3.5 GAMES SEPARATE TOP NINE LMP TEAMS

   As the Mexican Pacific League’s regular season heads into its final month, the second half standings are very tight, with only three-and-a-half games of daylight between the top two teams and the ninth-place squad and only one club apparently out of contention for a postseason berth in January.

Navojoa and Mexicali have both won six of their last ten games to remain tied for the lead with 12-8 records, one game ahead of 11-9 Hermosillo and Mazatlan while 10-9 Monterrey sits in fifth place. Obregon and Guasave are tied for sixth at 10-10, two games out of the top slot, defending champion Culiacan is three games back in eighth at 9-11 while Jalisco is a half-game behind the Tomateros at 8-11. The only team that looks to be out of the running is Los Mochis, who are following up their last-place finish in the first half (finishing five games out of ninth at 9-23) with a 6-14 ledger for the second half.

Navojoa is firing on all cylinders under manager Matias Carrillo, with five batters hitting .302 or above and a solid, if not invincible, pitching staff featuring a five-man rotation with an aggregate 21-12 season record and a respectable 3.65 ERA plus one of the Mex Pac’s top closers in Carlos Bustamante. The Mayos, who have the LMP’s top overall record at 32-20, swept a three-game midweek series in Los Mochis before splitting two games at home against Obregon. 

Mexicali is likewise doing well in winning 12 of their first 20 games under new manager Gil Velazquez, who replaced Bronswell Patrick in the dugout after the Aguilas came in ninth in the first half with a 14-18 record. The Eagles dropped two of three tilts in their midweek series at Hermosillo before taking two weekenders over Guasave at home in El Nido. Despite their strong second half showing, Mexicali is last in the LMP with a .232 team batting average so Alex Liddi and his .215 average with seven RBIs over 29 games was placed on the Reserve List and former MLB first baseman Ryon Healy was brought in. Healy hit .257 with seven homers over 67 games  for Hanwha in the Korea Baseball Organization this summer after belting 69 longballs in five major league seasons. So far, he’s hit .389 in his first five games for the Aguilas.

Hermosillo is a game off the pace in third under another new manager, former Mexican National Team helmsman Juan Gabriel Castro. Castro, who was fired as leader of the Verdes Grande shortly before the Olympics after leveling criticisms about funding and leadership against CONADE (Mexico’s national sports commission) and director Ana Guevara, a former Olympic track athlete and an ally of president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. He was replaced by current Culiacan manager Benji Gil, who took the team to an 0-3 record in Tokyo.  

While Monterrey is a competitive 10-9 under second-year manager Gerardo Alvarez, who now has the aforementioned Bronswell Patrick on his staff as bench coach, the Sultanes made more news off the field last week by announcing that Roberto Kelly would be back as manager of their Mexican League team. Kelly, who went 143-89 in 2018 and 2019 (winning the LMB’s Fall 2019 pennant along the way), chose not to return to Mexico last season due to pandemic concerns and a stated desire to work with a son who had aspirations of entering pro ball. Homar Rojas began the 2021 season as Monterrey’s manager but was fired eight games into the season after the Sultanes had lost their first five games en route to a 2-6 start and replaced by Sergio Gastelum, who went 26-25 over the rest of the schedule before losing to Guadalajara in the first round of the playoffs. 

MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE Second Half Standings

Mexicali 12-8 (4.0), Navojoa 12-8 (10.0), Hermosillo 11-9 (5.5), Mazatlan 11-9 (4.5), Monterrey 10-9 (5.0), Guasave 10-10 (9.0), Obregon 10-10 (7.0), Culiacan 9-11 (6.0), Jalisco 8-11 (8.0), Los Mochis 6-14 (3.5). First Half playoff points are in parentheses

OFFENSIVE LEADERS

Batting: Tirso Ornelas, NAV (.369); Victor Mendoza, OBR (.368); Yadir Drake, GUA (.331) 

Home Runs: Kyle Martin, NAV (15); Felix Perez, JAL (10); two players tied with 8 each

Runs Batted In: Felix Perez, JAL (39); Kyle Martin, NAV (37); Joey Meneses, CUL (36)

Stolen Bases: Dairon Blanco, CUL (21); Alonzo Harris, OBR (15); Ramon Rios, MAZ (14)

PITCHING LEADERS

Wins: Raul Carrillo, NAV (6); nine pitchers tied with 5 each

Earned Run Average: Elian Leyva, HER (1.17); Arturo Lopez, OBR (2.08); Hector Velazquez, OBR (2.42)

Strikeouts: Octavio Acosta, NAV (49); three pitchers tied with 47 each

Saves: Jake Sanchez, MXI (19); Fernando Salas, HER (12); Carlos Bustamante (NAV (11)

MONCLOVA, PUEBLA CLASH FOR LIM CROWN

The rebooted Mexican Winter League is holding its Prince Series (Serie del Principe) after the Monclova Acereros and Puebla Pericos won the North and South division playoffs, respectively, last week. Game One of the best-of-five set was slated for Sunday afternoon at Puebla’s Estadio Hermanos Serdan.

The two four-team divisions played intramural schedules with no crossover games. Monclova finished first in the LIM North with a 16-7 record, four games ahead of 11-10 Monterrey, who nudged out 12-12 Union Laguna for second place. Saltillo came in a distant fourth at 6-16. The Acereros are managed by former New York Mets dugout boss Mickey Callaway, who was suspended by Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred through the 2022 season earlier this year after an investigation into Callaway regarding sexual harassment. 

Acereros owner Gerardo Benavides saw no problem bringing in the former pitcher, who played in South Korea and Taiwan (including the 2009 CPBL champion Uni-President Lions) after pitching for three MLB teams between 1999 and 2004, and was rewarded when Callaway led Monclova to a three-game sweep over Monterrey in the LIM North Finals. 

The Steelers won Game 3 last Thursday with a 9-0 blowout as the winners scored four first-inning runs and never looked back. Ethan Lopez had three hits for Monclova while another four Acereros had two safeties each, including LMB veterans Rodolfo Amador and Ricky Rodriguez. Obregon native Jasiel Ocosta aided the mound cause with four shutout innings on three hits. Another Mexican League vet, pitcher Carlos Teller, took the loss for the Sultanes after allowing five runs on nine hits.

