GUASAVE ALGODONEROS TO PLAY IN SPAIN TOURNEY

    The Guasave Algodoneros are planning to make a trip across the Atlantic Ocean this fall to play in a tournament involving European teams and perhaps an Asian squad as well. The Cottoneers announced last week that they'll be taking part in the Barcelona Baseball Cup between September 26 and October 3, thus making them the first professional team from Mexico to play on the European continent.

    Taking part in the virtual press conference were three event organizers (Catalan Federation of Baseball and Softball president Jordi Valles Mestres, Barcelona Baseball Cup CEO Rafaael Llames Cabrera and Base Internacional SA managing director Miguel Pazcabrales) along with Guasave general director Luis Fernando Garcia and team sports manager Alejandro Ahumada. According to a press release from the Algodoneros, Valles explained that the inclusion of a Mexican team in the tournament will cause a huge impact, since there is “a large Latino population that likes baseball.”

    The Barcelona Baseball Cup will be played in two venues: The first is Estadio Carlos Perez de Rozas (home of the Division of Honor's BC Barcelona), while other games will take place at the C.B. Viladecans' ballpark, which was used for baseball during the 1992 Summer Olympics. Training will take place in Sant Boi, site of another Spanish League team.

    Besides the Algodoneros, teams from Italy, The Netherlands and host Spain will take part in the tournament, while efforts are being made to include at least one team from Asia. Depending on which (if any) team comes over from Asia, Guasave may be the tournament favorite going in due to both Mexico's fifth-ranked status in the latest World Baseball Softball Confederation ratings as well as the comparatively higher level of play in the Mexican Pacific League.

    The Netherlands (#9) and Italy (#17) are long established as Europe's premier baseball-playing nations (although the #16 Czech Republic has passed Italy in the rankings) and both have played in multiple World Baseball Classics, but neither the Dutch Major League nor Italian Serie A1 are regarded as competitive as the LMP. Spain (#20) is among the second tier of European baseball countries along with Germany (#19), France (#25) and Belgium (#26). The Division of Honor is one of the top leagues in Europe but professional players are in the minority and the only advantage any chosen host team will have in the Barcelona Baseball Cup is home-field advantage.

BORDER BOUNCE: GARCIA OUT IN MEXICALI, ROMERO FIRED IN TJ

Luis Alfonso Garcia at work in Mexicali

    For years, Baseball Mexico has chronicled the so-called “Mexican managerial merry-go-round,” in which field managers are hired, fired and recycled at a rate unseen in professional baseball north of the border. Case in point: The Quintana Roo Tigres last week parted ways with helmsman Adan Munoz and replaced him with another ex-catcher, Hector Paez. Munoz was hired to replace Jesus Sommers as skipper of the Cancun team on May 9, 2019 and led the Tigres to a 62-57 regular season record and a playoff berth. Paez had served as Munoz' bench coach.

    While the revolving door may not spin quite as fast in the front offices, being a general manager of a Mexican baseball franchise is still not the most stable way to warn a living. Two of the most difficult teams to work sit less that 100 miles from each other on the border with the United States in Baja California Norte and both are seeking to replace their respective GMs after departures of two respected former players last week.

    Luis Alfonso Garcia's “separation from the position of Sports Manager” was announced by the Mexicali Aguilas of the Mexican Pacific League. Garcia took over as GM in Mexicali in February 2019 and while the team did reach the playoffs each of the past two seasons, the Aguilas failed to make it past the first round both times and that was enough for owner Dio Alberto Murillo to make a change.

    Garcia, a 42-year-old Guadalajara native who spent a couple seasons as a first baseman in Japan during a 21-year career that saw him belt a combined 395 homers on both sides of the Pacific, released a statement thanking the Aguilas “for the opportunity they gave me to perform this role. It was a great experience where I was able to develop in a different and new facet for me, applying my knowledge within baseball.”

    In a press release, the team said they “appreciate the dedication and professionalism shown by Luis Alfonso García during the time he was in charge of this important position, wishing much success in his professional career and personal projects.” The Aguilas earlier announced that field manager Bronswell Patrick will be back for the 2021-22 season, or at least the start of it.

