CULIACAN, HERMOSILLO TIED 1-1 IN LMP TITLE SET

Hermosillo LHP Ryan Verdugo

   After winning their respective semifinal series, the Culiacan Tomateros and Hermosillo Naranjeros split the first two games of the Mexican Pacific League championship series last weekend at Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo. Game Four through Six are set for this week in Culiacan, beginning Monday night.

    Hermosillo opened the title series last Friday with a 2-1 knucklebiter win as Ryan Verdugo outdueled J.C. Ramirez in a battle of past and future Chinese Professional Baseball League pitchers. Verdugo pitched the CPBL's first perfect game for the Uni-President Lions in 2018 while Ramirez is slated to join Mexican hurler Manny Banuelos with the Fubon Guardians this summer.

    For his part in this matchup, Verdugo tossed seven scoreless innings and scattered five hits. His Orangemen teammates staked him all the runs he'd need with two in the bottom of the first frame. Norberto Obeso opened with a single, moved to second on a Jose Cardona sacrifice fly and scored on Yadiel Hernandez' double. Hernandez then took third on an Isaac Paredes single and plated another run on Victor Mendoza's slow-rolling infield single to second.

    Ramirez, a somewhat surprising Game One starter after struggling in the postseason, settled down to pitch five scoreless innings through the sixth but the Tomateros had no luck against either Verdugo or reliever Robinson Leyer. Culiacan put a run on the scoreboard in the top of the ninth when Joey Meneses doubled off LMP Reliever of the Year Fernando Salas and Efren Navarro singled him, but Salas held the fort the rest of the way for the save. Obeso finished the night with two of Hermosillo's eight hits while seven different batsmen had one hit apiece for the visitors.

    Culiacan came back Saturday night by pulling away with a 6-1 win over the Naranjeros to tie the series at a game apiece. Game Two started out as another pitching duel, this time between the Tomateros' Anthony Vasquez and Hermosillo's Juan Pablo Oramas, the Mex Pac's Pitcher of the Year. The Orangemen opened the scoring in the bottom of the third when Obeso bounced into a groundout to second, plating Jasson Atondo from third, but Culiacan knotted the contest up at 1-1 in the top of the fifth when Navarro launched a high fly off Oramas that cleared the right field fence. That would be the only run Oramas allowed and he left the game after six innings having given up two hits and striking out eight.

Culiacan LHP Anthony Vasquez

    Vasquez held up his end by letting in the single run in the third before exiting with one out in the seventh. By then, however, the Tomateros had given him a 3-1 lead in the top of the inning when MVP Sebastian Elizalde homered to right center off reliever Marcelo Martinez, who also gave up a run-scoring single to Alexis Wilson. Then, Yoelkis Guibert's two-run bomb against another reliever (Heriberto Ruelas) keyed a three-run eighth to give the defending champs a 6-1 advantage that stayed firm when Sasagi Sanchez and Alberto Baldonado held the Naranjeros scoreless the rest of the way to close out the win. Elizalde added an RBI single in the eighth to finish the night with two hits and two ribbies for Culiacan. Veteran Luis Alfonso Cruz, an ex-MLB and NPB infielder who turns 37 next month, went 3-for-4 with a double and triple for the Naranjeros but produced no runs.

    Game Three is slated for Monday night in Culiacan's Estadio Tomateros at 7:00PM local time. Cesar Vargas will be on the mound for Hermosillo while Edgar Arredondo gets the start for the Tomateros.

    Culiacan reached the finals by defeating Obregon, 4 games to 2, in one of the semifinals. That series ended last Tuesday with a 3-0 shutout at Estadio Yaquis in Obregon as Arredondo tossed six innings of scoreless ball, allowing five hits and striking out four Yaquis batters. Arredondo had finalized a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks one day earlier.

    Hermosillo punched their ticket to the championship series by topping Monterrey, 6-3, also last Tuesday. The Naranjeros' Vargas and Monterrey's Edgar Gonzalez were locked in a 1-1 game through five innings, after which both were pulled by their respective managers. Hermosillo responded to Gonzalez' absence by posting five runs in the sixth inning, thanks in part to Julian Leon's two-run single and a Jasson Atondo RBI double. The Orangemen won the series, 4 games to 2, as every playoff series this winter has been decided in six games.

