ESPN TO STREAM MEXICAN LEAGUE GAMES IN 2021

Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega

    According to The Economist, ESPN is among the networks that will broadcast Mexican League games this summer. The LMB hopes to increase their audience spectrum and improve the economic conditions of all 18 teams. The announcement was made during a virtual league press conference last week, but no specific dates were given for ESPN live coverage. Other channels involved in 2021 will be TV Azteca, Multimedios and Canal 1.

    In an Assembly of Presidents meeting held in San Diego more than a year ago, it was determined that in 2021 the LMB will for the first time control the broadcasting rights of all member teams that comprise it to commercialize them collectively. One of the plans in the management of league president Horacio de la Vega is to increase its reach to spectators and promote teams beyond their local market.

    "Leagues like the NFL have managed to improve a lot in production issues to create a more competitive league," de la Vega says, "so that the teams can have better conditions when making a global negotiation. For that reason, this agreement has been made. "

    The Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Monterrey Sultanes were among the most affected franchises, since they already had lucrative contracts with SKY Sports, an ESPN competitor. The Proceso website detailed that the economic blow for the Diablos will exceed five million pesos (about US $ 250,000) with this decision.

Diablos executive president Othon Diaz

    According to information provided at a press conference by the Diablos' executive president, Othon Díaz, the process consists of packaging the games to sell them at three levels (A, AA and AAA). Each television station is assigned a certain number of games, depending on the amount that has paid, so that in the end all teams are on different channels

    In addition, Diaz pointed out that in conjunction with the league, it will allow local television stations to carry important games.

    “In the case of local television stations, especially at the state level,” says Diaz, “they have normally broadcast the teams' games. There is a matter of negotiation where through the sale of the rights for those cities, the local television station only has the possibility of broadcasting in the city or state where it has been negotiated with the league.”

PURO BEISBOL: PACHO FIRED AFTER BACKING MAZATLAN MAYOR

Ex-Venados manager Juan Jose Pacho

    Juan Jose Pacho has apparently been given an object lesson in the perils of bringing politics into the workplace. According to Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, Pacho was fired by the Mexican Pacific League's Mazatlan Venados organization after appearing in a photograph standing next to current Mazatlan mayor Luis "El Quimico" Benitez Torres at a recent campaign event. Benitez stepped down as mayor in March to take a three-month leave until June 7 to focus on his re-election campaign.

    Benitez and the City have been at loggerheads with Venados owners Jose Antonio Toledo and his family ever since Estadio Teodoro Mariscal reopened in time for the 2018-19 LMP season after undergoing US$18 million worth of renovations. The first dispute involved three clandestine water lines discovered by the City at the facility early that season. 

    After the state-owned Jumapam water utility determined that the Venados owed them 12.9 million pesos, water to the ballpark was shut off in late November and city staffers closed the ballpark to fans in the stands until the bill was paid. The imbroglio lasted into December before an uneasy settlement was arrived at and the stadium opened back up to ticketbuyers.

    Differences between the City and the team flared up again last year when employees of the municipality evicted the Venados staff from their ballpark offices and padlocked the 16,000-seat facility in April after violations of the signed lease were cited. The Toledo family also had their concessions contract at Estadio Teodoro Mariscal terminated. That was a particularly hard pill to swallow for the Toledos, who had managed concessions there since 1980 and were able to build up enough wealth to purchase the team from the Mazatlan-based Pacifico brewery in 2005.

    The team was forced to operate out of temporary offices away from the ballpark and while Mazatlan had been awarded last winter's Caribbean Series by the Pan American Baseball Conferation (COPABE), the standoff carried into June and COPABE head Juan Francisco Puello was threatening to move the tournament elsewhere if his organization was not given access to the stadium during the event. Eventually, Benitez relented and the Venados were allowed to occupy Estadio Teodoro Mariscal for the 2020-21 season and the Serie del Caribe, but the dispute concerning the ballpark lease has still not been resolved.

    With that as back story, it had to come as a shock to the Toledos when the picture of Pacho and Benitez at a rally surfaced in early April. The former shortstop was relieved of his managerial duties during last season (the third time he's managed the club) but had remained on the payroll as a consultant while supervising a children's baseball school.