Ex-Toros' sports manager Oscar Romero

    Meanwhile, the Mexican League's Tijuana Toros announced last week “that as of this date, Óscar Romero will leave the position of sports manager in the organization,” adding that the move “is generated by mutual agreement.” Romero was hired by the Toros in September 2016, shortly after their loss to Puebla in the Serie del Rey championships, 4 games to 2. Replacing former MLB pitcher Jorge Campillo, Romero served as Tijuana's sports manager for the next four-plus years, during which the team has had a quartet of managers (Pedro Mere, Lino Rivera, Oscar Robles and now Omar Vizquel) while winning the 2017 LMB pennant under Mere.

    However, in the “What-have-you-done-for-me-lately?” environment under the Uribe family (who are every bit as expectant of titles as Murillo in Mexicali), the Toros have since failed to reach the Serie del Rey in either of two truncated 2018 seasons or in 2019, which could not have made the job easier for Romero, who spent 13 years in the Liga as an infielder for eight teams before retiring as a player in 2003. His son, Oscar Junior, is a 19-year-old third baseman in the Toros organization who led the National League of Prospects (LNP) in 2019 with a .434 batting average.

    The team released a standard statement about Romero similar to the one above regarding Garcia: “The board of the Club de Beisbol Toros de Tijuana appreciates the effort, work and professionalism of Óscar Romero Tirado throughout more than four years and wishes him the best of success in future projects.”

    Before he left, Romero did sign outfielder Johnny Davis as an import player for 2021. The 30-year-old speedster from California spent six years in the Brewers system before coming to the Mexican League for the Fall 2018 schedule. In two seasons, the Compton Comet hit over .300 and led the LMB in stolen bases both campaigns before he was signed by Tampa Bay and made his MLB debut later that year.

    It's not known what effect the ouster will have on current manager Vizquel, a Hall of Fame candidate who Romero brought in prior to the abandoned 2020 season but has since been charged with domestic violence by his second wife, which led to a drop in votes among baseball writers for enshrinement in Cooperstown this winter.

BEISBOL PURO INTERVIEWS MARIACHIS' TEAM PRESIDENT

Mariachis team president Rafael Tejeda

    They have a shortlist of possible managers but have never included names such as Benjamin Gil or Sergio Gastélum; Adrián “El Titán” González is someone they'd like to add as a player; they're looking for stellar players who enhance the arrival of the franchise to the Mexican League...these are some of the plans of the Mariachis de Guadalajara.

    In a telephone conversation with Beisbol Puro editor Roberto Espinosa, Mariachis president Rafael “Fayo” Tejeda points out that the management is on the right track to make the Pan American Stadium (aka Estadio Charros) their home, and reveals that the Mariachis already have a roster of more than 30 players. On the other hand, Tejeda says that neither he nor his partner Carlos "Calo" Valenzuela had in mind to have a baseball franchise in the summer, but was something that the LMB office offered them and that they did not hesitate to to accept.

    Here is Beisbol Puro's translated interview with Tejada:

Why has so little officially been known about the Mariachis?

    “It's that just last month we participated in the Assembly of Presidents with owners of the Mexican League. There we were officially accepted and from then on, we are already an expansion franchise in the league.

    “We have not done many official things for the same reason. We are very respectful of the times and had not wanted to give so many statements until we were authorized. It was one thing that the president of the republic (who loves baseball) had announced us, and another that the LMB would authorize us to enter, and that just happened last week in the Assembly.”

Pablo Lemus, mayor of Zapopan, where the Pan American Baseball Stadium is located, declared in early December that the Guadalajara Mariachis should look for a stadium to play in Guadalajara and made it clear that the Mariachis would not be able to play there in the summer. what do you think of that?

    “We are in a process so the Mariachis have everything legal so that we can use the Pan American Stadium. That is an issue that our legal team is already addressing...we are young businessmen who somehow did not know the whole process to be able to use the stadium, so we have already been talking with them and everything is on the right track. We are trying to do everything necessary to legally comply and be able to use the stadium.”

    How ambitious is the Mariachis project?

    “We have an important project not only for the city, but for the entire metropolitan area of Guadalajara, and this project will benefit the entire state because there will be jobs and everything that generates a show.

