LAGUNA SKIPPER OMAR MALAVE, 58, COMMITS SUICIDE

    A family member has confirmed that Union Laguna Algodoneros manager Omar Malave is dead of suicide at age 58. Daughter Omarling Malave took to Twitter to verify that her father had taken his own life last Monday at his Dunedin, Florida home: “For everyone who wants to know what happened. He killed himself. This is the truth that I will not hold back because mental health is very important. It can happen to anyone! Even someone like Omar Malavé. Never in a million years would I think my dad would do this, but he did.”

    The daughter of the Venezuela-born manager deeply regretted that her children, Omar’s grandchildren, will not be able to enjoy those baseball anecdotes that he was able to tell, this due to his great career as a professional. “Mental health is still such a taboo subject,” Omarling tweeted, “Especially in men. They are taught to ignore their feelings and be strong, but the reality is that men have feelings and emotions too. Suicide comes in all ages, sexes and sizes.“

    In his first season as skipper of the Torreon club, Malave led the Cottoneers to an unexpected Mexican League playoff berth this summer with a 31-33 record after the team had been predicted by many to finish last in the nine-team North Division. He played nine seasons in the Toronto minor league system and managed Blue Jays farm teams after retiring as a player. Dunedin is the Jays’ longtime spring training home.

    The Algodoneros team website had no mention of Malave’s passing one week after his suicide and still listed him as their manager. Two other Mexican League franchises announced managerial changes last week.

    The Dos Laredos Tecolotes named Mark Weidemaier as manager for 2022. Weidemaier will assume the helm from interim pilot Rafael Rijo, who took over the Owls after first-year manager Pablo Ortega was fired during a 2021 campaign which saw the club finish 30-36 for an eighth-place finish in the LMB North.

    A baseball lifer who served as an assistant coach at Ohio State University while still a student at the University of North Carolina, Weidemaier served under manager Matt Williams in Washington between 2014 and 2015 and also worked for Williams in Korea this year as bench coach for the KIA Tigers. Weidemaier has twice managed in the LMB. He was bench boss for Union Laguna in 1988 and for Veracruz in 2016, laboring for Dos Laredos owner Jose Antonio Mansur in the port city before the team was moved to the border cities.

    Weidemaier joins the Tecos at a time when the team is once again embroiled in controversy over their status in Laredo, Texas. The Tecos are doing battle with STX Venue Management owner Danny Lopez over control of the ballpark during the team’s home games, stating that Lopez “has created an environment in which the team can’t operate properly or efficiently,” according to the Laredo Morning Times. The Tecos ended up splitting home games between Laredo and Nuevo Laredo last season after similar concerns led them to consider farming home games out to other Texas border cities.

Finally, the Durango Generales have named former major league infielder Alvaro Espinoza as their new manager. Espinoza appeared in 12 MLB seasons and was a starting shortstop for the Yankees between 1989 and 1991 as well as the Cleveland Indians in 1993. He replaces another former big league shortstop, longtime LMB skipper Felix Fermin, in Durango after the Generales finished last in the LMB North with a 20-45 record to tie Oaxaca for the worst record in the Liga’s truncated 2021 season.

This will be Espinoza’s first time managing a Mexican team but the Valencia, Venezuela native has led the Anzoategui Caribes in the Liga Venezolana, where he played winterball for over a decade and batted .368 in three Caribbean Series (he was named to the CS Hall of Fame in 2014). He’s also managed and coached in the Expos, Dodgers, Pirates and Giants organization since 1998 and (like Weidemaier) coached in the Korea Baseball Organization last summer with the Kiwoom Heroes.

CULIACAN P RAMIREZ HOSPITALIZED AFTER LINER BEANING

    J.C. Ramirez had a scary evening last week after the Culiacan pitcher was drilled on the head by a line drive off the bat of Hermosillo’s Addison Russell during a Mexican Pacific League game last Sunday at Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo.

    The comebacker beaning occurred in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Tomateros manager Benji Gil sent Ramirez in with two out to pitch to the former Cubs All-Star. Russell, who drove in Luis Alfonso Cruz and ended up at third base with what in effect was an infield triple, was visibly upset and held his own head in his hands as he came into third. The Tomateros eventually won the contest, 4-3.