LMP AWARDS: ELIZALDE NAMED MVP, ROBLES TOP MANAGER

Culiacan OF Sebastian Elizalde

   The Mexican Pacific League has announced the final two winners of its individual awards for the 2020-21 regular season. Culiacan outfielder Sebastian Elizalde topped the closest balloting of the five categories in being named Most Valuable Player while Guasave's Oscar Robles led the balloting for Manager of the Year.

    A product of former LMP franchise site Guaymas, Sonora, Elizalde had a solid year at the plate for the defending champions, batting .282 on 48 hits over 46 games, including 13 doubles and 11 homers, and driving in 45 runs while stealing 12 bases in 18 attempts. He appeared among league leaders in a number of categories, finishing third in RBIs, tying for third in roundtrippers and tying for fourth in steals.

    Elizalde, who broke into winterball with Hermosillo in 2010-11 and spent five seasons with the Naranjeros before being traded to the Tomateros prior to the 2016-17 season, is wrapping up his tenth LMP season playing against his former team in the championship series. He has lifetime marks of .294 with 39 homers and 205 RBIs in 414 Mex Pac games, swiping 62 bases in the process. He's also hit .267 over nine games for Culiacan in the 2018 and 2020 Caribbean Series.

    During the summer, Elizalde has put in six Mexican League seasons (five for Monterrey before being sent to Mexico City in 2019) sandwiched around five years in the Cincinnati system between 2014 and 2018. The 29-year-old was a Reds organizational All-Star pick in 2014 and represented Daytona in the Florida State League All-Star Game one year later. Elizalde was a .277 hitter with 41 homers as a Reds minor leaguer, topping out at AAA Louisville, while his LMB career numbers are .299/58/248 in 679 games.

    Elizalde garnered 30 percent of votes for Mex Pac MVP, beating out Obregon's Sebastian Valle (21%), Japhet Amador of Jalisco (17%), Mazatlan's Isaac Paredes (12%), Yadir Drake of Guasave (11%) and Jalisco's Dariel Alvarez (9%). He becomes the tenth Culiacan player to win the Hector Espino Trophy, the first since Luis Alfonso Cruz did it in 2011-12.

Guasave manager Oscar Robles

    A former Dodgers and Padres infielder, Robles won the Benjamin “Cananea” Reyes Trophy as top manager after leading Guasave to a winning record (31-26) and a third seed in the postseason with 14.0 playoff points, a remarkable achievement with the second-year Algodoneros (who finished 26-37 and out of the playoffs in 2019-20 while finishing last in the loop with a .234 team batting average and 4.44 ERA).

    This winter, the Cottoneers saw their collective BA rise to .286, second in the LMP, while their team ERA of 3.43 was also second and a full run better than in 2019-20. Robles, who was the Mex Pac's Rookie of the Year in 1995-96 as a shortstop with the original Guasave Algodoneros, led his team into the playoffs but fell in six games to Culiacan in the first round.

    A 44-year-old Tijuana native, Robles obtained 36% of the total votes, more than double than Bronswell Patrick (Mexicali), Juan Navarrete (Hermosillo) and Sergio Gastelum (Obregón), who finished with 17% each. Jalisco helmsman Roberto Vizcarra and Gerardo Álvarez of Monterrey obtained 8% and 5% percent, respectively.

    All winners of Mex Pac awards were selected by a nebulously-titled specialized press after the league had told fans that they would be making the picks in online voting. No definition of “specialized press” has been given nor whether fan ballots were even considered in the tabulations.

JAPANESE GOVERNMENT RECOMMENDS OLYMPICS CANCELLATION    

Yokohama Baseball Stadium

    After last summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo were postponed until this year due to the ongoing pandemic, the London Times reports that the Japanese government held a closed-door meeting with top sports officials from that country to recommend outright cancellation of the worldwide event. The Mexican National Baseball Team is slated to take part in the Olympics after qualifying during the WBSC Premier12 tournament last winter.

    However, the International Olympic Committee refuted the Times report in a statement issued last Friday. "Some news reports circulating today are claiming that the government of Japan has privately concluded that the Tokyo Olympics will hae to be canceled because of the coronavirus,” said the IOC. “This is categorically untrue...All parties involved are working together to prepare for a successful Games this summer."

    According to organizers in Tokyo, Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga has told them that he's determined to hold the Olympics this July and August as rescheduled and that meetings are ongoing to ensure the Games move forward with strict protocols in place to prevent further outbreaks of the Wuhan virus, which has caused the postponement or outright cancellation of major sporting events across the globe since last spring.