    “We come from an atypical year like 2020, and for young entrepreneurs to come to invest in this beautiful sport, I think it should be valued, and the government people have already told us that we have all their support, and they only asked us to do what pertinent on the legal issue so that everything works. We have really received a very kind treatment from all of them, always looking for a way to make everything possible.”

What can your fans expect?

    “We want Guadalajara to continue with the quality it deserves in all aspects, so we seek to have an office, a technical body and a team that is in accordance with what the city deserves.

    “We seek to have an experienced team, although we will also give young people the opportunity, but we want people who come to capitalize, to give us quality and experience.

    “We are thinking that any type of name can come to the Mariachis. We want great players, whatever their names are. We have foreign players on the table who have played in the Major Leagues and who want to play in the summer in Mexico, which we can probably hire. We are looking for a 'Ronaldinho' of baseball ”.

    Adrián 'El Titán' González has been mentioned as a probable contract to play with Mariachis. How likely can it be that this is achieved, especially considering that the Veracruz Aguilas have announced him as a partner?

    “What I can tell you is that in the part that we learned about, Adrián was not coming with Veracruz as a partner. We would all love to have a figure with the stature of Adrián. I looked for Adrián to tell him that we have not announced anything about him and that we were not misusing his image. He told me that the only thing he could tell me was that he had prepared to play the 2020 Olympic Games but now with this issue of the pandemic, he no longer knows what is going to happen.”

We learned that you already have people working in the front office like Francisco Minjárez and Luis Alonso Mendoza...

    “Yes, in the office the sports director is Francisco Minjárez and we have Luis Alonso Mendoza as sports manager, who is already retiring as a player and is now undertaking a new role with us. It was not easy to offer him the position and ask him to retire, but he discussed it with his family and decided that it was a good option to stop playing and start another facet.

    “As a hitting coach we will have Wilie Romero, who is a very well-known person in Mexican baseball. For now, they are the people we have defined.”

What about the manager? Much has been said about Benjamín Gil and Sergio Omar Gastélum as options to direct the Mariachis...

    “We haven't talked to Benji Gil at all. Sergio is not an option. He has to digest this moment first (his departure from Diablos Rojos del México), and later he will be able to see his work options, but with us for now he is not contemplated.

    "At the table we have Mexican and foreign managers, but neither Benji nor Sergio Omar is there."

Do you already have players contemplated for your roster?

    “We already have a base of more or less 30 players, but it will be announced when the moment is right.”

Has it been difficult to negotiate to get players from the other teams?

    “No, I would say that it is something normal in the market of purchases, sale and trades. It was just knocking on the doors of the other teams and talking to them. The owners have been very accessible and inclusive.”

By the way, how did the idea of having a baseball franchise in the LMB come up?

    “We did not seek the franchise, we did not see this panorama. This opportunity opened up for us and we did not think twice about it, but this was in early December when we knew we were going to enter it.

    “Neither I nor my partner (Carlos Valenzuela) had asked for a summer baseball franchise but when the opportunity arose, we entered it for the taste of baseball. The Liga looked for us. They told us that Guadalajara could not stay without summer baseball and, knowing that we are baseball people, they offered it to us and we joined them.”

NEW SALON DE LA FAMA OPENED IN MONTERREY

Mexico's new Baseball Hall of Fame in Monterrey

A facility honoring the greats of Mexican baseball history opened amid great fanfare last week in Monterrey, with billionaire Alfredo Harp Helu deservedly receiving accolades from the more than 400 luminaries, press and fans on hand for the event.  The owner of both the Mexican League's Mexico City Diablos Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros and partner for the Mexican Pacific League's revived Guasave Algodoneros spent 350 million pesos (or $18.3 million in US dollars) of his own money to build the Salon de la Fama, which opened its doors for the first time last Wednesday.

The previous Hall of Fame, located on the Cuauhtemoc Moctezuma brewery grounds in Monterrey, was shuttered by the host company in 2012 after nearly four decades at that location, leading to all items in the building spending the past seven years boxed up in a storage unit while a new venue was sought.  At that time, according to Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, Sinaloa governor Mario Lopez Valdez, proposed that a new Salon be built in Culiacan but that building never came to fruition.