Puebla defeated Veracruz-Yucatan, four games to one, to win the LIM South playoff title after finishing the regular season in first at 18-13, one game ahead of the 17-12 mark of Veracruz-Yucatan (who played their home games in Xalapa and also had players from Durango on the roster). Mexico City finished third in the South at 15-15 while Oaxaca, with Guerreros regular season skipper Erick Rodriguez at the helm) was dead last at 9-20. 

In their series-clinching win last Monday night, the Pericos outlasted Veracruz-Yucatan, 12-11, in Xalapa. Puebla went up 1-0 in the top of the first but Oliver Carrillo knotted the game up for the home side with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame. 

The Parakeets exploded for five runs in the third, including a tiebreaking two-run single by Armando Aguilar and a two-run double from Miguel Gamboa to make it a 6-1 contest. Puebla’s lead eventually reached 12-5 before Veracruz-Yucatan scored five times in the bottom of the seventh and a Carrillo solo homer in the eighth made it a one-run game before Pericos closer Cristian Alvarado shut the door on the series in the ninth.

Carrillo, a Yucatan prospect, was named the LIM’s Most Valuable Player after leading the South with eight homers and 46 RBIs while finishing second to Mexico City’s Pedro Castellano in batting with a .441 average. Castellano topped the division with a .448 average and 47 hits. A 19-year-old outfielder who played two games for the Leones last summer, Carrillo has spent time at the team’s academy in Mazatlan and also played in various national and international tournaments.  He was also named the LIM South MVP while Monclova’s Roberto Castro won similar honors for the LIM North.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP (Stop #10): Guadalajara, Jalisco

The final jump on our virtual road trip to all ten Mexican Pacific League cities is also the longest. From Mazatlan, Sinaloa, we’ll drive 300 miles for about six-and-a-half hours south on Highway 15 through the state of Nayarit into Jalisco, curving inland until reaching Guadalajara, home of both the LMP’s Jalisco Charros and the Guadalajara Mariachis of the Mexican League.

Guadalajara has a metropolitan population of 5.3 million, making it Mexico’s third-largest metro area. It’s a far cry from the city’s humble beginnings in 1542, when conquistador Cristobal de Onate founded it as part of what was then called New Spain. By the 18th century, Guadalajara had already become Mexico’s second-largest city. During the Mexican War of Independence in the early 1800’s, Miguel Hidalgo established a revolutionary government there and Guadalajara later flourished between 1876 and 1911 under the three different presidencies of Porfirio Diaz, whose harsh methods created hardships among the people but also built the country’s economy and infrastructure.

Present-day Guadalajara is an international business and cultural center. It’s home to Mexico’s largest U.S. expat population, drawn by its relatively temperate climate, low cost of living and lively cultural scene. It’s home to numerous landmarks, including Guadalajara Cathedral, the Teatro Degollado, the Templo Expiatorio, the Hospicio Cabañas, and the San Juan de Dios Market (the largest indoor market in Latin America). Guadalajara hosts the most important film festival in Mexico as well as the International Book Fair, the largest such event in the Western Hemisphere. Two of the country’s most highly-rated colleges, the University of Guadalajara (founded in 1792) and the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, are here.

Professional baseball made its debut in Guadalajara when the Jalisco Charros played in the Mexican League in 1949 and lasted three seasons. After the Charros folded following the 1951 season, the Guadalajara Blue Sox entered the old Pacific Coast League in 1952-53 and also lasted three years. The city later fielded LMB teams on three different occasions between the 1960’s and 1990’s, winning two titles, but baseball never really built a local following until the Mexican Pacific League’s Guasave Algodoneros were bought and moved to Guadalajara in 2014. Named the Jalisco Charros, the franchise has become one of the Mex Pac’s most valuable. The Mariachis LMB team was formed last winter and played its first season in 2021, finishing first in the North Division, but crowds for the Liga side failed to approach their winterball counterparts.

Both teams play at 16,500-seat Estadio Charros, also known as Estadio Panamericano because it was built for track and field events at the 2012 Pan American Games. Although the design of the facility makes for less-than-desirable sightlines for baseball, even after a number of renovations over the past decade, Estadio Charros has hosted the Caribbean Series, World Baseball Classic and WBSC Premier12 tournament while the Charros have been among the top-drawing LMP teams since their arrival.

OBREGON, NAVOJOA TIED AT TOP OF LMP STANDINGS

    At the halfway point of the Mexican Pacific League's first half schedule, two teams share the lead in the LMP standings with identical 11-6 records. The Obregon Yaquis and Navojoa Mayos find themselves in the driver's seat with three weeks remaining in the opening stanza of the 2021-22 season.

    Obregon did their part in breaking a three-way deadlock at the top Sunday by clobbering Mexicali, 8-2, in the border city. Jonathan Aranda broke a 1-1 tie with a solo homer off Aguilas starter Javier Solano in the top of the second inning, but it was a Reynaldo Rodriguez grand slam off Solano in the third that for all intent and purposes put the game away for the Yaquis. Obregon starter Hector Velazquez got the win with six solid innings, allowing one run on two hits with five strikeouts. Solano was tagged with the loss after giving up eight runs on five hits and four walks over four innings.

    Navojoa did Sunday's heavy lifting by topping Jalisco, 4-2, at home in Estadio Manuel “Ciclon” Echeverria after both teams entered the game with 10-6 records. The contest was knotted up at two runs apiece until Mayos third baseman Samar Leyva launched a solo homer over the left-center field wall off Charros starter Alex Delgado in the bottom of the fourth. Navojoa added an insurance run when Omar Renteria led off the seventh with a doubled up the middle off reliever Fernando Cruz, moved to third on an Omar Meza sacrifice bunt down the third base line and scored on Jorge Flores' single to right. Navojoa starter Raul Carrillo allowed two runs in 5.2 innings and five relievers surrendered one hit the rest of the way as the Mayos completed a three-game weekend sweep.

    At the other end of the spectrum, the Los Mochis Caneros have won just four of their first 16 games to bring up the rear after a disastrous 2020-21 campaign in which they went an aggregate 19-39 over two halves, worst in the LMP under manager Victor Bojorquez. Robinson Cancel is the Los Mochis helmsman this winter but thus far nothing much has changed, although the Caneros did salvage a series in Monterrey Sunday with a 2-1 win over the Sultanes behind a solo homer by Josuan Hernandez and 6.2 innings of one-run pitching by starter Carlos Viera.

