any plans to replace Estadio Eduardo Vasconcelos, a 7,200-seater opened in 1950 (although Harp has constructed a baseball academy in the southern Mexico city).  Both teams are fielding all-Mexican teams in 2017, Harp's reaction to Minor League Baseball president Pat O'Connor's ruling that there will be no limits on the number of Mexican-American players an LMB team can carry on their roster.  "At the academy," Proceso quotes him as saying, "we bring in boys at 14 or 15 years, we give them schooling, we give them everything and I do not want them sitting on the bench."  It's a somewhat ironic twist, since longtime rival Tigres owner Alejo Peralta was a very vocal proponent of Mexican-only teams in the Liga, assembling a number of such teams himself while serving as the driving force for the national baseball academy just outside Monterrey in El Carmen.

Report: New Mexico City ballpark 65 percent completed

Mexico City's new baseball stadium will not be ready to open this year, as originally hoped, but a report states that the new ballpark is almost two-thirds finished and should be ready during the 2018 season.

According to Beatriz Pereyra in Proceso, Mexico City Diablos Rojos general manager Othon Diaz says that while the team would love to be able to open the new facility in time for the start of next year's schedule, there are construction questions that may push the opener back to the third quarter of the 2018 season.  "For example," Diaz says, "the crane that will install a roof over the stands can't be used if there is too much wind, as per regulations.  There are several limitations that prevent us from giving a specific date."  Pereyra adds that environmental mitigation concerns and efforts have slowed progress on the ballpark, which is located within the Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City grounds owned and operated by the Mexico City government.

It will feature synthetic turf on a symmetrical field of 332 feet down both foul lines and 410 feet to straightaway center field, which may be a smallish playing surface in a city that sits at an elevation of 7,382 feet.  Both Guadalajara and Denver are at elevations of 2,000 less than Mexico City and both are considered launching pads for batters belting baseballs into the thinner air.

The ballpark, which will cost US$90 milliion (with Diablos owner Alfredo Harp Helu contributing about US$12 million) will have 12,000 permanent seats but be expandable to 16,000 with temporary seating beyond the outfield fences.  While it'll be far from the kind of ballpark that could host a Major League Baseball team in Mexico City, it will be one of Mexico's largest baseball venues and certainly among the most state of the art in a Mexican League that features a number of aging facilities among its current 16-team lineup.

There's no question that the primary tenant Diablos Rojos are chomping at the bit to move out of Estadio Fray Nano, where the team has resided since moving out of Foro Sol before the 2015 season.  Although Foro Sol seats 25,000 for baseball, it was built as a concert venue and not designed to house a ballclub. The Diablos called Foro Sol "home" for 14 seasons and the facility has also hosted World Baseball Classic pool play in 2009 and MLB exhibition games, but it was never a comfortable fit for the sport.

As a result, Harp invested nearly US$3 million into renovations at Estadio Fray Nano, expanding the seating from 3,000 to 5,200 along with other upgrades to bring it up to Mexican League standards as a temporary home for the team while the new ballpark is under construction.  It was expected that attendance would dip at Estadio Fray Nano, named after a sportswriter who helped created the Mexican League in 1925, but turnout has been far worse than anticipated.  After averaging just under 4,000 per game at Foro Sol in 2014, the Diablos' last year there (a pennant-winning season), crowds dipped to a 2,787 average at Fray Nano in 2015 and 2,511 last season, both in the bottom quartile of LMB attendance figures.  Although the facility is far more hospitable to baseball than Foro Sol ever was, it's also one of the Liga's smallest and people are simply not coming to Diablos games.

While there's little question the Diablos Rojos will benefit from the move to the new structure once it's complete, there is speculation about whether they'll have company.  There has been some clamor south of the border for the Quintana Roo Tigres to move back to the team's city of origin, a clamor only likely to grow now that Carlos Peralta, who moved the Tigres first to Puebla and then Cancun, has sold the team to a group of investors led by former Cy Young Award winner Fernando Valenzuela.  The Tigres have never really caught on in Cancun despite winning four Liga pennants since moving to the resort city in 2007.  The Tigres and Diablos developed the most storied rivalry in Mexican baseball over more than four decades of sharing the long-lost (and long-lamented) Parque de Social Seguro and Foro Sol before Peralta first transferred the Tigres to Puebla in 2002.

Whether Valenzuela would walk away from the state subsidies his franchise routinely has received in Quintana Roo to be a tenant in a ballpark overseen by the Diablos and team president Roberto Mansur (assuming Harp or Mansur would approve having a second team in Mexico City) remains to be seen, but the possibility is something worth keeping an eye on.  A Diablos-Tigres co-tenancy would not likely happen prior to the 2019 season, it could revive public interest in a key rivalry for a league in dire need of revival.