    "All our delivery partners including the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee, the IOC and the IPC are fully focused on hosting the Games this summer," the organizers said. "We hope that daily life can return to normal as soon as possible, and we will continue to make every effort to prepare for a safe and secure Games."

    The pandemic is said to have infected nearly 100 million people worldwide (including nearly 26 million active cases), with over two million deaths, according to Worldometers. Japan is 39th on the site's nation-by-nation list with 356,074 total cases (65,617 active) and 45th with 4,934 deaths. Mexico ranks 13th on the same list with over 1.75 million total cases (297,125 active) and 4th overall with 149,084 deaths.

Mexico manager Juan Gabriel Castro

   Olympics baseball is scheduled to open Wednesday, July 28 in Fukushima's Azuma Stadium and conclude with Bronze and Gold Medal games on Saturday, August 7 at Yokohama Baseball Stadium. Mexico is one of four nations to have already qualified for the six-team field along with South Korea, Israel and host Japan. The remaining two participants will be determined at Americas and Final Qualifiers sometime this year, although dates and venues have yet to be released.

    Should the Olympics proceed as hoped, former MLB infielder Juan Gabriel Castro will manage the Mexican entry. Whether or not baseball is played in Tokyo this summer, Castro has already got his regular job lined up since the Philadelphia Phillies announced he'll be back in 2021 as a member of manager Joe Girardi's coaching staff. A native of Los Mochis, Castro spent 17 years as a player for five teams in the majors before retiring during the 2011 season. He spent time coaching in the Dodgers organization (including two years under Dave Roberts in Los Angeles) and was a coach on Mexico's 2013 World Baseball Classic team for manager Rick Renteria.

    Castro has managed in the Mexican Pacific League for Mexicali and was hired away from the Dodgers to work as sports director for the Mexican League's Tijuana Toros in 2018, but left the team after first being fired, then brought back as a coach but not paid during the month of February and never having his new role (if any) defined by the front office before leaving the team in frustration. Castro was named manager of the Grandes Verde in August 2019 prior the Premier12 tournament and caught on with Philadelphia for 2020. the Phils have given him permission to take a month off for the first time Mexico takes part in Olympics baseball, a sport scheduled to be discontinued in 2024.

LMB LOOKS AT JULY START; LMP OPENER IN NOVEMBER?

Mexican League season may be held up until July

One of Mexico's most well-connected baseball writers is saying that the Mexican League is eyeing a July start to a 2020 regular season that would run into September, followed by a postseason that might push the winterball Mexican Pacific League's season opener into November.

Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, who has well-placed sources in both of Mexico's top leagues, wrote last week that reports from three LMB clubs indicate the country's senior circuit is hoping to get their Wuhan virus-delayed campaign underway in July, assuming the pandemic is under control by then. The federal government's extension of their "safe distance" edict to May 30 effectively scuttled the Liga's hoped-for May 11 starting date after their initial April 6 debut in Monclova was postponed.

The tentatively-planned Mexican League schedule would end in September, with a full right-team playoff calendar potentially ending with an October 31 Game Seven of the Serie del Rey championship matchup. According to another Ballesteros source in the Mexican Pacific League, "The LMP would be starting on November 1; that's the most current scenario that comes to us today and it would be very feasible to approve it." Ballesteros notes that the only previous time winter baseball on the west coast started in November was in 1958-59, when the former Liga Sonora began their 36-game regular season on November 14.

In his Zona Contacto column, Ballesteros advises LMB owners to not "fall into despair" and make "irreparable mistakes," like the appointment of the "worst president in the history of the Liga," Javier Salinas. He said one potential format being discussed would involve three groups of five or six teams each playing regular season games behind closed doors in Mexico City, Monterrey and Merida, a scenario Ballesteros says would result in "absolutely pure losses" for the league, which does not have the television revenue that would allow leagues in Taiwan and South Korea to use a similar setup.

In an interview with Septima Entrada, LMB president Horacio de la Vega told writer Irving Furlong, "For the moment, we are not contemplating being able to do the season behind closed doors. We depend on the attendance of people and need the potential of making internal sales at our stadiums. In other words, it's a requirement for us." De la Vega did allow that everything depends on health contingencies in Mexico due to the Wuhan virus: "We'll have to explore it. It can be a temporary solution, too, that we start like this and then migrate to another situation. At the moment it's not one of the situations we're considering but, well, we're going to see how things develop."

