Culiacan GM Padilla sacked, Tomateros players complain

Anyone who's read Jim Bouton's classic "Ball Four" is aware that ballplayers don't often hold general managers in high esteem.  While Bouton's lampooning of Seattle Pilots GM Marvin Milkes was just one reason that got him into considerable hot water with the baseball establishment, it's fairly common knowledge that an adversarial relationship can develop between a professional athlete and the person who ultimately determines their salary (especially in the era prior to free agency).

That's why the response of a dozen Culiacan Tomateros players, many of them current or former major leaguers, in the wake of the team's firing of general manager Ray Padilla (pictured) raised so many eyebrows last week.  Padilla spent twelve winters in the GM's chair for the Tomateros before being let go after the season.  Although original owner Juan Manuel Ley built the Mexican Pacific League team into one of the country's top baseball organizations from the late 1960's until his death a year ago at age 82, Ley's family successors at the helm of the team ultimately grew frustrated with Padilla's lack of on-field success this season after the club, which won the MexPac's first-half title before dropping off in the second half and being eliminated in the playoff semifinals.

With Culiacan hosting the Caribbean Series earlier this month, much pressure was placed on Padilla to bring the Tomateros a pennant and berth in the CS.  The results of impatient ownership led to manager Lino Rivera's firing after a slow start to the second half (remember, this is the team that WON the first half title), replacing him with veteran skipper Enrique "Che" Reyes, who'd been coaching in the organization.  When Reyes failed to bring the team a flag, Padilla's fate was all but sealed despite an LMP pennant and a Caribbean Series title game berth just two years ago under his watch.

A terse February 18 statement from the Tomateros office said, "Continuing with the process or re-engineering our club, it is announced that Mr. Reymundo Padilla is leaving his position of Sports Manager."  Padilla's ouster brought on an unusual reaction of support from his former players days later, as no less than twelve Tomateros jugadores signed a formal statement protesting the move and sent it to the press.  Here is a translated version of that letter:

Due to what happened last week, in which the Culiacan Tomateros Baseball Club reported that Mr. Ray Padilla stopped being the Sports Manager, the players of this organization want to express our feelings about it.

In the years that Mr. Padilla was in charge of the sports management of this club, he managed to form a great harmony in the group of players that today make up the roster of the Tomateros team of Culiacan. That is why we are very upset the news. Ray, as we all call him, had a unique work ethic, always showing us his support in good and bad.

We feel a great disappointment inside this group of players. We understand that the owners make their decisions, but many times they do it without consulting those inside the team, doing things that may damage the organization in the future.

We want to show our support to Ray, thanking him for all his support throughout these years in which we had the opportunity to work with him.

Without more to add, we said goodbye, even with this news and very hurt by the decision that was taken by the directors, which we do not agree with.


Among the twelve players who signed the statement are pitchers Oliver Perez and Hector Daniel "Danny" Rodriguez, infielders Oscar Robles, Luis Alfonso Cruz and Ramiro Pena, and outfielders Ronnier Mustelier and Joey Meneses. Perez, Robles, Cruz and Pena all have MLB experience (Perez, a Culiacan native, is entering his 15th big league season), Rodriguez is one of Mexico's top left-handed pitchers and Mustelier and Meneses were two of the Tomateros' top hitters this season.

Padilla's replacement in Culiacan has not been determined.

Six Mexicans to enter Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame

When the Caribbean Series is held in Culiacan next month, six past Mexican players and executives will be inducted into the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame.  The pantheon was established in 1996 by Conferederation of Professional Baseball of the Caribbean commissioner Juan Francisco Puello Herrera to honor players who've distinguished themselves in past Serie del Caribe events along with people who've contributed to the growth of baseball in the region.  Inductees are voted upon by journalists, broadcasters and historians in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Mexico.  As with Cooperstown, candidates must receive 75 percent of the vote to gain membership.

Since 2009, membership has been awarded annually to personalities from the country hosting the Caribbean Series.  The 2017 inductees include third baseman Vinny Castilla (pictured), first baseman Erubiel Durazo, second baseman Miguel Flores, manager Ben "Cananea" Reyes, journalist Alfonso Araujo Bojorquez and late executive Juan Manuel Ley.

Castilla played in five Caribbean Series with Tijuana (1991), Hermosillo (1995, 2007, 2010) and Mazatlan (2005), winning a CS title with the Venados.  The popular Oaxacan is the all-time Major League Baseball leader among Mexicans in career homers (320) and RBIs (1,105), and played in two All-Star Games as a member of the Colorado Rockies.  After playing for Mexico in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006, he managed the Mexican team in 2009.  Castillo later served in the front office and as a instructor for the Rockies.

Durazo was a member of four Serie del Caribe teams, including Mazatlan (1998, 2005) and Hermosillo (2001, 2007), winning the MVP award with the Naranjeros in 2001 and a title with the Venados in 2005 as a teammate of Castilla's.  The Hermosillo native also spent seven years in MLB, four with Arizona and three with Oakland, hitting 94 homers and winning a World Series in 2001 with the Diamondbacks.  Durazo was chosen last year to oversee development a D-Backs academy for Mexican prospects in Hermosillo.