    Ramirez was taken to a local hospital for observation prior to being released with a clean bill of health last Wednesday. The 33-year-old Nicaraguan righty has been pitching out of the bullpen for Culiacan and it’s been a struggle. After six appearances, Ramirez has an 0-2 record with a 6.35 ERA for the defending champions. He was 4-2 and 1.74 over six starts for the Tomateros last winter before splitting last summer between Taiwan’s Fubon Guardians (4-5 and 3.43 in nine starts for the CPBL club) and the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (2-0 and 3.43 in three starts for the LMB flagship franchise).

    The Mex Pac’s second-half standings are still bunched up after two weeks. Only four games separated the ten teams after 14 contests each. Mexicali has gone 9-5 for new manager Gil Velazquez and is clinging to a one-game lead over Guasave, Mazatlan and first-half champion Navojoa (all 8-6) while Hermosillo and Obregon are tied for fifth at 7-7, two games out of first. Even the moribund Los Mochis Caneros are showing signs of life after sweeping a Saturday doubleheader against Monterrey, 4-1 and 2-0, at home in Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria.

    Behind the strong pitching of Carlos Viera (6 innings, 1 run in the opener) and Fabian Cota (7 shutouts innings in the nightcap), the Caneros raised their second-half record to 5-9, just a half-game behind 5-8 Jalisco. Although Los Mochis is still in last place on the heels of a disastrous first half in which they trailed the other nine teams with a 9-23 record, the Canegrowers are showing enough of a pulse to at least crack the double-digit mark in wins under new manager Luis Carlos Rivera over the second stanza.

    Navojoa’s Tirso Ornelas has taken clear ownership of the Mex Pac batting race with a .383 average, thirty points ahead of teammate Samar Leyva’s .353 mark. Christian Villanueva of Jalisco has a .369 average but the Guadalajara native has spent most of November on the Charros’ reserve list and has appeared in just 24 games. Another Jalisco player, Dariel Alvarez, is batting .412 with three homers in 13 games since returning from Japan.

    Navojoa first baseman Kyle Martin socked his 11th homer last week and leads in that category, ahead of Monterrey’s Anthony Giansanti (8) and five more players with seven longballs each. Jalisco’s Julian Ornelas (Tirso’s brother) leads with 34 RBIs, one more than Charros’ teammate Felix Perez and the 32 of Joey Meneses of Culiacan. Tomateros outfielder Dairon Blanco failed to steal a base last week but his 20 swipes still give him a comfortable lead over Obregon’s Alonzo Harris (14) and Ramon Rios of Mazatlan (13).

    There are now six LMP pitchers with five wins each to tie for the league lead: Elian Leyva (Hermosillo), Carlos De Leon and Raul Carrillo (both Navojoa) plus Hector Velazquez and Demetrio Gutierrez (both Obregon). Leyva continues to top the list of qualifiers for the ERA title at 1.17, ahead of Velazquez (1.94) and another Obregon hurler, Arturo Lopez (2.11). Lopez’ 40 strikeouts are third on the list behind Octavio Acosta of Navojoa (45) and Obregon’s Luis Escobar (43). With such great ERA and K numbers, Lopez deserves a better record than 1-2 after eight starts. Mexicali’s Jake Sanchez picked up a pair of saves last week to raise his season total to 16; Carlos Bustamante of Navojoa and Hermosillo’s Fernando Salas are tied for second with 11 saves each.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP (Stop #9): Mazatlan, Sinaloa

    The ninth of ten stops on our virtual tour of Mexican Pacific League cities, Mazatlan, Sinaloa is a relatively long 135-mile jaunt south from Culiacan on Highway 150, a driving trip that runs about two-and-a-half hours mostly along the Gulf of California coast.

    Named after a native word for "place of the Deer," Mazatlan is the largest Pacific Coast seaport between Los Angeles and the Panama Canal, in which tourism gradually developed as an adjunct to its success as the "Shrimp Capital of the World." Mazatlan’s thriving seafood industry lessens the need for tourist dollars that are the sole economic driver of other cities on Mexico’s west coast like Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas and Ixtapa (although it is more tourist-driven than any other LMP franchise site).

    Mazatlan enjoys year-round sunshine and a mostly temperate climate, although it can get hot and humid during the summer. While the other seven LMP cities get frying-pan hot during the summer and even the winter, Mazatlan sits across from the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula, which blocks ocean breezes from reaching places like Obregon, Culiacan and Hermosillo. Mazatlan has miles of Pacific beaches lined by a seawall promenade called the Malecon. Visitors indulge in sports fishing, golf, bicycling, tennis and water sports.