    Heading into Sunday's games, Jalisco's Christian Villanueva was batting an even .400 to lead all LMP batters. Tirso Ornelas of Navojoa is second at .390 while Hermosillo's Nick Torres' .386 is good enough for third. Torres also tops the tables with five homers, one more than the four roundtrippers of Danny Ortiz (Monterrey), Missael Rivera (Jalisco) and Maikel Serrano (Navojoa). Serrano is first in RBIs with 17, ahead of Ortiz' 14 and the 13 of Torrez. Culiacan has three of the top five base stealers in the Mex Pac: Dairon Blanco leads the list with six swipes, one more than the five of teammate Sebastian Elizalde and Mazatlan's Ramon Rios and two more than Tomateros infielder Ramiro Pena and Venados outfielder Randy Romero.

    Among pitchers, Navojoa's Carlos De Leon has been a major reason for the Mayos' strong burst out the gate by winning his first three starts, making him the only LMP pitcher with a trio of wins at this stage of the season. Thirteen other pitchers have two wins, with two starters (Jalisco's Orlando Lara and Elian Leyva of Hermosillo) tied for the lead with 0.00 ERAs to augment their respective 2-0 records. Obregon's Luis Escobar has 24 strikeouts in 22.1 innings to lead the loop while Hermosillo veteran Juan Pablo Oramas is second with 20 whiffs over 23 frames. Jake Sanchez of Mexicali has four saves (plus a win) in seven outings for the most in that category, with Jalisco's Roberto Osuna and Carlos Bustamante of Navojoa tied for second with three salvados apiece. Sanchez has 14 strikeouts in seven innings with a 1.29 ERA.

    Off the LMP playing field, the expected sale of the Jalisco Charros has been finalized. The team, which has been marred by internecine front office squabbling for at least the past year, was sold by prime combatants Salvador Quirarte and Armando Navarro (who brought the team to Guadalajara from Guasave in 2014) to a group led by Jose Luis Gonzalez, his son Inigo and brother Juan Carlos, who also own the Mexican League Guadalajara Mariachis. Navarro was present at the press conference announcing the sale and said, “I wish the new owners every success and I thank all the fans.” The State of Jalisco is allowing the Charros to make fifty percent of Estadio Panamericano's 16,500 seats available for home games.

MEX PAC ROAD TRIP: Obregon, Sonora

    We’ll continue our virtual journey to all ten Mexican Pacific League franchise sites by driving south from Hermosillo on Highway 15 for three-and-a-half hours (155 miles) through former LMP city Guaymas to Ciudad Obregon, Sonora’s second largest city behind Hermosillo with a metropolitan population of 375,000 and home of the seven-time league champion Yaquis.

    While the city itself is less than 100 years old, the area it sits in had long been settled by the Yaqui Indian nation, after whom the baseball team was named. Originally known as Cajeme when it was given municipal status in 1927, the city was renamed in 1937 after Revolution hero General Alvaro Obregon, a Navojoa native who later became president of Mexico and initiated modern agricultural techniques to the Yaqui Valley that made the region one of the most prosperous in the country. In fact, the area is called “Mexico’s Grain Provider” thanks to wheat growing standards partly established by American Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr. Norman Bourlaug.

    Present-day Obregon is the agribusiness center of a region whose countryside is liberally dotted with grain elevators, storage silos and cotton mills. While it is a working city and not tourism-oriented, there are some points of interest for visitors to take in. Laguna Nainari just west of town is a popular lagoon with restaurants, picnic areas and boats for water-skiing, while the nearby San Jose Beach features a spa. South of Laguna Nainari is the Parque Ostimuri, a tree-lined park geared towards young people (and the young at heart) with an amusement park, several refreshment stands and a zoo with animals ranging from deer and boars to turtles and gila monsters.

    The Museo del Yaquis celebrates the history of the valley and is doing its part to keep the culture of the Yaqui people alive. Moreover, the Mexican government designated the Yaquis as the first recognized tribe in the country, allowing them to continue their traditions overseen by a tribal government. There are four institutes of higher education in Obregon while the local airport receives flight from 13 Mexican and four U.S. cities.

    Professional baseball in Obregon debuted in 1947 as a member of the old Pacific Coast League. The Yaquis have won seven MexPac pennants (including three in a row under manager Eddie Diaz between 2010-11 and 2012-13) since 1965-66, winning Caribbean Series championships in 2011 and 2013. Past Obregon players whose numbers have been retired include Vinny Castilla, Roberto Vizcarra, Carlos Valencia and brothers Vicente and Enrique Romo.

.    The Yaquis play their home games in the state of the art Estadio Yaquis, a 16,500-seat facility on the outskirts of town that opened in time for the 2016-17 season. Estadio Yaquis co-hosted games for the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup last month. Considered one of Mexico's finest ballparks, it's had a cool reception among local fans due to high ticket prices and a less-centralized location than Estadio Tomas Oroz Gaytan, which served the team for 36 years and (like Hermosillo's Estadio Hector Espino) has been purchased by the federal government to serve as a baseball academy.

MAESTROS OF MEXICO: Nelson Barrera, 3B/1B/DH

    One of the most beloved and admired figures in Mexican baseball history, Nelson Barrera Romellon was a mainstay at third base in the LMB for 26 seasons. Nicknamed El Almirante (“The Admiral”) by fans, Barrera was born October 17, 1957 in Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche and grew up to be a six foot,180-pounder. Surprisingly, given his career power totals, Barrera was not considered a home run hitter for the first few years of his Liga career. In fact, he hit just 48 roundtrippers over his first seven campaigns between 1977 and 1983.

    Barrera posted his first big season as a 26-year-old in 1984 with Mexico City, cracking 23 homers while hitting .354 and driving in 101 runs. That led to an invitation to spring training by the Chicago White Sox in 1985. After batting just .176 with two homers for Class AAA Buffalo, Barrera was sent back to the Diablos Rojos and never played outside Mexico again.

    He went on a three-year tear between 1986 and 1988 for Mexico City, belting 110 homers and driving in 383 runs while posting batting averages of .350, .349 and .372. Although he never approached those kinds of numbers the rest of his career, The Admiral remained one of the most respected and feared batters in Mexico through the rest of the 20th century.

