YAQUIS' LOPEZ TOSSES NO-HITTER AGAINST NAVOJOA

Arturo Lopez after final out of no-hitter

    Obregon Yaquis left-hander Arturo Lopez tossed the first no-hitter of the Mexican Pacific League season (and 44th in the loop's history) last Saturday night, blanking the visiting Navojoa Mayos, 6-0, in front of 5,421 spectators at Estadio Yaquis. The 39-year-old Lopez struck out eleven Mayos batters, walking one and hitting another in allowing two baserunners en route to the third no-hitter in Obregon history and first ever at Estadio Yaquis.

    Lopez got all the offensive support he'd need in the bottom of the first inning when Victor Mendoza's double to left off Navojoa starter Rogelio Martinez brought Josuan Hernandez all the way around from first base. Just in case, the Yaquis plated three more runs off Martinez in the third, two on a Yadir Drake double. A Mendoza seventh-inning single scored the final two runs of the night for the winners.

    The 5'9” Lopez, who posted a 19.49 ERA in 2009 for the San Diego Padres over four relief appearances, was hitting the corners all night and threw 70 strikes in 97 pitches as neither Mayo to reach base got into scoring position. A Culiacan native who has represented the Mexico City Diablos Rojos in five Mexican League All-Star Games, Lopez is in his 16^th Mex Pac season and has a 60-38 career LMP record and surpassed 600 strikeouts during his no-no.

    Despite winning two of three games in the weekend set against the Mayos, the Yaquis remain in a tie for last place with defending champion Jalisco and Monterrey at 9-14, one game behind 10-13 Culiacan. Hermosillo remains in the first half lead at 15-8 but the race has tightened at the top, with 14-9 Mazatlan one game back in second and 13-10 Los Mochis two games out in third. Guasave, Mexicali and Navojoa are knotted up in a tie for fourth at 12-11 each.

    There HAS been a change at the top in the Mex Pac batting race, as last week's leader (Ramiro Pena of Culiacan) has dropped to third with a .359 average. Los Mochis' Yosmany Tomas went 2-for-3 against Culiacan Sunday to raise his league-leading mark to .378, 14 points ahead of Monterrey's Alberto Carreon (.364). Anthony Giansanti of Mexicali leads the winter circuit with seven homers, two more than Obregon's Sebastian Valle and Giansanti's Aguilas teammate Niko Vasquez. Christian Villanueva of Jalisco had a good week, going 9-for-24 (.378) and moving into first on the RBI table with 20, two more than the 18 ribbies each from Vasquez and Monterrey's Fernando Perez. Jose Cardona held the stolen base lead with 10 swipes for Hermosillo, ahead of the eight steals of Mazatlan's Randy Romero.

    The number of pitchers with three wins has grown to six, with Raul Carrillo (Navojoa), Matt Pobereyko and Jeff Kinley (both Guasave) joining Juan Pablo Oramas (Hermosillo), David Reyes (Mexicali) and Tyler Alexander (Jalisco) for the LMP leadership in that category. Luis Miranda of Los Mochis still leads the ERA race with an 0.00 mark after four starts and 22 innings pitched, ahead of Oramas (1.25) and Gusave's Nico Tellache (1.44). Jalisco veteran Javier Solano, now in his 15th MexPac season, tops the strikeouts list with 30 in 33.2 innings, one more than Lopez of Obregon's 29 and three up on Pobereyko's 27. Brandon Koch of Guasave has edged one save ahead of Mazatlan's Elkin Alcala, 10 to 9 while Mexicali's Jake Sanchez (who set the LMP record with 26 salvados last winter) is third with eight.

    With two weeks left in the first half schedule, teams are starting to jockey more for playoff points placement. The biggest upcoming midweek series is probably going to be in Mazatlan, where the Venados host Hermosillo in a battle of the current top two clubs. Next weekend, the most intriguing three-game set may be between perennial power Culiacan and 2021-22 pennant winner Jalisco at Estadio Tomateros with both teams struggling to find their way out of the second division.


THREE LIGA TEAM SEEK, PICK SKIPPERS FOR 2023

New Saltillo manager Mark Weidemaier

    With the Mexican League's 2023 season five months away from opening, three LMB teams have been working on filling managerial openings. One of them has been the Monterrey Sultanes, who are seeking to replace former Major League outfielder Roberto Kelly. The former Yankees outfielder led the Grey Ghosts to an LMB North playoff title and a berth in the 2022 Serie del Rey before falling to the Yucatan Leones after finishing fourth with in the regular season with a 51-39 record.

    Kelly, who'd returned to the Sultanes this year after taking the 2021 season off, has been named to the Texas Rangers coaching staff under new manager Bruce Bochy. Kelly was a manager in the Giants system before joining Bochy's staff as first base coach when the latter managed San Francisco to three World Series titles between 2010 and 2014. The Panamanian first came to Monterrey in 2018 and led the Sultanes to their tenth pennant in the shortened Fall 2018 season, beating Yucatan in the Serie del Rey and being named Manager of the Year.