    There’s an area in north Mazatlan called the Zona Dorado, or “Gold Zone,” where Americans and Candians generally congregate. The Zona Dorado bears as much resemblance to the “real” Mexico as Las Vegas bears to the “real” America and if a visitor to Mazatlan doesn’t venture outside the veritable tourist enclave, they'll miss the essence of the city.

    While the downtown core can’t truly be called “Old Mexico” in style because coastal cities were mostly fishing villages until the 20th century, Mazatlan is a lively place with many plazas in which Spanish architecture brackets the goings-on. It’s a lot less expensive than the Zona Dorado, too, and visitors have a much greater opportunity to experience the natural warmth and kindness of the Mexican people. English is spoken in Mazatlan more than any other city in the LMP except perhaps Mexicali on the California border.

    The Mazatlan Venados have historically been one of the strongest franchises in the Mexican Pacific League. The Venados (or "Deer") have won nine pennants in the modern LMP, plus another five flags in the old winter Pacific Coast League in the 1940’s and 50’s, and Caribbean Series titles in 2005 and 2016.

    Venados home games are played at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, which opened in 1962 and was expanded to 12,000 seats in 2000 before a total renovation resulted in a state-of-the-art facility with 16,000 permanent seats in 2018. It has hosted six Caribbean Series, including the 2005 tournament won by the Venados and the most recent Serie del Caribe last February.

MAYOS ELIMINATED, LMP PLAYOFF TEAMS DETERMINED

Hermosillo LHP Juan Pablo Oramas

    When Navojoa dropped a 3-2 decision to Obregon on Tuesday, the Mayos were mathematically eliminated from the Mexican Pacific League playoff picture for next month, ensuring that Caribbean Series host Mazatlan has secured a post season berth. With Los Mochis already long out of the picture, that left eight teams to open the LMP Quarterfinals on Saturday, January 2.

    After games on Monday, December 28, the Hermosillo Naranjeros were in line for the top overall seed with a two-half total of 19 playoff points with two games remaining in the regular season, followed by Obregon (17 points), Guasave (14) and Monterrey (also 14). Those would be the four teams with home-field advantage during the first round. The next four seeds are projected to be Mexicali (13.5 points), Jalisco (11), defending champion Culiacan (11) and Mazatlan (10).

    Things are close enough in the second-half standings that seeding placements could change after the regular season closes Wednesday, but both Navojoa (8.5) and Los Mochis (7.0) will be done no matter what happens, although players like infielders Esteban “El Pony” Quiroz and Isaac Rodriguez are almost certain to be added as reinforcements for teams moving on to the postseason

    Hermosillo (17-11) has benefited from the strong pitching of veteran Juan Pablo Oramas all season and last Sunday was no exception. Oramas won his eighth game of the year by taking a 5-3 triumph over Guasave. Oramas tossed six innings and allowed three runs (all in the top of the first) while scattering nine hits and striking out four before leaving the contest with a two-run lead. Reliever Raul Barron hurled scoreless ball over the final three frames to save the win for the Naranjeros. Oramas is now tied the Mex Pac lead in wins with Guasave's Fernando Miranda. Both have identical 8-2 records, although Oramas' 2.80 ERA is a full run lower than Miranda's 3.86.

    The Orangemen got some bad news when they learned that first baseman Roberto Ramos won't be joining them for the playoffs after all. The team had been anxiously awaiting the hometown slugger to report after his strong 2020 debut in the Korea Baseball Organization, but Ramos celebrated his 27^th birthday Monday after re-signing with the LG Twins for $800,000 plus incentives that could bring his income up to $1 million in 2021. Ramos received a reported $500,000 this year after swatting 38 homers for the Twins and received interest from other KBO teams before agreeing to return to Busan for a second year.

    Mexicali (16-11) was a half-game behind Hermosillo in second place and Guasave continued their strong second LMP season one game out of the lead at 16-12. It's been quite a busy week for the Algodoneros, who said goodbye to shortstop Erisbel Arruebarrena on what a team press release (which repeatedly misspelled his last name as Arruebarruena) was “common agreement between both parties.” The Cottoneers cited both a shin injury suffered in a recent game with Mexicali and Arruebarrena's ongoing bout with diabetes for his declining on-field performance (.333 average with 10 homers in 29 games), although they did thank the Cuban for his “dedication and professionalism, blah blah blah.”