    Barrera retired with 455 career homers, two more than all-time great Hector Espino’s 453. His 1,928 career RBIs is also the Liga’s all-time best, as are his 972 extra-base hits and six 100-plus RBI seasons. He finished with 2,938 career hits (second behind Jesus Sommers) and a lifetime batting average of .298. Along with Sommers, he had 19 seasons of 100 or more hits. Barrera hit three homers in a seven-inning game, and once had a streak of seven bombs over a five-game stretch.

    He was a fairly marginal batter in the winter Pacific League, hitting .254 over 15 seasons with Culiacan and Mexicali although he was the LMP’s MVP for the Tomateros in 1984-85 with 15 homers and 68 RBIs. Barrera made his hits count in the winter, however, and stands sixth in career homers with 131 and 9^th in RBIs with 479. His eight career grand slam homers are a MexPac record. He played in five Caribbean Series between 1983 and 1988, winning a title with Mexicali in 1986 in Venezuela.

    Barrera was respected as a manager, too, leading the Oaxaca Guerreros to the LMB crown in 1998 while turning in 15/110/.321 numbers as a player. He was managing the Campeche Piratas in his home state when he died tragically in 2002 after he was electrocuted by a live hanging wire while doing repairs on the roof of his home following a severe windstorm. The ballpark in Campeche was renamed in his honor.

MEXICO BLASTED BY ISRAEL, 12-5; KO'D FROM OLYMPICS

Isaac Rodriguez against Dominicans

    The Mexican Olympic baseball team lost to Israel by a 12-5 count Sunday in Yokohama to be eliminated from their first appearance in the Summer Games after losing all three contests they played. The Verdes Grande had dropped a 1-0 knucklebiter to the Dominican Republic and a 7-4 decision to host Japan last week to finish 0-2 in Group A.

    In Sunday's loss, Israel took a 6-0 lead and never looked back in winning their first Olympic game after turning in an 0-2 record in Group B. Mexico starter Manny Barreda gave up six runs on four hits and three walks over two-plus innings to take the loss. The ex-Yankees prospect was trailing 1-0 after two innings before the roof caved in top of the the third, when he walked Israel's first two batters before giving up a three-run homer to former MLBer Danny Valencia, who drilled a fastball ten rows deep into the Yokohama Baseball Stadium's left-field seats. Barreda allowed two more baserunners without recording an out before being yanked for reliever Sasagi Sanchez, who then gave up a two-run Nick Rickles single to make it a 6-0 game.

    To their credit, the Mexicans fought back to make it a one-run game by scoring four times in the bottom of the third. Braves farmhand Ryan Goins doubled to deep left to plate Jonathan Jones with Mexico's first run and then came in when Israel starter Jonathan Zeid uncorked a wild pitch during a walk to Isaac Rodriguez. Rodriguez scored on a Sebastian Elizalde double to left and then Elizalde crossed the plate when Joey Meneses singled to shallow left to narrow the deficit to 6-4. Adrian Gonzalez singled in Meneses in the bottom of the sixth to close to gap to 6-5, but a horrible top of the seventh put the game out of reach.

    In that fateful frame, Israel sent ten batters to the plate and scored six runs on as many hits, keyed by consecutive two-run singles from Mitch Glasser and Zach Penprase, a pair of longtime indyball players. Former MLB hurler Oliver Perez allowed all six runs, although the first two were charged to fellow Mexican reliever Fernando Salas. Israel allowed one Gonzalez double over the last three frames to cement the win.

    Mexico dropped their first game last Friday, 1-0, to the Dominican Republic. Starter Angel Sanchez (5 IP) and four relievers combined to limit the Mexicans to four singles and three walks while Mexican starter Teddy Stankiewicz battled admirably through 4.2 innings, striking out five Dominicans but allowing the game's lone run when ex-MLBer Melky Cabrera single in Charlie Valerio in the bottom of the fifth. Diamondbacks minor leaguer Luis Castillo turned in a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

    The Verdes Grande's best chance came in the top of the sixth when Isaac Rodriguez laid down a bunt single, advanced to second on a passed ball by catcher Valerio while Elizalde was up and then tried to score on a Meneses single to left but was cut down at the plate by a throw from Jose Bautista.

    Things were a little less dramatic one day later, when Japan bopped Mexico by a 7-4 score on Saturday. Mexico actually took a 1-0 lead against the host team in the bottom of the first when Meneses singled up the middle off Masato Morishita to score Rodriguez from second. Japan came back to tie it in the second and go ahead in the third with single runs against Mexican starter Juan Pablo Oramas. Eduardo Arredondo relieved Oramas in the fourth and gave up a pair of singles to set up a three-run homer by Tetsuto Yamada to bring Japan's lead up to 5-1.

Joey Meneses hit .500 with HR for Mexico

    Mexico got a run back in the bottom of the fourth when Elizalde scored from third on a Gonzalez double-play grounder to second, but Japan scored singletons in the seventh and eighth to stretch their advantage to 7-2. Meneses crashed a two-run homer off reliever Kaima Taira in the bottom of the eighth, making it a 7-4 game, but Mexico could get no closer before running out of outs.

    All in all, it was a disappointing Olympic baseball debut for Mexico, who was outscored 20-9 over three games. Meneses turned in the top plate performance, going 6-for-12 with a homer and four RBIs, but Gonzalez (.273) was the only other hitter above .250 as the team combined for a .202 batting average. The pitching was little better, although Stankiewicz (1.93) and Oramas (3.00) did fairly well while relievers Sanchez, Carlos Bustamante, Daniel Duarte and Cesar Vargas allowed no earned runs but Barreda and three relievers all had ERAs at 13.50 or above as Mexico finished with a 6.23 team ERA.

    Mexico manager Benji Gil was circumspect in the aftermath of what most baseball observers in the country consider a disastrous performance. “Not even in my worst nightmare did I think this would be the result,” said the former MLB infielder, who was brought in after Juan Castro was unceremoniously fired despite having led the team to the country's-ever Olympic baseball appearance by qualifying in the 2019 Premier12 tournament. Gil pointed to a pitching collapse after allowing just one run against the Dominican Republic.

    “Normally in all these competitions, Mexico always has tremendous pitching,” said Gil. “We compete with that and that is why we are known in baseball. In the last two games, we did battle...not all of them, but as a team we did battle. Allowing 19 runs in 18 innings is something that has never been seen for a Mexican team.”

    Now it has.