Astros, Padres split Mexico City Series; Valencia wins HR Derby

Major League Baseball held its first exhibition games in Mexico City since 2004 over the weekend, with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres splitting two games at Estadio Fray Nano on Saturday and Sunday.

Festivities kicked off Friday with a home run derby won by Tijuana Toros second baseman Carlos Valencia at a makeshift diamond built on the city's Zocalo (pictured above), Mexico's largest public square and a ceremonial spot dating to the Aztec dynasty prior to the arrival of Hernan Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadores.

Valencia beat out Mexico City Diablos Rojos outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Quintana Roo Tigres teammates Jorge Cantu and Esteban Quiroz for the title.  In the first round, Cantu led all four batsmen with 10 homers, followed by Valencia at 8, Quiroz with 7 and 5 for Terrazas.  Hitting into a headwind in the final round, Valencia jumped out to an early lead over Cantu before the former MLB infielder started finding his groove, albeit a little too late as Valencia finished with 15 dingers to Cantu's 7.

Also on Friday, a clinic for young Mexican ballplayers was held, with former major league third baseman Vinny Castilla joined by ex-pitchers Esteban Loaiza and Ismael Valdez addressing the assembled youths. Oh, and they played a little baseball over the weekend, too.

On Saturday, Houston bombed San Diego, 11-1, behind the strong pitching of Chris Devenski.  An Astros farmhand ticket to start the season at Class AAA Fresno, tossed 4.1 shutout innings and struck out seven Padres batsmen.  The 2015 National League Rookie of the Year, Carlos Correa, joined with Tyler White to open the fourth inning with back-to-back solo homers to give Houston a 2-0 lead.  The Astros put two more scores on the board in the bottom of the sixth before pounding Padres pitching for seven runs in the seventh to put the game away as 5,602 onlookers watched at Estadio Fray Nano.  Mexican product Leo Heras went 2-for-3 for Houston, scoring once and driving in two more runs.

Saturday's contest was a pitcher's duel in comparison to what happened Sunday as San Diego roared back to cop a 21-6 victory in front of 6,143 fanaticos at Fray Nano.  This one was pretty much over after the first inning, with the Padres converting three-run homers by Jabari Blash and Jon Jay plus a two-run longball by Adam Rosales into a nine-run outburst.  The Friars got subsequent homers from Travis Jankowski and Casey McElroy in the blowout.  All the San Diego scoring would have obscured the work of Padres starting pitcher Cesar Vargas had he not been a native of Puebla, 85 miles south of Mexico City.  Vargas went three shutout innings and struck out five Houston hitters to earn the win.  Colin Moran went deep for the Astros, but this game belonged to the Padres from the get-go.

As good a weekend as it was for baseball fans in the capital city, it was at least as good for ticket resellers.  Ducats for the two games were originally priced at up to 1,800 pesos (US$103 at the current exchange rate), but scalpers outside Fray Nano (pictured right) were getting 3,500 pesos (US$206) for some tickets while being unbothered by law enforcement or stadium security officers.

Astros, Padres square off in Mexico City this weekend

The Houston Astros and San Diego Padres are sending split squads to Mexico City for a two-game MLB exhibition series this weekend at Estadio Fray Nano, home of the Mexican League's Red Devils.  There will also be a Home Run Derby involving LMB players and a clinic for youth players overseen by former All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla, a native Oaxacan.  The games will take place Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

The two teams have finalized their respective 28-man rosters for the trip to the D.F.  Houston has released their list of players, which will include All-Stat second baseman Jose Altuve (pictured), shortstop Carlos Correa (the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year) and outfielder Leo Heras, a veteran of both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific Leagues who is in the Astros' training camp in Florida.  San Diego's entourage will include six Mexican-born players in the Padres' Arizona camp, including 24-year-old right-hander Cesar Vargas of Puebla, who will take the mound to start Sunday's contest.  Shortstop Alexei Ramirez, a Cuban in his first year with San Diego after eight seasons with the White Sox, had both his agent and lawyer clear up any possible visa issues so he could make the trip.

The Home Run Derby was scheduled for Friday at Fray Nano, with Quintana Roo Tigres infielders Esteban Quiroz and former MLBer Jorge Cantu, Diablos Rojos' outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Tijuana second baseman Carlos Valencia (who played in Mexico City from 2006 through 2013) rounding out the four participants.