C.J. Retherford is now with Guasave

    Guasave also placed starting pitcher Thomas Dorminy (3-4, 3.44) on the disabled list with back pain. In turn, the Algodoneros picked up Cuban pitcher Yoenni Yeri and veteran third baseman C.J. “Rabbit” Retherford to join Cuban oufielder Yadier Drake as the team's three foreigners allowed on the active roster. Sports manager Alejandro Ahumada said, “We need to strengthen the middle part of the batting order and we believe Retherford is the man for that task.” Retherford broke into pro ball in 2007 in the White Sox system and has gone on to play several years in both the LMP and Mexican League, representing Mexicali in the 2017 Caribbean Series.

    First half champion Obregon (15-13) has rebounded from a slow second-half start to pull into a fourth-place tie with Monterrey (15-13). Jalisco (14-14) and Mazatlan (13-15) are sixth and seventh, respectively, while Culiacan and Navojoa are knotted in a tie for eighth at 12-16 each. While the champion Tomateros have had a hangover season following their LMP title last winter, a couple of their pitchers recently overcame their team's lukewarm 2020-21 performance. Edgar Arredondo has signed a contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks for the 2021 season. The 23-year-old spent seven season in the Texas system, reaching AA Frisco in 2019 and winning seven games, but the Rangers let him go earlier this year and he didn't pitch last summer. Arredondo, who was 15 when he debuted with the Quintana Roo Tigres by tossing two scoreless innings in a 2013 game, is 4-1 with a 2.74 ERA in seven starts for the Tomateros this winter.

    Another Culiacan hurler, J.C. Ramirez, has reached an agreement to pitch next year in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League. The 32-year-old Nicaraguan, who pitched in eight MLB seasons (most recently with the Angels in 2019), will join Mexican Manny Banuelos on the Fubon Guardians staff in 2021. He has a 4-2 record for the Tomateros with a 1.74 ERA in six starts this season. It's unknown whether he'll stay with Culiacan for the playoffs.

CAPACITY SET AT 45 PERCENT FOR CARIBBEAN SERIES

The Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, the Mexican Pacific League and the host Mazatlán Venados have confirmed details of the 2021 Caribbean Series to be played from January 31 to February 6, 2021 at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal in the port city.

    CBPC commissioner Juan Francisco Puello Herrera, Mazatlán mayor Guillermo Benítez, LMP president Omar Canizales Soto and Serie del Caribe Organizing Committee president Ismael Barros all confirmed plans for the 63rd edition of the Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball.

    "We are supervising with the Mexican Pacific League so that the conditions of the Caribbean Series in terms of players are the best in terms of health," said Herrera, who also presented the trophies for the upcoming CS champion plus Dream Team members.

    “Mazatlán is a safe destination in terms of the virus,” commented mayor Benitez, inviting everyone to attend the Caribbean Series. “We are in the third consecutive day in which there is no active case. That gives us great confidence that we have all the tools to control the pandemic. That is why Mazatlán is the first tourist destination in the country to get out of the pandemic and we will continue to strictly comply with the protocols.

    “We are a bio-safe city.”

Estadio Teodoro Mariscal in Mazatlan

    In addition, in the virtual conference that brought together media of different nationalities, it was confirmed that between the governments of the state of Sinaloa and the municipality of Mazatlán, the host ballpark will have all the security measures and protocols to hold up to 45 percent of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal's 16,000-seat capacity (or 7,200 spectators). According to an LMP press release, “this will allow baseball to continue as a recreational tool for Mazatlan fans, as it has done in the 2020-2021 Season of the ARCO Mexican Pacific League, with an excellent management supported by the modernity of the stadium.”

    The Caribbean Series is scheduled to bring together the winterball champions of Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as full CBPC members of the Confederation, as well as Colombia and Panama and as guest countries for the second and third times, respectively. Cuba will not be represented in Mazatlan after pulling out of last winter's Serie del Caribe in San Juan Puerto Rico on short notice, citing visa concerns.

    Herrera also gave thanks for all the support the CBPC, the Organizing Committee, the LMP and state government authorities have received from Sinaloa governor Quirino Ordaz.

FANS CAN CHOOSE MEX PAC AWARD WINNERS

Monterrey manager Gerardo Alvarez

    The Mexican Pacific League has announced on its Twitter account how fans can choose the loop's Most Valuable Players in separate offensive, defensive and pitching categories for the 2020-2021 campaign. This is the first time in which the LMP has involved fans in such selections while “not leaving this to a certain sector of the press,” a league office press release states.