SECOND-PLACE TOROS FIRE VIZQUEL AS LMB PLAYOFFS APPROACH

Omar Vizquel tossing BP as TJ skipper

    With the Mexican League playoffs just days away, two teams have made decisions regarding the men managing them. The Tijuana Toros demoted Hall of Fame candidate Omar Vizquel for “personal reasons” last Monday after the team suffered a three-game weekend sweep to Monterrey at home. The Toros were 32-22 at the time and in second place in the LMB North with nine games left in the regular season. There is speculation that Vizquel stepped down due to pressure from Major League Baseball because of an unresolved domestic violence case filed by the wife of the former shortstop, but the team owners (the Uribe family) are rather capricious even by LMB standards and have cut loose a dozen managers despite six consecutive playoff appearances and a 2017 pennant.

    The Tijuana front office issued a statement claiming "the decision that resolves the labor agreement was generated by mutual agreement and is adopted from the highest responsibility between the board of directors and the Venezuelan helmsman." Vizquel will be reassigned to other duties with the Toros while longtime Mexican baseball figure Homar Rojas (who was fired earlier this year as Monterrey's helmsman) becomes the 13th manager in Tijuana since the Toros debuted in 2014 while Bronswell Patrick moves from pitching coach to bench coach. Tijuana won five of their first six games under Rojas, who is managing his sixth LMB team since 2005.

    In Merida, the Yucatan Leones announced a new skipper to replace Geronimo Gil, who was fired on June 22 with a 14-11 record. Salon de la Fama member Chico Rodriguez led Yucatan to a 13-14 mark as interim manager until the Leones named Luis Matos as dugout boss on July 21. Matos spent seven years as an MLB outfielder before playing for Yucatan between 2008 and 2012. He managed Caguas to two Puerto Rican League pennants and Caribbean Series titles in 2017 and 2018 during a four-year stint with the Criollos. Matos split his first eight games at the helm of the Leones going into Sunday's contest with Campeche.

    The expansion Veracruz Aguilas still have Leo Rodriguez III as manager, but they brought in some experienced help last week by hiring former Mazatlan Venados leader Juan Jose Pacho as bench coach. Pacho was fired by the Mexican Pacific League team last winter, allegedly because he made public appearances supporting a political candidate opposed by Venados ownership. The Salon de la Fama shortstop's presence certainly hasn't harmed veteran slugger Jesus “Cacao” Valdez, who swatted a pair of three-run homers and drove in nine runs in an 18-6 blowout in Oaxaca last Thursday as Veracruz clinched a playoff berth.

    Just three games remain in the regular season and most playoff slots have been secured. In the LMB North, Guadalajara has clinched first place while Tijuana, Monclova and Saltillo have also punched their tickets. Aguascalientes is fifth after winning seven of ten games and close to reaching the postseason but Union Laguna, Dos Laredos and Monterrey are in a fairly tight battle for the sixth and final berth. Mexico City has clinched the top of the LMB South while Tabasco has won nine of ten outings to secure a playoff slot. Yucatan, Veracruz and Quintana Roo are also locks, meaning sixth-place Puebla needs one win or one Leon loss for the final postseason berth.

Luis Escobar has starred for Tabasco

    Guadalajara's Leo Heras is batting .415 after 43 games, good enough to top the batting race on the LMB website, ahead of Saltillo's Henry Urrutia (.391) and Tito Polo (.390) of Durango. Leon's Xavier Batista has pulled ahead of Rainel Rosario of Saltillo in the home run derby, 19 to 18, while Tijuana's Leandro Castro's 68 RBIs will likely be enough to hold off Japhet Amador's 57 for Mexico City to take that crown. In stolen bases, Quintana Roo's Reynaldo Rodriguez has 21 while Herlis Rodriguez of Tabasco is one behind at 20.

    Among pitchers, Masaru Nakamura of Guadalajara still has a perfect 8-0 record to lead the Liga in wins, one ahead of five other hurlers. Former Pirates righty Luis Escobar heads the ERA list as the Colombian shows a 2.60 mark after 11 starts, comfortably ahead of Laguna's Rafael Pineda (3.21). There's a battle for strikeout supremacy between Aguascalientes' Erik Leal (66), Puebla's Jose Valdez (66) and Mexico City's Hector Hernandez (65) while another three pitchers have 60-plus K's. Fernando Rodney of Tijuana is tops in saves with 15, one more than Guadalajara's Fernando Cruz.

    Just nine midweek series remain before the regular season closes. The most important may be a crossover set when Aguascalientes visits Leon, with the Rieleros trying to fight off three teams for one of two unsettled LMB North berth and the Bravos needed to win all three games to even have a chance to qualify in the LMB South.

JUAN VENE: JALISCO CHARROS HEADED FOR SALE, NAME CHANGE

    Now in his 90's, Juan Vene has covered Mexican baseball for years and his column “En la Pelota” is carried by 37 newspapers and websites. In a recent column, the Florida-based Vene states that a sale of the Mexican Pacific League's Jalisco Charros to the owners of the Guadalajara Mariachis is pending, as is a change of the team nickname. Puro Beisbol reports that sources from the State of Jalisco confirm the transaction and that the LMP will approve the deal.

    The following is a lightly-edited Google translation of Vene's column:

    The Jalisco Charros, whose name is owned by Armando Navarro, are about to end. The next team for the Guadalajara winters would be called the Jalisco Caballos and owned by José Luis González Íñigo and Carlos Valenzuela Gómez, who also own the Mexican League's Guadalajara franchise.

    "Both González and Valenzuela, co-owners of the Mariachis, are very good people," said a fellow journalist from Guadalajara.

    Navarro had contributed the name of Charros to be a partner of Salvador Quirarte, who invested the necessary money. The two got into a fight under accusations of mismanagement of the team's money. And there is no way to reconcile them.

    Quirarte does not respond to calls and Navarro's cell phone number always get the “beep-beep-beep” busy signal.

    Meanwhile, the Zapopan stadium, in the beautiful metropolitan area of Guadalajara, is owned by the Government of the State of Jalisco. And the governor, Enrique Alfaro Ramírez, is a Guadalajara leader who only wants peace and good baseball.

    Alfaro Ramírez likes the name “Jalisco Caballos” and is willing to provide all the necessary support to those who dedicate themselves to organizing the best show for Jalisco and not to fight for two or three pesos of old paper.

    Navarro has accused Quirarte of mishandling the team's money, so I try to contact him to see if he informs me how his partner did something wrong. But I already told you it's a case of “beep-beep-beep” every time I call him.