In the end, it was Harp who came to the rescue by funding the new state-of-the-art facility, which occupies over 185,000 square feet and took two-and-a-half years to build.  Besides five display rooms honoring the country's past greats of the game, the new Hall also features three floors including a library, 180-seat theater, batting cages with pitching machines, a mini-stadium suitable for wiffleball and space for weddings and baptisms (with a restaurant to open soon) and includes 280 parking spaces, many of them underground.  It is regarded as the most modern building of its kind in Latin America.

AMLO (left) and Alfredo Harp Helu

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador helped inaugurate the new facility, which is situated in Monterrey's Parque Fundidora and built of marble, glass, bronze over 1.3 million bricks.  In addition, 33 of the Salon's 83 living current members (out of a total of 178 enshrinees) were on hand for the festivities.  By all accounts, it was an exceptional opening to an exceptional Salon de la Fama, although Ballesteros reports not all went off flawlessly.

One of those current members, Enrique Kerlegand (a writer who arguably took on the title "Dean of Mexican Baseball Cronistas" following last year's passing of Tommy Morales), had to wait for over an hour on the outside sidewalk because he was not listed as one of the registered guests.  In addition, none of the enthroned attendees was mentioned during the ceremony although many traveled a long distance to be there for the opening.  Four new members will become the first inductees since 2011 later this year: former players Fernando Valenzuela, Ricardo Saenz and Daniel Fernandez as well as longtime administrator Chito Rodriguez. Given the more recent history between Harp's Diablos Rojos and Valenzuela's Quintana Roo Tigres, an introduction of "El Toro" might have led to an uncomfortable moment for all involved.

Still, the glitches were relatively minor compared to the overall effort, which was indeed a celebration of baseball in Mexico.  While Baseball Mexico has not always been easy on his Mexico City team, there is no problem acknowledging the contributions that Alfredo Harp Helu has made to the sport in his country, from operating an academy in Oaxaca and paying for a new shrine to the King of Sports to the gleaming new 13,000-seat ballpark in Mexico City that'll open in early April and host the LMB All-Star Game in July.  While Lopez Obrador may be taking on the title of Mexico's Biggest Baseball Fan, Harp has to be considered its greatest modern benefactor and he deserves credit for that.


AMLO ORDERS FORMATION OF TEN BASEBALL ACADEMIES

Edgar Gonzalez to oversee 10 Mexican academies

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has already made his presence felt at the top levels of baseball in his country and is now embarking on a project aimed at developing young ballplayers.  The plan is to open ten separate government-financed academies at public universities from Baja California to Yucatan that would each house 40 prospects and seven coaches.  While no official monetary figure for the project has been announced, former MLB and NPB infielder Edgar Gonzalez tells Proceso's Beatriz Pererya that each academy would require five million pesos annually to operate.

Gonzalez, who managed Mexico in the 2016 World Baseball Classic, is now a coordinator for the President's Office for the Promotion and Development of Baseball.  Along with father David and brother Adrian, he has operated baseball academies in Southern California and Tijuana for the past decade.  There are several existing academies in Mexico, the most prominent being one operated by the Mexican League near Monterrey, but the ten proposed by AMLO would mark the first government-subsidized effort in that facet of player development.  The proposed locations are San Quintin, Baja California Norte; Guasave and Etchojoa, Sinaloa; Delicias, Chihuahua; Hidalgo, Tamaulipas; Minatitlan, Veracruz; Iztapalala in Mexico City; Palenque, Chiapas; Cardenas, Tabasco and Ticul, Yucatan.

The academies would be geared toward players signing contracts with Major League Baseball organizations along with pro circuits in Mexico.  During an interview with Pereyra, Gonzalez said "If each of the ten academies produces six players per year, in six years a number up to 60 to 80 is conservative."  When asked how realistic the numbers are, he replied, "Yes, we can generate them.  Last year we sold six players to MLB teams from the Academia de Nosotros (in Tijuana)."

The effort will face an uphill battle.  Since Melo Almada debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 1933, 133 Mexican-born players have spent time in MLB, the most recent being San Diego shortstop Luis Urias, who debuted with the Padres last August. However, the number of Mexicans in MLB has dropped from 23 in 2003 to 13 last year.  Both Gonzalez and Lopez Obrador believe there is enough talent in Mexico to send to MLB at the same rate as the Dominican Republic and Venezuela, where Pereyra says a combined 1,500 private academies have sold 2,400 players.