Mex Pac schedule to be delayed until November?

Ballesteros added that the LMB is seeking to sanction anyone who leaks information to the media, which he said was nothing new: "They have tried this for years and the more they pressure their associates, the faster it flows and from new fronts."

According the the Puro Beisbol editor, several LMB club owners wanted their season to open on the planned April 6 date a month-and-a-half ago, although Northern Division teams were opposed, while Mex Pac owners and president Omar Canizales watched “comfortably” from the sidelines. Now, however, the LMP calendar is in danger for two reasons: There is no exact date for controlling the Wuhan virus and the Mexican League is now sending signals that their season may extend as far as November. The closest the two leagues came to colliding schedules was in 2018, when that Fall's Serie del Rey ended on October 9, three days before the Mex Pac regular season opened. This year, the LMP season could potentially begin one day after a Game Seven in the LMB's championship series.

As a result, the Mex Pac may have to expand the limit of foreigners to eight per club while opening up the often-contentious issue of defining players with dual nationality to ensure each of their ten teams have enough players to start the season with.

EL TITAN NOT RULING OUT PLAYING IN MEXICAN LEAGUE THIS YEAR

Adrian Gonzalez, Sergio Romo celebrate WBC win

El Fildeo reports that former major league All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is reportedly willing to consider playing in the Mexican League this year once the season gets underway.

In an interview with Marca Clara reporter Guillermo Garcia, Gonzalez said he was "looking at the possibility of going to play in the Mexican League this year to see how I felt in order to possibly play in the first Olympic Games for Mexico." The Mexican National team qualified for the country's first appearance in baseball competition at the Olympics last winter in the WBSC Premier12 tournament. However, the Summer Games in Tokyo were postponed until next year due to ongoing concerns over the Wuhan virus.

El Titan has not played professionally since June 10, 2018 as a member of the New York Mets, going hitless in a 2-0 win against the crosstown rival Yankees before being released the following day. By then, he had collected 2,050 hits, 317 homers and 1,202 RBIs to augment a .287 batting average over a 15-year ML career that began with the Texas Rangers in 2004. Gonzalez appeared in five All-Star Games, took part in four postseasons, won four Gold Gloves for fielding at the initial hassock and was given two Silver Slugger awards as the best-hitting first baseman in MLB. He finished in the Top 20 among MVP vote-getters eight times, coming in fourth in 2010 (when he hit .298 with 31 homers and 101 RBIs for San Diego that season).

Although he was born in San Diego and attended high school in nearby Chula Vista, the 37-year-old Gonzalez spent many years being raised across the border in Tijuana by parents David and Alba and is qualified by his heritage (David grew up playing baseball in Obregon, Sonora) to play for Mexican national teams. Brother Edgar, who grew up with him in Tijuana, played second base in MLB with the San Diego Padres and in NPB with the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants and managed in the Mexican Pacific League before being named by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to head Probeis, an AMLO-created federal agency charged with revitalizing baseball across the country from the grass-roots level up. Adrian now lives in La Jolla, another San Diego suburb, with wife Betsy and two daughters.

Edgar, David and Adrian Gonzalez in Mazatlan

Gonzalez has represented Mexico in World Baseball Classics in 2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017. Although it's been nearly two years since his last competitive game, he told Marca Clara that he's always hoped to return to the diamond someday and wanted to play Olympic baseball for Mexico. "It's something that I've had in mind," he said, "and it's one of the reasons why I haven't retired." Gonzalez acknowledges that he'll have to earn his place on the roster next summer in Tokyo. "It's not something where I say, 'They have to put me on the team.' Not at all. I have to go to the Mexican League to show that I deserve to be on that team. And if I don't deserve it, I don't want to be on that team."

If Gonzalez does indeed play in the Mexican League this summer, it would mark the first time he's appeared in the LMB but he is no stranger to playing baseball south of the border. He and brother Edgar played side-by-side for several winters with the Mazatlan Venados of the Mexican Pacific League.

TESTS: MEXICAN OLYMPIC BASEBALL CANDIDATES OUT OF SHAPE

Bartolo Colon should fit in with Monclova

The Monclova Acereros' offseason signing of Bartolo Colon points to something I'd read in a book years ago that drew my attention and sympathies to Mexican baseball: As long as you can get the job done there, it doesn't matter how old you are or what shape you're in. Colon stands as both Exhibits A and B for that axiom. While his age and body-type were what exemplified him to many fans during the latter part of his Major League Baseball pitching career, he will not stand out in either regard in the Mexican League.