Name change likely for Estadio Charros, too

    Beautiful Guadalajara and its surroundings are home to hundreds of thousands of frenzied baseball fans, who have always supported it.

    However, there is a kind of gypsy curse on the ball in that sector of the world. The original Charros played in an uncomfortable stadium, built for student baseball and located on the outskirts of the city.

    It was not comfortable to go there. The Charros had to disappear in 1995.

    They returned in 2014, with great enthusiasm to a full stadium in the modern house of Zapopan, until peace ended in 2021. That is why, possibly, the 2021-2022 season will be that of the burial of the Charros and the birth of the Caballos.

    The figure of the caballo (or “horse”) is emblematic in Jalisco, especially for what these beautiful animals mean in the life of the charros.

    It will be a new life for baseball in Jalisco, absolutely better than Navarro and Quirarte pulling their hair out for two or three pesos of old paper.

LMP TO OPEN PLAY THURSDAY AMID VIRUS CONCERNS

Inspection at Los Mochis ballpark

    Despite ongoing worries about possible effects the ongoing pandemic might have on both the playing field and in the stands, the Mexican Pacific League is preparing for the opener of its 76th season of winterball on Thursday night, when five games are slated to be played. While the LMP expects to become the first professional baseball league across the globe to start their season on time and (mostly) with people in the stands, things could be running a little smoother.

    On the positive side, the Los Mochis Caneros have gotten the okay from local government to open Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada seating to 40 percent capacity for home games this winter. The leader of the Municipal Health Directorate in Ahome, Dr. Francisco Espinoza Valverde, and Civil Protection director Salvador Lamphar toured the ballpark with Caneros owner Joaquin Vega to verify that protocols are being followed and subsequently gave the green light for fans to witness games in person. Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada is located in Ahome, a community of over 10,000 within the municipality of the same name in which Los Mochis is the seat, thus local officials have jurisdiction for such decisions.

    Since the stadium seats 12,000 under normal circumstances, the adjusted capacity to start the season will drop to 4,500 for the start of the season. There will be signage indicating which seats may or may not be used, with no more than three seats allowed to be purchased together. Tickets for Caneros home games are due to go on sale Monday. The decision brought the number of Mex Pac teams being allowed to host games with people in the seats to six: Culiacan, Guasave, Hermosillo, Los Mochis, Mazatlan and Mexicali.

    On the other hand, Septima Entrada reports that Jalisco governor Enrique Alfaro has confirmed that due to conditions related to the pandemic, the public will not be allowed to attend sporting events in the state, including Jalisco Charros home games in Guadalajara. “This is an endurance race and it is not known how long it will last,” Alfaro said on Twitter. “We are all tired, with exhaustion from not being able to go out, of not being able to celebrate in the stadiums, of not celebrating our traditions, but it is not time to relax things.”

    Alfaro noted that Jalisco is one of many states in the country designated with a virtual orange traffic light, which reflects the second-highest stage of alert in Mexico. “For now, there are no conditions to advance in the opening of new activities. We still cannot allow the return of people to the stadiums or the opening of clubs or any type of massive activity," added the governor.

Seats to remain unfilled in Culiacan

    To complicate things even further, Sinaloa (where four of the five LMP teams planning to allow fans play) is one of seven states in which their virtual traffic lights have been downgraded from yellow to orange, which has the potential to force those teams to rescind their decisions and play behind closed doors. The state of Sonora, which has Mex Pac teams in Hermosillo, Navojoa and Obregon, is still under a yellow traffic light but ironically none of those three clubs had said they'd be playing in front of limited capacity crowds until the Naranjeros made a statement to that effect on Saturday. Monterrey, in the virus-ravaged state of Nuevo Leon, will also be playing before empty seats.

    Last week, the LMP office in Guadalajara announced that 669 tests for the Wuhan virus had been carried out in two stages. “The first stage showed that 25% of the players had already contracted the virus prior to arrival at the training fields and that they already had antibodies,” the press release states. “7.7% of the players and coaches were positive at that time in the first stage. 6.2% of the players and coaches were positive in a second stage.”

    The press release adds that both stages of the tests were applied to the same people, showing that the LMP protocol has “generated a downward result in infections” and that the number of positives has been lower than the average of each state where games are played. More to the point, the league says “the results to date to not represent a threat for the season to take place.” Teams will be allowed to use players from extended 70-man rosters to allow for more flexibility in case the virus hits any of them harder than anticipated.

    Thursday's schedule has Jalisco at Monterrey to take the cellophane off the season at 5:00PM EDT, followed by Guasave at Culiacan (9:00PM EDT), Mazatlan at Los Mochis (9:30EDT), Mexicali at Obregon (10:10 EDT) and Hermosillo at Navojoa (10:30 EDT).

TIGRES TO MOVE FROM CANCUN, HOPE TO LAND IN SONORAN CITY

Tigres appear done in Cancun

    One of the Mexican League's flagship franchises will be moving for the third time in less than 20 years years after Quintana Roo Tigres owner Fernando Valenzuela notified the league office of his intention to shift the team out of Cancun after 14 years in the resort city. While nothing is firm yet, the former Cy Young Award winner and his wife Linda are planning to move the Tigres to the border city of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora.

    Formed in 1955, the Mexico City Tigres (first under founder Alejo Peralta and then his son Carlos) formed an intense rivalry with the Diablos Rojos as the two teams shared the beloved Social Security Park for 45 years before it was razed and replaced by a shopping center. After playing the 2000 and 2001 seasons and winning pennants both years at Foro Sol (a larger facility but ill-suited for baseball), the younger Peralta moved the club to Puebla in 2002 and renamed them the Angelopolis Tigres. They shared Estadio Hermanos Serdan with the Pericos for five years and won the LMB pennant in 2005, but Carlos Peralta moved the team again, this time in 2007 to Cancun. Now known as the Quintana Roo Tigres, the team won three pennants between 2011 and 2015 but never really caught on with locals or tourists, who were more interested in spending time at the beach or in the bars.

    Carlos Peralta was a competent owner by LMB standards, but his passion never came close to his father's and he was ready to sell the Tigres after ten seasons in Cancun. Enter Fernando Valenzuela, who had pitched against the team in Mexico City when he was a teenager pitching for Yucatan in 1979. Valenzuela and his wife bought the Tigres franchise from Peralta in February 2017 and immediately began having problems.