As a nod to the fact that only two percent of signed prospects reach the majors and even fewer remain in the bigs long enough to consolidate a career at that level, Gonzalez says the academies will also place an emphasis on academics so young players who don't turn pro may earn scholarships in Mexican and U.S. universities instead.  He adds that unlike past scenarios in which MLB teams have had to pay Mexican League teams holding the rights to young players 35 percent of their signing bonus, the academies would allow parents to negotiate directly with big league organizations, although there would be an academy representative on hand to oversee talks.  "If you leave the father alone," Gonzalez notes, "a team will talk to a player worth 200 thousand dollars but offer five thousand, since he doesn't know what he is going to take.  If you have a representative, you can help him get what his son is worth."  The ex-Padres second sacker says the academy would take a commission of 5 to 10 percent to help offset the cost of training a young player.

Gonzalez added that while he will report directly to the president, he'll primarily coordinate his efforts with National Commission of Physical Culture and Sports Ana Gabriela Guevara.  In addition, he will not have an office because Lopez Obrador wants him to spend money on ballplayers, not bureaucracy.


VINNY CASTILLA NAMED MANAGER IN HERMOSILLO

With the Mexican Pacific League's offseason less than a month underway, a pair of former homegrown sluggers are returning the the LMP in new non-playing roles.

New Hermosillo manager Vinny Castilla

Two-time National League All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla, who spent parts of five winters playing in Hermosillo after his major league career concluded, is returning to the Naranjeros as manager next season.  He'll replace Bronswell Patrick, who piloted the Orangemen to a 37-31 overall record over two halves while finishing a half-point behind overall leader Culiacan before falling to Los Mochis in the first round of the playoffs, 4 games to 2, in Patrick's lone season at the helm.

The 51-year-old Castilla was born and raised in Oaxaca before signing with the Mexican League's Saltillo Saraperos as a shortstop in 1987.  After limited duties his first two seasons (including a short stint with Monclova), Castilla broke out in 1989 by batting .307 for the Saraperos, including 10 homers and 58 RBIs in 128 games.  That was enough to attract the attention of the Atlanta Braves, who bought his contract from Saltillo after the season.  He then spent three more years in the Braves system, including brief appearances with the big team in 1991 and 1992.  It wasn't until after Castilla had been picked by Colorado in the expansion draft that the right-handed batter's career really took an upturn.

After spending the 1993 as the Rockies' starting shortstop (batting .255 with seven homers) and splitting 1994 between Denver and AAA Colorado Springs as a utilityman, Castilla was installed as the regular third baseman by manager Don Baylor and responded with a five-year stretch during which he hit 191 homers, drove in 562 runs, topped the .300 mark four times and made two All-Star Game appearances while winning three Silver Slugger awards as the National League's top-hitting third baseman.  Following the 1999 season he was traded to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and never really regained his form except for a one-year return to Coors Field in 2004 (.271 with 35 homers and an NL-best 131 RBIs).  He played his last game in 2007 with the Washington Nationals and remains the all-time leader among Mexican-born MLB players in homers (326), doubles (349), RBIs (1,105), hits (1,881) and runs (902).

Castilla went on to play 67 games with Hermosillo between 2006-07 and 2010-11 (managing the team briefly in 2008-09), batting .276 with 15 homers and 57 RBIs while appearing at the hot corner in every contest before retiring as a player at 42 in 2011.  Since then, he's worked in the Rockies front office and as a coach. Castilla has also managed Mexico's national team in the 2007 Pan-American Games (earning a Bronze medal) and in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, reaching the second round of that year's tournament. 

Luis Alfonso Garcia poses in his WBC jersey

While Castilla readies to manage the Naranjeros, Luis Alfonso Garcia will be getting used to his new job as sports manager with the Mexicali Aguilas after (somewhat ironically) serving as a coach in Hermosillo during the recently-concluded MexPac season.  The 40-year-old Guadalajara native signed with Boston in 1997 as an 18-year-old pitcher and went 1-2 with a 2.87 ERA in eight appearances for the Red Sox Gulf Coast League team, striking out 18 batters and walking 10 in 15.2 innings.  He sat out the next season before returning as an outfielder in 1999 and went on to spend seven seasons in the minors performing in the Bosox, Indians, Cardinals, Dodgers and Mets systems, belting 32 homers with 95 RBIs for AAA Las Vegas in 2004 as a 25-year-old.  Even so, the Dodgers let him go to the Mets following the season and after going .219/9/24 for AAA Norfolk over 41 games, Garcia was let go on May 31, 2005 and caught on with the Monterrey Sultanes.