Flores went to the CS three times with Hermosillo (1994, 1995, 2001) and once with Mazatlan (2005), winning a championship with Castilla and Durazo in 2005 with the Deer.  After spending five summers playing in the Indians organization, Flores spent 15 seasons in the Mexican League with his hometown Monterrey Sultanes, batting an even .300 with 231 doubles while stealing 215 bases.

Reyes managed Hermosillo to the event in 1975, 1976 and 1980 and guided Mexicali to the CS in 1986, winning the title with the Naranjeros in 1975 and again in 1986 with the Aguilas.  He also managed teams to six Mexican League pennants, including five with the Mexico City Diablos Rojos, and coached with the Seattle Mariners under Maury Wills in 1981, filling in as manager during Wills' two-game suspension to become the first (and, to date, only) Mexican to manage an MLB team.

Araujo was a triple-threat journalist (print, TV and radio) who covered several Caribbean Series on each medium.  Now 83, the Navojoa native began writing for the Ahora newspaper at age 14 in 1947 and continues to this day with his "Lanzado para Home" column, marking seven decades as a scribe.  The author of 14 books, Araujo also spent 25 winters as official scorer for the Obregon Yaquis (plus 17 years on the Yaquis radio team) and has been part of Mexican League telecasts.

Ley founded the Culiacan Tomateros with his father and was the team's owner during ten Mexican Pacific League championship runs, with Caribbean Series titles in 2002 and 2005, until his death at age 82 in January of last year.  He was also at the helm when the Tomateros' 20,000-seat ballpark was constructed and lived long enough to witness his team's first season in the new facility last winter, when they averaged 16,000 fans per game.  Ley also owned the Saltillo Saraperos of the Mexican League 1999 to 2013.

Although the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame has been around for over twenty years, there were only two members from Mexico inducted during the first nine years of its existence:  Legendary first baseman Hector Espino was a member of the charter class of 1996 while pitcher Vicente Romo got the nod in 2001.  After six more Mexicans were added to the rolls in 2005 and 2006, there were no more representatives of the country brought in between 2007 and 2012.  The six figures to be inducted next month will bring the total of Mexicans in the HOF to twenty.

An induction ceremony will be held during this year's Serie del Caribe in Culiacan between February 1 and 7.

Mexican members of the Caribbean Baseball Hall of Fame
1996-Hector Espino (1B)
2001-Vicente Romo (P)
2005-Horacio Lopez Dio (EXEC), Victor Saiz (UMP), Juan Navarrete (2B)
2006-Celerino Sanchez (3B), Eduardo Acosta (P), Mercedes Esquer (P)
2013-Houston Jimenez (SS), Francisco Estrada (C/MGR), Arturo Leon Lerma (EXEC), Ever Magallanes (SS), Fernando Valenzuela (P), Renato Vega (EXEC)
2017-Vinny Castilla (3B), Erubiel Durazo (1B), Miguel Flores (2B), Cananea Reyes (MGR), Alfonso Araujo Bojorquez (MEDIA), Juan Manuel Ley (EXEC)

Tomateros owner, Salon member Ley dies at 82

Longtime Culiacan Tomateros owner Juan Manuel Ley, a Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame member who also once owned the Mexical League's Saltillo Saraperos, has died at the age of 82 in Culiacan. Ley died of an apparent heart attack.

With his father, Ley formed the Tomateros in 1965 and remained the team's owner for over five decades, winning ten Mexican Pacific League pennants in that time along with Caribbean Series titles in 1996 and 2002.  Culiacan also opened a new 20,000-seat ballpark this past season, drawing over 16,000 fans per game to outrank every affiliated minor league franchise in North America in attendance average.  The Tomateros will also host the 2017 Caribbean Series next February.

Ley owned the LMB Saraperos from 1999 until he sold the club in 2013, by which time he had overseen renovations of the 17,500-seat Estadio Francisco I. Madero, the launching of broadcasts of all Saraperos home games on Canal 7 and the building of the 2009 and 2010 Mexican League championship squads.  Ley was elected to the Salon de la Fama in 1996, three years before he bought the Saltillo team and demonstrating his influence on Mexican baseball from his west coast headquarters.

The son of a Chinese immigrant who came to Mexico in 1910, Juan Manuel Ley was born in Durango in 1933.  He inherited his father's Casa Ley supermarket chain and built it into Mexico's largest privately-owned string of grocery stores, with over 150 stores and 22,000 employees throughout ten states in Western Mexico.  USA-based Safeway now owns 49 percent of Casa Ley, which was founded in Culiacan in 1954 by Juan Ley Fong, Juan's father.  Nicknamed "Chino" for his ethnic heritage, the younger Ley was ranked 29th among Mexico's 100 most important businessmen in a 2014 story by Expansion magazine.

A funeral mass was held for Ley last Saturday in Culiacan.