    After partners bailed out to leave the Valenzuelas as the sole owners, five Tigres prospects who'd been on a list of players they were given while negotiating for the team had been transferred to the Diablos Rojos before they assumed ownership. The Rookiegate scandal, which resulted in two of those prospects being sold to the Texas Rangers for over $2 million, soured the Valenzuelas (who could've used the money to counteract the meager crowds at Estadio Beto Avila) and they had to run the once-proud franchise on a frayed shoestring over the next three years. The canceled 2020 season likely sealed the Tigres' fate in Cancun.

    When Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra tweeted less than a month ago that the Tigres would be moving, the team categorically denied her but Pereyra stood her ground and repeated what she'd heard. As it turns out, she was correct. Although many people have clamored for years to have the Tigres back in Mexico City and others in Veracruz have been trying to bring an LMP team back to the port city, Valenzuela is said to be planning to move the ballclub to San Luis Rio Colorado, a city of 200,000 sitting on the Mexico-Arizona border that has never had a team in either the Mexican League or Mexican Pacific League.

 

Ballpark awaits in San Luis Rio Colorado

   San Luis Rio Colorado (commonly known as simply "San Luis") has been a member of the North Mexico League. The Algodoneros, who can trace their own beginnings to 1946, won their third LNM pennant in seven years in 2019 but the future for that club, classified as Class AA in the Mexican system, is in doubt. The city has refurbished Estadio Andres Mena Montijo from 2,500 seats into a new-look facility that can hold 7,000 spectators, and the Algodoneros were reportedly refused the opportunity to lease the updated ballpark this year before the Liga Norte shut down anyway due to the Wuhan virus.

    Although San Luis would be one of the smallest markets in the Mexican League, it's located in the baseball-crazy state of Sonora, a proven breeding ground for players and fans. San Luis has hosted games for past editions of the Mexican Baseball Fiesta with good turnouts, so crowds may be above the LMB average at worst. The city is located less than 300 miles from Valenzuela's home base in Los Angeles, a much shorter commute than Cancun has been. The Tijuana Toros would have a natural travel partner, although one never knows how the Uribe family would react to a team that could draw fans from Mexicali or even Yuma who've been going to El Nido for ballgames. While San Luis can get scorching hot in the summer, so does Monclova and all the Acereros did was win the last MLB pennant. San Luis mayor Santos Gonzalez already has a good relationship with president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Both Fernando and his son, Tigres GM Fernando Junior, have visited San Luis and toured the ballpark. The stars seem to all be aligned.

    In other words, barring fireworks at the next Assembly of Presidents meeting, we'll be seeing the San Luis Tigres in 2021. Then again, what would a Mexican League Assembly of Presidents meeting be without fireworks?

TOROS SKIPPER VIZQUEL ACCUSED OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

    A nasty divorce just got nastier after Tijuana Toros manager (and Cooperstown candidate) Omar Vizquel's soon-to-be ex-wife accused him of domestic violence during a session on Instagram Live.

    “I am in a divorce process,” Blanca Vizquel said last week, according to Puro Beisbol. “It is a hard process where the man wants me to shut my mouth. That is his request: That I keep my mouth shut so as not to damage his career, so as not to damage his Hall of Fame chances, but he never thought of me nor my well-being. I was his trophy. It cut off all my hopes and dreams."

    Omar Vizquel's first wife, Nicole, was a Seattle native the Venezuelan had met as a young player with the Mariners, leading to their 1992 marriage and two children before their.divorce a few years later. Blanca Garcia, a Colombian fitness trainer 20 years younger than the 53-year-old ex-shortstop, married the 11-time Gold Glove winner in 2014.

    After retiring as a player in 2012 following a 24-year MLB career in which he played in three All-Star Games and collected 2,877 hits, Vizquel has gone into coaching. After spending time as a roving instructor for Angels minor leaguers and as Detroit's infield coach for four years between 2014 and 2017, he moved to the Chicago White Sox system in 2018, leading Winston-Salem to an 84-54 record in the Class A Carolina League and then 64-74 with Class AA Birmingham for 2019 before the Chisox let him go. Vizquel also managed Venezuela to a 2-5 record in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

    Vizquel was hired to manage Tijuana in 2020 but saw the season end before it got started after the Mexican League canceled its schedule. Now his future with the Toros may be in doubt due to these allegations.

The Vizquels in apparently happier times

    Blanca Vizquel also said on Instagram, “He demanded that I go everywhere with him so in order to not bother him and for not pay the consequences, I had to agree to smile, be well-dressed and well-groomed with makeup, when all I wanted was to cry…but it wasn't an option for me.” In a story posted on the en24.com website in Venezuela, she claimed that Vizquel lost his job with the White Sox for this reason and that he only gave her “crumbs of money” because he did not stop financially supporting his ex-wife. She said she couldn't elaborate on the case at the suggestion of her lawyers but details about her troubled relationship with Vizquel would soon be revealed. No details of actual physical violence have been given.

    Besides the threat to his current job status, the allegations are also a setback for Vizquel's chances at joining another slick-fielding shortstop, Luis Aparicio, as the only Venezuelans in the Hall of Fame. He earned 36.9 percent of the vote in 2018, his first year on the ballot) then saw his support rise to 4.8 percent in 2019 and 52.6 this year. It takes being on 75 percent of BBWAA ballots for induction and Vizquel was looking like a good bet to get in before his ten-year ballot limit was reached. Whether these allegations hinder his chances or not, they certainly won't help.

LMB PRESIDENT SAYS LIGA MAY PLAY UP TO 84 GAMES

The president of the Mexican League has denied a media report that the loop is considering an option of playing a 30-game regular season schedule in August before heading into an eight-team playoff in September. ESPN Deportes writer Jose Maria Garrido cited unnamed sources reportedly close to LMB affairs that the Liga was considering playing 30 games in as many days beginning August 1, followed by the usual three-tiered playoffs that would run from early September into mid-October.

In an interview with the Septima Entrada website, LMB president Horacio de la Vega flatly denied Garrido's claim. “There are scenarios to be able to have an 84-game season, 64 games and possibly much shorter scenarios,” de la Vega stated. “Possibly we will have a single round. Instead of 102 games, we'd do half the season, which is 51 games.” De la Vega added the 51-game schedule would be a last option starting in August, a prospect that would potentially mean playing into November if the full playoff format is carried through.