However, while age is indeed becoming a relative thing ("40 is the new 30" and all that), a recent essay by Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra shares the concerns of a highly-respected advisor to Probeis director Edgar Gonzalez about both the lack of muscle mass and the high percentage of fat among 35 baseball players listed on the Mexican National Team's pre-selection roster for the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, postponed until 2021 due to Wuhan virus concerns in Japan.

"I did not expect good results," says advisor Miguel Valdes, a longtime top figure in Cuban baseball, "but I did not expect them to be so bad."

Of the 80 players currently on the Olympic pre-selection roster, 17 Mexican nationals and 18 Mexican-Americans showed up for physical testing in 23 different categories held in late February at the National Center for Talent Development and High Performance. Areas covered included physical, anthropometric, body composition and psychological variables, with Pereyra depicting the overall results as "deplorable" and "devastating."

According to the report obtained by Proceso, 20 of the 35 players showed a high percentage of fat and poor muscle development, thus creating a negative imbalance between fat and muscle ("characteristic of sedentary people, or endomorphs"). Twenty-one players had body fat that far exceeds what's considered optimal in baseball while 22 exhibited poor muscle development. Player diets were considered "inadequate" in all 35 players tested.

The report suggests that pitchers should have 14 percent body fat, corner players (catchers, first and third basemen, left and rightfielders) should be between 11 and 12 percent and middle fielders (shortstops, second basemen and centerfielders) will optimally show up to 10 percent body fat.

Miguel Valdes learned belt-tightening in Cuba

"It doesn't surprise me so much that it shows there are overweight pre-selected players," Valdes told Pereyra. "I AM troubled by the fact that in baseball, the percentages of fat are high compared to other sports and that in Mexicans, the average is above 20 percent. There are some who exceed 30 percent, which is equivalent to having about 15 kilos (33 pounds) of pure fat.” He then asked rhetorically, “How can they play with all that weight? There is no efficiency for high performance. High-performance teams compete with between 11 and 14 percent of collective fat."

Valdes spent 35 years managing the Cuban National Team before defecting in 2002 along with his 14-year-old son and star pitcher Jose Contreras, who went on to appear in a World Series and All-Star Game as a member of the Chicago White Sox. He signed on last September with Probeis (aka Office of the Presidency for the Promotion and Development of Baseball), a creation of Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador headed by former MLB and NPB infielder Gonzalez.

“I won 151 games in a row with the Cuban team," Valdes notes. "Olympic Games, Pan American Games, Central American Games, World Cups...everything that is possible to win. I give credit in a large percentage to what we achieved with functional capacity. They are the sciences applied to sport, in addition to the team's talent."

According to Valdes, if Mexico wins an Olympic medal, it will not be by luck or chance: "We can compete at the highest level if we do things right. We have to get to the Olympics better prepared than the other teams, with superior parameters, and that is not easy.

"But a medal can be built. Yes, it can be built!"

LMB WEIGHS SCHEDULE OPTIONS, LMP FACING SQUEEZE

Mexican League season held up at least 5 weeks

In the wake of their season openers being delayed at least five weeks due to the coronavirus panic, the Mexican League is considering options for their 2020 schedule moving forward and the Mexican Pacific League's own 2020-21 season could potentially be affected.

The LMB had planned to begin their season next Monday with defending champion Monclova hosting Monterrey, followed by a full slate of games the next evening. Instead, league president Horacio de la Vega ordered all 16 training camps closed earlier this month while pushing Opening Day back five weeks until Monday, May 11, a date not etched in stone given the uncertainty regarding efforts to combat the virus or the government's willingness to allow the LMB to have final say in their scheduling.

With that in mind, de la Vega has been trying to cobble together an alternate schedule that would save the Liga's original 102-game regular season format, something he's said he wants to do. However, that adjusted calendar could mean the Serie del Rey possibly concluding immediately prior to the beginning of the Mex Pac's regular season. In an interview with ESPN, the new league leader said, "In the scenario in which we start on May 11, we'll plan to be playing 102 games per team and finishing at the start of the Pacific season, that is, around October 12 or 14..that is the current scenario."

As noted in a Septima Entrada story, the LMB concluded their 2019 calendar on October 2, when Monclova concluded the Serie del Rey with a fourth win over Yucatan for their first pennant since entering the Liga in 1974. The LMP season opened nine days later on October 11. De la Vega says he's been maintaining contact with Mex Pac president Omar Canizales and hopes to affect the winterball circuit as little as possible, since so many players perform in both loops.