    On its Twitter account, the Mex Pac invites fans to sign up and, with two simple steps, vote for their favorite players in the different departments. Fans must register with personal data before the can begin voting on candidates in five separate categories:

Obregon pitcher Dallas Martinez

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Baldomero “Melo” Almada Trophy
Jonathan Aranda, Obregon
Faustino Carrera, Obregon
Luis Miranda, Guasave
Missael Rivera, Jalisco
Oscar Rojas, Guasave

MANAGER OF THE YEAR
Benjamin “Cananea” Reyes Trophy
Gerardo Alvarez, Monterrey
Sergio Gastelum, Obregon
Juan Navarrete, Hermosillo
Bronswell Patrick, Mexicali
Oscar Robles, Guasave
Roberto Vizacarra, Jalisco

Mazatlan infielder Isaac Paredes

PITCHER OF THE YEAR
Vicente “Huevo" Romo Trophy
Dallas Martinez, Obregon
Luis Miranda, Guasave
Luis Ivan Rodriguez, Jalisco
Juan Pablo Oramas, Hermosillo
Miguel Pena, Mexicali
Javier Solano, Mexicali

RELIEVER OF THE YEAR*
Alberto Baldonado, Culiacan
Roberto Espinosa, Mazatlan
Jesus Pirela, Mazatlan
Fernando Salas, Hermosillo

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER*
Dariel Alvarez, Jalisco
Japhet Amador, Jalisco
Sebastian Elizalde, Culiacan
Isaac Paredes, Mazatlan

*Partial list of candidates available at post time.

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.

ANOTHER LMB DELAY, ESPN PREDICTS 30-GAME SEASON

The Mexican League is delaying the opening of its 2020 season for a second time. LMB president Horacio de la Vega made the announcement last Thursday in an official statement issued from the league's Mexico City offices.

After postponing the LMB's April 6 season opener in which the defending champion Monclova Acereros were to host Monterrey, de la Vega had set a May 11 target date to start the season with hopes of playing a 102-game schedule as originally intended. Instead, de la Vega said, "Clearly we will not be in a position to open on May 11, but we are prepared and coordinated to start the 2020 season during the subsequent months and with as many games as possible; contemplating different game roles, which are feasible according to logistics, operation, competition and entertainment."  No target date was given in the statement.

De la Vega touched on a number of other issues, including compensation for players, coaches and umpires during the inactivity. "The team owners have made significant efforts to provide short term support to the members of the respective rosters so they can face the waiting time in a dignified way to start the 2020 season," he said. "At the same time, the LMB has arranged to support the umpires so that together and as a team we all get ahead." In hs Out 27 column, writer David Braverman said that de la Vega was long on words but lacking in details.

Cancun's Estadio Beto Avila to sit empty a little longer

The LMB's new leader, entering his first season at the helm after replacing Javier Salinas last November, said he's been maintaining contact with his Mexican Pacific League counterpart, Omar Canizales, to minimize overlapping schedules between the two leagues. De la Vega has likewise maintained communication with the federal Probeis organization, Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. Baseball leagues around the globe attempt to deal with an uncertain timeframe regarding the Wuhan Virus, which as of Saturday had claimed 273 lives among 4,219 confirmed cases in Mexico.

A reporter for ESPN Deportes says the Mexican League may scale back their regular season to just one month this year. Jose Maria Garrido claims closes source to the LMB have told him the Liga is considering an option in which the season would begin August 1 and play a 30-game schedule with no off days, followed by a full eight-team, three-tier playoff calendar with best-of-7 series throughout that could see a seventh game of the Serie del Rey played on October 11 or 12. Speaking to the Septima Entrada website, de la Vega said that while the LMB is indeed looking at various scenarios for a shorter season, the 30-day schedule is not one of them.

DE LA VEGA INVESTIGATED FOR PRIOR ROLE WITH INDEPORTE

Harp, Mancera and de la Vega inspect new ballpark

Puro Beisbol reports that Argentina's Infobae website reports that Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega is under investigation for actions taken when he was director of the Mexico City Sports Institute (aka Indeporte). The Infobae story says both de la Vega and former Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera are accused of steering contracts to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos baseball team and Ocesa, an entertainment promotion company, that allowed for the privatization of 70 percent of Mexico City's government-owned Magdalena Mixhuca Sports City with no benefit to the government that owns it. Mancera left office in 2018 but is still active in politics as a member of the Senate. De la Vega was backed by Diablos owner Alfredo Harp Helo when the LMB was searching for Salinas' replacement last fall and some Mexican baseball columnists expressed their misgivings even before he was hired.