Such a schedule would undoubtedly create hardships for the winter Mexican Pacific League, whose regular season typically gets underway in mid-October. The LMP faced a similar situation in 2018 when the Mexican League played two separate 57-game seasons with full playoffs, the brainchild of former president Javier Salinas. The result was disastrous for both leagues, with tepid fan interest in an LMB Fall campaign that stretched to within three days of the season openers for the Mex Pac, where teams were forced to bring in more imports in the absence of domestic players who needed time to rest before playing out west. Many Mexican players didn't join their LMP teams until the second half began in November.

Action at a Mexican League game in Tijuana

De la Vega, who says he has remained in contact with LMP leader Omar Canizales, may have seen an already difficult situation worsen. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said last week that schools and businesses may reopen on May 17 in 979 communities with no confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus while another 463 municipalities may see restrictions lifted on June 1. However, Dr. Hugo Lopes-Gatell, Mexico's Wuhan virus czar, also stated last week that Mexico City may not see similar restrictions lifted until June 25. The country's current physical distancing policy will continue through at least May 30.

With a shorter season now a certainty, the Mexican League is exploring an abbreviated format during which teams only face opponents within their own division while adding more doubleheaders to the schedule to maximize the number of games played in a tighter timeframe. However, de la Vega cautions, “we are working hard because we all want baseball to return, but first we have to be healthy for that to happen.”

JALISCO OWNERS MAKE PITCH TO MLB FOR MEXICO SERIES GAMES

The 2019 Mexico Series was played in Monterrey

One of the many casualties to the 2020 baseball season due to the Wuhan virus outbreak was the Mexican Series in Mexico City, that would've pitted the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres in a two-game Major League Baseball regular season series at Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, scheduled for last week. The set is to be rescheduled to be played in Phoenix if and when the MLB season begins.

Mexico's capital city will miss out on its first opportunity to host big league games that count in the standings, although numerous exhibition contests have been held there in the past. The pandemic also put a halt to off-field efforts to bring the Mexico Series to Guadalajara in 2021. “The reality is that before the pandemic, we were very advanced in that negotiation,” Jalisco Charros co-owner Salvador Quirarte says. “Very advanced. But right now, I don't really know what's going to happen.”

Quirarte was spearheading talks with MLB to play one of two planned Mexico Series for 2021 at Estadio Charros, but the virus has knocked the entire baseball world off its axis and MLB's uncertainty moving forward while readjusting its calendar casts future Mexico Series plans into doubt for the time being.

“This year it was Mexico City's turn,” Quirarte notes, “and we were very strong in raising our hands for 2021, but this is going to totally change our plans.” Quirarte points to pending negotiations between MLB and its players union, whose current Collective Bargaining Agreement will expire next year.

Estadio Charros in Guadalajara

Despite the bump in the road, the Charros team president says efforts will eventually continue to bring big league baseball to Mexico's second-largest city (and home to the country's largest population of American expats). During a recent press conference introducing newly-acquired third baseman Christian Villanueva, Quirarte told the assembled media, “Be sure that we will continue working and fighting to bring important international events to Guadalajara, to the home of the Jalisco Charros.”

Given the past proactive efforts of both Quirarte and co-owner Armando Navarro, those are not idle words. Since a group of investors led by the twosome purchased the original Guasave Algodoneros in 2014 and moving the Mexican Pacific League team to Guadalajara (where the newly-christened Charros purchased and reconfigured a stadium built to host the 2011 Pan American Games), the city has hosted group play for the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the 2018 Caribbean Series and Premier12 tournament first round games last November. It would be no surprise if Quirarte and Navarro had also placed a bid for the WBSC Under-23 Baseball World Cup scheduled later this year, although that tournament was eventually awarded to two other LMP cities, Obregon and Los Mochis.

LIGA, MEX PAC BOTH ADD RULE CHANGES TO SPEED UP GAMES

Does anybody really know what time it is?

As baseball games have progressively gotten longer over the years, fans have exponentially increased the volume of their complaints regarding the time required to watch nine innings (although conce$$ionaire$ have remained $trangely $ilent). Both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific leagues are responding by instituting rule changes for their respective upcoming seasons to hopefully speed things up a bit.

The Mexican League announced in February that the 2020 season will see pitchers required to throw to at least three batters before they can be replaced on the mound, an attempt to end game stoppages by revolving-door relievers who face only one batsman before they're replaced by one of their bullpen mates. Exceptions will be granted if the umpire crew chief determines that a pitcher was injured prior to throwing to his third batter.

Mound visits will be limited this season as well, with managers and coaches limited to six such trips from the dugout per nine innings that do not result in a pitcher being replaced on the hill. In the event a game goes into extra innings, teams will be allowed one mound visit per inning without a pitcher being replaced. Visits that DO result in a hurler being pulled will not count against their team's allowed total.

Finally, batboys for LMB teams will be allowed on the field in foul territory during play, theoretically to expedite the collection of bats dropped near home plate by hitters who leave the batter's box down the first-base line after hitting the ball.

Likewise, the Mex Pac is instituting rule changes meant to shave minutes off their games during the 2020-21 season. One that's similar to LMB changes is a limit to the number of mound visits by managers and coaches, although the number of allowable trips has not been set.

Intentional walks will no longer require four wide pitches in the LMP, but rather a signal from a team's manager that awards a batter first base without facing a ball.

Turn and face the strange ch-ch-ch-changes

A pitch clock will be used for the first time in 2020-21, although the time allowed between pitches had not been determined when the rule changes were approved by the LMP Assembly of Presidents earlier this year. Pitch clocks with 20-second countdowns have been used affiliated minor leagues in North America for a few years now, although it's unknown whether a ball has ever been awarded to a batter because time had expired between pitches. During Pacific Coast League games in Tacoma, for instance, it has become routine for the pitch clock to be turned off from the press box whenever it counts down to the five-second mark, thus making enforcement all but impossible even if it's desired.

One change that may get the most resistance from people in the stands at LMP games is the “sudden-death” rule, in which a baserunner will be placed on second base at the beginning of each half-inning once a game goes into the 12^th inning. It's a rule that has been used in amateur baseball and softball, mostly at youth league levels, and in some international competitions, but this will be the first time a professional league in Mexico tries it during the regular season (although the Mex Pac office says it will be discarded during the postseason).