Mazatlan mayor Luis Benitez Torres

    A Salon de la Fama member as a player, Pacho first became the Venados skipper after replacing Dan Firova amid the 2004-05 season and led the squad to the LMP pennant and a Caribbean Series title, Mazatlan's first, that season. The Deer also copped the 2005-06 Mex Pac flag but Pacho was eventually let go with thanks, as all managers in Mexico experience. He replaced Miguel Olivo at the helm during the 2015-16 campaign and once again led them to the pennant and CS crown that winter but was eventually let go again. This time around, he was brought in to replace Joe Alvarez after the latter left with the team in first place during the 2018-19 season and held the post until he was sent back to the front office last winter.

    Now, however, the 59-year-old Pacho (who was fired shortly after his birthday) has apparently crossed a bridge too far by appearing to support a mayor that has been anathema to his team owners for the past two years. He will likely hop on the Mexican managerial merry-go-round and find a new job as dugout boss elsewhere because nobody seems to be out of work for long as long as they've had past success, and there may have been a lesson learned in what can happen when you back a politician who has been the bane of your employers' existence.

SALON DE LA FAMA MEMBER JORGE FITCH DIES AT 87

Jorge Fitch as Puebla shortstop

    Sinaloa native Jorge Fitch, one of the best shortstops in Mexican baseball history, died last Thursday due to health problems. His son of the same name reported in a statement on social networks that the senior Fitch had passed away after turning 87 on March 30.

    The former player and manager had battled serious problems for a long time after suffering a stroke. One of Fitch's last public appearances was two years ago in Reynosa at the reunion of the 1969 Mexican League champion Broncos.

    A member of the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame since 2001 (when he was inducted along with catcher Rudy Sandoval, first baseman Jack Pierce and utilityman/pitcher Pedro Ramirez), Fitch was considered the Mexican League's best shortstop during a playing career that lasted from the late 1950's into the mid-1970's, especially with Puebla and Reynosa. Playing winterball in the Mexican Pacific League, he also stood out in the middle infield with Hermosillo, Obregon and Navojoa.

    Born in Novalato, Sonora on March 30, 1934, Fitch broke into pro baseball at age 22 with the Fresnillo Mineros of the Class C Mexican Center League in 1956. Despite only batting .203 with five homers and 39 RBIs over 87 games while committing 25 errors at shortstop, he was acquired by the Mexico City Tigres for 1957 and spent three seasons with the team, socking 10 homers and stealing 25 bases under manager George Genovese in 1958. However, it wasn't until after Fitch was dealt to Puebla in 1960 that he hit his stride.

    Fitch topped the .300 batting mark in each of his first two years with the Pericos, for whom he spent eight summers and won one pennant (1963) while finishing second twice (1964, 1965). In the timespan, Puebla put together one of the strongest infields in LMB history with 1B Ronnie Camacho, 2B Moises Camacho, SS Fitch and 3B Jose “Zacatillo” Guerrero. Fitch and Moi Camacho (no relation to (Ronnie) formed an airtight keystone combo and all four are members of the Salon de la Fama.

Fitch passed away at 87 last week

    By 1969, Fitch was member of the Reynosa Broncos, who won the Liga pennant despite batting just .259 and hitting 44 homers as a team (pitcher Salvador Sanchez' 22-12 record and 1.84 ERA might have had something to do with their first-place finish). Fitch played one more year with the Broncos and spent 1971 in Tampico, where he was teammates with the legendary Hector Espino and a 22-year-old pitcher named Adan Munoz, whose yet-to-be-born son Adan caught 21 years in the LMB and is now manager in Quintana Roo. After that season, Fitch retired as a player at age 37, although he came out of the dugout to play 21 more games for Reynosa in 1974 and 1975 when he was managing the Broncos.

    Fitch played 1,670 games in his LMB career, collecting 1,676 hits for a .272 average. He spent nine winters playing in the Mexican Pacific League with Hermosillo, Obregon and Navojoa, batting .250 on 469 hits to give him a total of 2,145 safeties in both leagues. In addition to his managerial experience in the Mexican League, where he went an overall 525-518 with two flags over seven seasons, Fitch managed the Mex Pac's Tijuana Potros for several winters during the 1980's and won the LMP pennant in 1987-88.

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.