The investigation is being conducted by the mayor's office of Iztacalco, which is one of 16 boroughs in the Federal District where the Sports City complex is located. According to Infobae, current Sports City general administrator Maximiliano Leon is helping lead the investigation into the use of public funds towards, among other things, a cycling track at the complex that was never completed due to legal conflicts between the companies that were constructing it. In addition, Leon says, the creation of an artificial lake to be used for water skiing, open swimming and diving came at the cost of five soccer fields and four basketball courts that made way for the 15 million peso lake, paid for by the local government.

Mexico City's Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu

Representatives from the Sports City are said to be contemplating filing a lawsuit against de la Vega and Mancera. Leon claims that de la Vega used his position as head of Indeporte to enable Harp to construct the ballpark that bears his name without following legal requirements or providing compensation to the government, athough the facility was built using private funds. Likewise, Ocesa was allowed to expand its physical presence within the complex, which authorities claim is now about 60 percent of the total property (and even more when a Formula E electric car race in Mexico City required extra room for heavy machinery, tourism buses and related vehicles.

In replacing Salinas, who resigned last October 8, De la Vega became the Mexican League's 26th president but its third since 2017, when Salinas was appointed to take the reins from Plinio Escalante, a Yucatan native who'd led the LMB since 2006 after working in the Yucatan Leones front office off and on since 1973. Salinas did not have a baseball background, coming to the LMB from soccer's Liga MX marketing department, while de la Vega's experience in baseball had been mostly limited to arranging exhibition games in Mexico City when he headed Indeporte, from which he stepped down after Mancera left his post as Mexico City mayor to enter the Senate.

The investigation into de la Vega and Mancera officially began last month.

CITY OF MAZATLAN SEIZES BALLPARK, EVICTS VENADOS EMPLOYEES

A refurbished Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, Mazatlan

A District Court judge has granted an injunction from the Mazatlan City Council allowing municipal authorities to seize Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, home of the Mexican Pacific League's Venados. According to the Mazatlan Post, the Venados were evicted from the ballpark early last week for a series of alleged breaches of contract committed by the team, who leases the refurbished facility from the City.

The Post article says City Council secretary Jose de Jesus Flores Segura led a group from the Mazatlan Legal Department in taking control of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal last Monday morning, ordering Venados employees at the site to clear out their personal belongings within six days before placing padlocks on the ballpark and placing security forces on duty to guard the 16,000-seat stadium. Mayor Luis Guillermo Benitez confirmed the actions one day later at a press conference.

Estadio Teodoro Mariscal underwent an extensive 2018 renovation for 416 million pesos (US$18 million), but the 58-year-old stadium has been surrounded by controversy since its official reopening on Friday, October 13, 2018 when the Venados hosted the Jalisco Charros in the LMP season opener for both teams. One month later, the City-owned Jumapam shut off drinking water to the ballpark, asserting the Venados owed a million pesos for water consumption over the past several months while also claiming they'd discovered a clandestine drinking system at the facility. Although that situation was eventually resolved, tensions between the City and team have remained.

The City has reportedly taken away the stadium's concessions contract from Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family, who bought the team in 2015 from a brewery after managing concessions at home games since 1980. The City claims Toledo failed to fulfill signed agreements in which the Venados were supposed to sponsor local basketball players and boxers while delivering tickets to senior citizens. The team was also recently asked to let the City use the ballpark to deliver services to seniors in relation to the Wuhan Virus outbreak, but refused the request.

Mazatlan Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo

Now that the City has taken possession of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, the Toledo family is consulting with lawyers to seek the return of their concessions contract and regain entry to the ballpark. Venados sports manager Jesus "Chino" Valdez has said only that the team continues to operate near the club's Academy near the Sinaloa coastal city. The imbroglio's timing could not have been worse for the Venados or the Mex Pac, since the 2021 Caribbean Series had been awarded to Mazatlan.

A rumor has been floated that Toledo is considering moving the Venados north to Tijuana, but at this point nobody appears to be taking that threat seriously. The border city has hosted Mex Pac teams in the past, with the old Potros holding the unique distinction of twice dropping out of the LMP after winning pennants and appearing the the Caribbean Series in both 1987-88 and 1990-91. The 1988 champion Potros were expelled after owner Jaime Bonilla allegedly bribed a number of Mexicali players to tank during their first round playoff series with Tijuana while the 1991 edition folded along with Guaymas, both citing financial difficulties. Bonilla was elected governor of Baja California Norte last year and said to be interested in seeing the LMP return to Tijuana despite being under a lifetime ban from the circuit.