From that point on, he became one of Mexico's most respected batters with both the Monterrey Sultanes of the Mexican League and Hermosillo in the LMP, routinely reaching double-figure totals for homers in both loops.  His best year was likely 2010, when Garcia hit .338 with 21 homers and 86 RBIs for Monterrey before going .301/21/60 with Hermosillo in the winter for a total of 42 roundtrippers and 146 ribbies over 159 games.  Garcia then spent two summers in Japan for the Rakuten Golden Eagles with middling results, batting .245 with 15 home runs in 165 games for 2012 and 2013 before returning to Mexico for good.  The 6'4" right-handed batter retired as a player last fall after batting a combined .280 with seven longballs in 50 games over two short seasons with Oaxaca and Durango.  Garcia led the MexPac in homers four times (his 148 career dingers are sixth all-time in the LMP) and played for Mexico in the 2006 and 2013 World Baseball Classics.

Garcia has never worked in a baseball front office and will assume his new position under owner Dio Alberto Murillo, a man whose desire to win is well-known and one who couldn't have enjoyed a winter in Mexicali during which his Aguilas missed the playoffs after posting an LMP-worst 26-40 record.

All-Star benefit games played in Culiacan, Monterrey

The benefit All-Star baseball series jointly organized by the Mexican League and Mexican Pacific League is in the history books, with the two teams splitting games in Culiacan and Monterrey over the weekend while, more importantly, raising money for relief efforts in the wake of September's devastating earthquakes in the southern portion of the country.  According to Puro Beisbol columnist Hector Bencomo (and partly confirmed in a comment below by BBM reader Bob Broughton in Guanajuato), about 7,000 fans turned out for Saturday's game in Culiacan while 12,000 were in the stands in Monterrey on Sunday.

Walter Silva was tabbed by manager Daniel Fernandez to start for the Red team in Saturday's opener in Culiacan while hometown lefty Danny Rodriguez received the nod from Green skipper Pedro Mere.  A third-inning single to Luis Garcia that plated the game's first run to give the Rojos an early lead, but the Verdes fought back with three runs off Red reliever Fabian Cota on an Eduardo Arredondo single, Carlos Gastelum sacrifice fly and a double by ex-MLBer Jorge Cantu.  The Greens scored four more runs in the bottom of the fourth, courtesy of a Gastelum single, a two-run single by Yordanys Linares and another RBI safety from Jose Amador.  Arned with a 7-1 advantage, five Verdes relievers were able to shut out the Rojos the rest of the way to preserve the win.  Rodriguez was given the win for the Greens while Cota took the loss for the Reds.

The Rojos came back from Saturday's loss with a 6-1 triumph over the Greens in Monterrey Sunday.  The Verdes took an early lead in the first inning when Eduardo singled off Rojos starter Edgar Gonzalez to drive in Ramon Rios with the game's first run.  Green starter Pablo Ortega pitched two scoreless innings as the Verdes held their precarious 1-0 lead until the fifth inning, when the Rojos scored four runs to take the lead. An Antonio Lamas RBI single tied the game for the Reds and Garcia's safety drove in the go-ahead (and game-winning) run.  Ricardo Valenzuela's sacrifice fly brought in Lamas to make it a 3-1 game, and Alex Gonzalez scored Garcia with a single to put the Reds up 4-1.  Jesse Castillo belted the only home run of the series in the seventh, giving the Rojos a four-run lead, and Garcia's later RBI single provided the Reds with their final margin of victory.  Reliever Marco Carrillo earned the win for the Rojos while Ozzie Mendez absorbed the loss.