    Another ex-MLBer, Geronimo Gil, will manage the Oaxaca Guerreros next year. Gil made his Mexican League debut in 1993 as a 17-year-old catcher and went on to spend all or part of six seasons with Baltimore and Colorado between 2001 and 2007, hitting 12 homers and driving in 45 runs as the Orioles' starting receiver in 2002. After wrapping up his 23-year professional career in 2016, he coached for Oaxaca for one year, managed Ensenada to the Liga Norte pennant in 2018 and then spent 2019 managing Yucatan in 2019. The 47-year-old Oaxacan took the Leones to a 66-52 season record and a playoff run that ended with a seven-game loss to Monclova in that year's Serie del Rey.

    Gil has also spent time as an instructor at the Alfredo Harp Helu Academy in Oaxaca and managed in the LMB Prospect League. He's currently at the helm of the combined Mexico City-Oaxaca team in the Mexican Winter League. Both the Diablos Rojos and Guerreros francises are owned by Harp, one of Mexico's richest men. Gil will replace another former catcher, Erick Rodriguez, at the helm of the Guerreros, who finished 34-53 in seventh place in the LMB South, six games out of the division's last playoff berth.

    Finally, the Saltillo Saraperos have let Adan Munoz go as pilot and hired Mark Weidemeier as their new manager following a 38-52 campaign this year. Munoz stepped in at the helm in Saltillo after Roberto Vizcarra resigned as manager to take over in Yucatan, leading the Leones to the LMB pennant. Weidemeier also managed in the Mexican League in 2022, albeit in abbreviated fashion. A first-time skipper for Dos Laredos, he led the Tecolotes to seven wins in their first ten games before leaving the border team for what the club termed “personal reasons.”

    Although he never played professionally, Weidemeier is a baseball lifer who got his first paying job out of college in 1982 when the Kansas City Royals hired him as a minor league coach. Since then, he's worked for numerous MLB organizations including the Angels, Yankees, Indians, White Sox, Dodgers and Diamondbacks. He coached under Matt Williams with both the MLB Nationals and Korea's KIA Tigers. Weidemeier has spent much time in Mexico as well, including managerial stints in Laguna and Veracruz, where he first worked for Tecos owner Jose Antonio Mansur, who has owned (and moved) several LMB teams over the years. One of Weidemeier's Tecos players, first baseman Kennys Vargas, told the Laredo Morning Times during training camp that “Players love him a lot because he is a fun manager. He tries to transfer all the experience he has onto us.”


MEX PAC SERIES IN TUCSON CANCELED

Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, Tucson

    Just weeks after it was first announced to the public, a three-game series between the Mexicali Aguilas and Obregon Yaquis slated to be played next week in Tucson has been called off. It would have marked the first time that Mexican Pacific League regular season games would be played north of the border. Instead, the Tucson series was canceled due to what the LMP office called “contractual reasons” and moved back to Obregon, the original venue of the three-game series on the league schedule.

    The contests were scheduled for Friday, November 11 through Sunday, November 13 at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium, former spring training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Chicago White Sox as well as a pair of since-moved Pacific Coast League franchises. The 11,500-seat facility is now the flagship ballpark for the annual Mexican Baseball Fiesta involving MexPac teams in October and also the home facility for the Tucson Saguaros, winners of three pennants over seven seasons in the independent Pecos League, which boasts 16 teams in six states stretching from California to Kansas.

    The following is a translated press release from the Mexican Pacific League and first posted on their website Sunday, four days before the first game in Tucson was to have been played:

    Guadalajara, Jalisco; November 7, 2022 (LMP Media) - We regret to have to inform that, for contractual reasons, the decision has been made to definitively suspend the series between Águilas de Mexicali and Yaquis de Obregón, which would have taken place in the city of Tucson, Arizona on November 11, 12 and 13 of this year.

    This commitment will be made on the same dates, but at the Yaquis Stadium as originally scheduled, leaving for next season the possibility of playing in North American territory.

    We apologize on behalf of the teams for any inconvenience this may represent for our fans.

    We are convinced that the internationalization of the LMP is of paramount importance for our future growth. However, this first attempt could not be realized in a favorable way for the parties involved.

    We will continue working so that from next season this and other activities can be carried out.

    We appreciate your understanding.

    The Tucson Saguaros have released their 2023 Pecos League schedule, starting with a May 31 game in Austin and a June 8 home opener against Roswell at Kino Stadium.

LAGUNA SKIPPER OMAR MALAVE, 58, COMMITS SUICIDE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CULIACAN P RAMIREZ HOSPITALIZED AFTER LINER BEANING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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