Castilla, who had more homers, runs batted in, runs scored and hits in his MLB career than any other Mexican-born player, is now a special assistant with the Colorado Rockies, for whom he had his best seasons in the 1990's.  He was to be joined at the clinics by former White Sox pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who won 21 games for the White Sox and led the American League with 203 strikeouts in 2003 (finishing second in Cy Young Award balloting that year) and ex-Dodgers hurler Ismael "Rocket" Valdez, who reached double figures in wins five times in his major league career, including four straight years in Los Angeles in the mid-Nineties.

Estadio Fray Nano is the smallest ballpark in the Mexican League with 5,200 seats, but has been expanded to fit 6,464 fans this weekend.   Saturday's game will be carried live on Univision Deportes in the USA and Telvisa Deportes in Mexico, with Astros Spanish broadcaster Francisco Romero calling the play-by-play.

Canizales talks LMP expansion, rules changes

In the afterglow of watching one of his teams win the Caribbean Series for the fourth time in six winters after setting box office records during the regular season, Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales shared his thoughts with ESPN Deportes about possible expansion of the eight-team circuit into the nation's capital and changes in the system used to determine the loop's six playoff teams.

Saying there's no timeline, Canizales admitted that the LMP has already looked at placing a team in Leon while he dreams of a MexPac franchise in Mexico City. "The Liga Pacifico is deeply rooted in the culture of the people of the north," Canizales told ESPN. "We have the challenge of crossing that border.  There are plans to expand to Leon and the dream is to have a team in Mexico City, although that hasn't been talked about."

Leon is a city of more than 1.5 million residents in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato that has had Mexican League teams in the past, most recently in 1991. Leon's ballpark, Estadio Domingo Santana (pictured), underwent renovations in 2014 that included work on the playing surface and in some areas within the existing structure, but the seating capacity remains at 3,000, far too small for a league that averaged nearly 10,000 fans per opening this winter.  Longtime Mexican baseball coach and scout Carlos Fragoso, who has recommended players to both the Red Sox and Yankees, says that while Leon is an open market at present, the LMB has "reserved" it as a possible franchise site should one of its 16 teams seek to move from its current locale in the future.

It would not be any easier to establish a team in the Distrito Federal, where the Mexican League Diablos Rojos have created a virtual baseball hegemony, making it tough for competitors to gain a foothold.  The Diablos could be considered the Liga's flagship franchise, given their location, history of success, the deep pockets of owner Alfredo Harp Helu and the insider power of team president Roberto Mansur.  In addition, Mexico City's best-suited facility for the sport, Estadio Fray Nano, holds only 5,200 onlookers and is controlled by the Red Devils while a new 13,000-seat ballpark is in the works.

Canizales also touched on the end to the MexPac's regular season in December, in which the Jalisco Charros were in the position of qualifying for the playoffs if they LOST their last game.  "It's necessary to improve the system of competition, although there've only been three times when a team has reached the final game needing to lose to advance to the playoffs," he said.  "Maybe a playoff game between the teams involved would provide a solution."

MLB to stage "Mexico City Series" in March

Major League Baseball will return to Mexico City for the first time in twelve springs when the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres play exhibition games March 26 and 27 at Estadio Fray Nano.

The series will be the third time the Padres have played in Mexico City after previous visits in 1971 and 1981.  The Southern California club has also had exhibition games in Tijuana and Hermosillo with two trips to Culiacan, and hosted a three-game regular season series with the New York Mets in 1996 in Monterrey, where they also opened the 1999 schedule against the Colorado Rockies at Estadio Monterrey.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow was born and raised in Mexico City.  "I'm thrilled that the Astros will have the opportunity to play in Mexico," Luhnow says.  "The Mexican people have a great love for baseball, so I know these games will be well-received."  Luhnow was joined at a press conference by Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve.  The two-game set between Houston and San Diego is being billed as the "Mexico City Series."  Both teams will send split squads due to concurrent spring training games in the States.

Estadio Fray Nano is home to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.  MLB's last appearance in the Mexican capital was in 2004 when the Astros played two games with the Marlins at Foro Sol, which could hold 25,000 for baseball but was designed more for concerts and never a comfortable fit for baseball.  At 5,000 seats, Fray Nano is much smaller than Foro Sol, but much more hospitable to the King of Sports.  The Red Devils played at Foro Sol from 2000 through 2014 after longtime home Social Security Park was razed to make way for a shopping center.  A new Estadio Diablos Rojos, with seating for 13,000 plus an outfield grass berm holding 3,000 more, is targeted for a 2017 opening.

One MLB preseason game was played in Mexico last year when the Arizona Diamondbacks met Colorado on March 29 in Hermosillo.