While neither contest was particularly competitive, fans in both Culiacan and Monterrey were treated to games featuring many of the top performers in Mexican baseball while raising funds for the crucial relief efforts (BBM readers wishing to do so can click on the Salvation Army icon atop the right-hand column on this site).  The following are pictures from both nights taken off the LMP and LMB websites:

Puro Beisbol will be hosting a celebrity softball game of their own on Wednesday night in Mazatlan.  That tilt was originally organized as a fundraiser to help pay medical expenses for retired Mexican ballplayers such as ex-pitcher Juan Manuel Palafox, who ended up comatose in a Guadalajara hospital after initially suffering a burst bowel in early 2016.  Palafox is recovering, but he lacks a pension from either the LMB or LMP to help pay his considerable medical expenses, a condition that has repeated itself a number of times with former players south of the border.  While the Puro Beisbol benefit has been revised to be an earthquake relief fundraiser, their efforts on behalf of old ballplayers

LMB Division Semifinals results, highlights for Sunday, August 21

SOUTHERN DIVISION SEMIFINALS

Yucatan 6-10-0, CAMPECHE 5-15-2 (Yucatan leads series, 3 games to 2)
W-Negrin (2-0). L-J. Castillo (0-2). HR-E. Beltre (C), Gurerra (C). T-4:05. A-5,811.
Jose Aguilar led Leones with 2 singles, 1 run, 1 RBI; Luis Alfonso Garcia had RBI double for Yucatan


NORTHERN DIVISION SEMIFINALS

Monterrey 2-7-0, LAGUNA 0-5-0 (Monterrey wins series, 4 games to 0)
W-Carrillo (1-0). L-S. Valdez (0-1). HR-none. T-2:28. A-7,367.
Sultanes' Cesar Carrillo scattered 5 hits over 6.1 IP; Ramon Rios, Alex Valdez had RBI singles in 6th


MONDAY'S SCHEDULE
No games

TUESDAY'S SCHEDULE
Campeche at Yucatan in Merida

WEDNESDAY'S SCHEDULE
Campeche at Yucatan in Merida (if necessary)

NARANJEROS TIED FOR LEAD AS GARCIA GUNS FOR MVP REPEAT

The defending Mexican Pacific League champion Hermosillo Naranjeros have an 8-4 record and are in a three-way tie for the second half standings lead with Los Mochis and Mazatlan as Orangemen star Luis Alfonso Garcia (pictured) is making a strong bid for his second straight Most Valuable Player award. Culiacan is two games out of first at 6-6, Navojoa and Obregon are tied for fifth with 5-7 marks, while Mexicali and first half champion Guasave bring up the rear at 4-8.

While the Naranjeros have benefitted from the pitching of Travis Blackley and recent import add-on Mike Burns, Garcia has been the biggest factor as the 6’4” slugger has bashed a league-best 19 homers and 50 RBIs in 47 games with a .292 average. He belted 21 homers in 93 games for Monterrey last summer. Justin Christian of Los Mochis leads the Mex Pac in hitting (.383), runs (44) and stolen bases (22).

Blackley has been a standout on the mound for Hermosillo, posting a league-leading 2.09 ERA to go with his 5-1 record, while Burns has won his last four games to go to 4-0 with a 2.05 ERA. Mochis’ Alberto Castillo has the LMP’s best record at 7-1, Mexicali’s Andy Sisco tops the strikeouts list with 61 and Mazatlan closer Leo Rosales is best in the circuit with 11 saves, one more than Culiacan’s Jose Silva.

CASTILLA TARGETS DECEMBER 7 FOR RETURN TO PLAYING FIELD

Former major league All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla says he hopes to be back in uniform playing for the Hermosillo Naranjeros by December 7.

In an interview with Puro Beisbol’s Fernando Ballasteros, the 43-year-old Castilla, who retired from MLB after the 2006 season and presently is an assistant GM with the Colorado Rockies, says “Physically, I’m fine, but I haven’t seen pitches from a mound in a year. I’m going to be in Hermosillo to get ready and I think with some simulated games and batting, I’ll debut on December 7.” Castilla played 30 games for the Naranjeros last winter, hitting .292 with 7 homers and 27 RBIs for the Mex Pac champions.

Regarding the firing of former manager Homar Rojas last week, Castilla said, “He’s a man of baseball, a man I respect very much, and yes it was a surprise to hear about that,” adding that he’s known new skipper Ever Magallenes “a long time. We played against each other many times. He’s a man who’s very respected in baseball.”

One of Castilla’s Naranjeros teammates will be reigning Mex Pac MVP Luis Alfonso Garcia, who was leading the league with 16 homers and 42 RBIs after 38 games. Castilla, who belted 320 homers in his own big league career (a record for Mexican-born players), says all Garcia needs to reach the majors is “an opportunity. I think someone has to give it because right now, he is above the level of Mexican baseball.”

GARCIA AIMING FOR ANOTHER HERMOSILLO PENNANT

Slugger Luis Alfonso Garcia is in training camp with the Hermosillo Naranjeros and the defending Mexican Pacific League MVP is shooting for another big winter, both for his team and himself. “I feel good,” says the Guadalajara native.

The Orangemen won the Mex Pac pennant last season and represented Mexico at the Caribbean Series. “The goal is to defend the championship,” he was quoted as saying in Puro Beisbol. “The championship is ours and we have to go out and defend it with all we have.”

Garcia, who led the LMP with 23 homers and finished second with 58 RBIs while batting .266, is moving to the outfield after playing first base for Hermosillo last winter. He sees no problem with the move. “It’s a position I’ve played for years. It’s a matter of getting in shape and getting my rhythm again.”

As for whether he’d repeat his banner season, Garcia says, “I think every year you have to improve your numbers…You should come with the mindset to improve.”

MADERA, GARCIA CARRYING OVER HOT WINTER SEASONS

Sandy Madera and Luis Alfonso Garcia (pictured)were arguably the two hottest hitters during last winter’s Mexican Pacific League season. Madera batted .413 to lead the LMP, 34 points ahead of Mexicali’s Brad Snyder, while Garcia led the Mex Pac with 23 homers for Hermosillo en route to being voted the MVP by the LMP’s team presidents. Both Madera and Garcia are thus far showing in Mexican League play that their respective winter performances were not flukes.

Madera has gone 20-for-40 over his past ten games for Saltillo to overtake Puebla’s Willis Otanez for the Liga lead with a .431 batting average. The right-handed first baseman is especially wearing out right-handed pitchers, hitting .466 against starboard siders. Although Garcia went homerless for Monterrey last week, the 6’4” Guadalajara native tops the Mexican League with 13 roundtrippers and 46 RBIs over 39 games while carrying a .359 batting average.

Garcia is one of the main reasons Monterrey has taken over first place in the LMB North with a 26-15 record, one game ahead of 25-16 Mexico City. Chihuahua has cooled off a bit, splitting their last ten games and beginning this week in third place with a 23-18 mark. In the LMB South, Puebla continues to cruise toward a first-half title with a 29-10 record. Otanez and his Pericos teammates have won 15 of 20 games on the road, by far the best in the Liga. Yucatan is six games back in second at 24-17, while Oaxaca survived a tumultuous week to hang on to third place with a 22-18 ledger.

NARANJEROS’ GARCIA NAMED MEX PAC MVP

The Mexican Pacific League’s team presidents voted on individual awards for the 2009-10 season last week in Hermosillo, and a somewhat surprising choice was made for Most Valuable Player. The LMP leaders picked Luis Alfonso Garcia (pictured) of the champion Hermosillo Naranjeros as their MVP despite a terrific batting average put up by Los Mochis’ Sandy Madera.

Garcia did have a solid season for the Orangemen, leading the Mex Pac with 23 homers and finishing second to Obregon’s Carlos Valencia with 58 RBIs while hitting .266. All Madera did was bat .413 with 14 homers and 47 runs scored to become only the third player in LMP history to top the .400 mark, joining Matias Carrillo and the legendary Hector Espino in that exclusive club, but that apparently wasn’t enough for an MVP trophy.

Mazatlan’s Pablo Ortega was voted Pitcher of the Year after going 8-2 with a 2.43 ERA for the Venados, leading the LMP in wins and ERA. Madera’s Mochis teammate, catcher Sebastian Valle, was named Rookie of the Year for batting .281 with 11 homers. Navojoa skipper Orlando Sanchez earned Manager of the Year honors for coaxing a talent-starved Mayos team into the playoffs with a 32-36 record.

Hermosillo scored a front office double play, with team president Enrique Mazon voted as Executive of the Year and Naranjeros general manager Juan Aguirre being awarded the Abundio Vargas Trophy as GM of the Year.