Another area of concern is the Mexican League's All-Star Weekend, originally scheduled for June 5-7 in Monclova. The event, which includes the Home Run Derby, Double Play Derby and All-Star Game, will have to have new dates assigned to reflect the late start in the overall schedule. "Let's hope that by May 11, things have improved," de la Vega told ESPN. "That's part of the conversations we've had with the different federal health authorities and we have many possible scenarios with the intention of moving forward with the 2020 season."

Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales

Meanwhile, Canizales is having to deal with similar uncertainties. A press release issued by the Mexican Pacific League league office in Guadalajara says, in part, "In these difficult times, the LMP is confident that with the efforts of the authorities and the community, this emergency can be overcome. Once this is achieved, our fans can return to enjoy baseball, for which we'll be prepared to do what the authorities dictate." The Mex Pac held an Assembly of Presidents meeting earlier in March, where the gathered leaders decided to wait to see what the Mexican league determines regarding an adjusted schedule before moving forward on their own 2020-21 calendar.

The LMP faces a possible squeeze for playing dates if the LMB season bumps up against their own, especially given the desire of both Major League Baseball and the Confederation of Pan American Baseball to have the Caribbean Series played in late January after decades of taking place the first week of February so the tournament doesn't bump against MLB's own training camps. The Mex Pac was already looking into revamping their playoff schedule before the coronavirus scare hit and may now be faced with an abbreviated regular season and/or postseason if they have to start later AND finish sooner.

Although Mexico's baseball writers have been sympathetic with the Mexican League's scheduling worries, some are calling for the summer circuit to scale back their regular season rather than push ahead with their original 102-game schedule. Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros says "a 60 to 80-game schedule would be, from our point of view, the most sensible for the LMB. In fact, 80 is the optimal number of games that several club owners are looking for and to leave it permanently in a long-term project, but this year they did not want to be so drastic and developed the 102 games, subtracting 18 from the 2019 season."

Ballesteros added that the potential economic chaos in the wake of the coronavirus could make it more difficult for the average Mexican fan to afford to go to the ballpark often enough to make a 102-game schedule financially viable for LMB teams.

TOKYO OLYMPICS, INCLUDING BASEBALL, POSTPONED TO 2021

Mexican National Team celebrates win

After weeks of speculation over whether the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan would begin in July as scheduled, whether they'd take place in front of empty venues or be delayed to a later start due to the coronavirus pandemic, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe announced last week that the event will be postponed until next year. 

"Due to current conditions and by all athletes, we have proposed to postpone the event for about a year so that they can be safe," Abe said during a telephone news conference last Tuesday. The International Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the 2020 Olympic Games also released a statement that given information made available by the World Health Organization, a United Nations agency, IOC president Thomas Bach agreed with Abe that the Olympics should called called off for the rest of this year and instead be staged in 2021.

Baseball was on the Olympic calendar this summer as a demonstration sport after last being played at the Olympic level during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, where eight nations competed for the Gold medal won by South Korea.  Cuba took the Silver medal while the Bronze went to the United States.  This year's Olympics field was to be comprised of six nations, including first-time participants Mexico.

The Mexicans qualified for the Summer Olympics on the basis of their performance at last year's Premier12 tournament, sponsored by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.  Mexico won the Group A first round of the competition in Guadalajara by going 3-0 against the United States, Dominican Republic and The Netherlands, averaging eight runs per game while allowing a total of five tallies over the three contests.  

Mexico's Olympic baseball dreams put on hold

The six nations that advanced from Group play then converged in Japan for the Super Round, a round-robin stage in which Mexico won their first three games before losing a pair of two-run tilts to host Japan and South Korea at the Tokyo Dome.  Mexico's 3-2 win in ten innings over the United States on Efren Navarro's walk-off RBI single in the Bronze medal game on November 17 was enough to punch their ticket to the Olympics.  Japan and South Korea, who played in the Gold medal game (won by Japan, 5-3), also qualified for the Olympics.  Interestingly, only one Mexican player, outfielder Jonathan Jones, was named to the 11-man All-World Team at the conclusion of the Premier12 while the United States placed four despite finishing out of the money.

Israel also qualified for their first Olympics appearance in baseball after pulling off a surprise win in the Africa/Europe event in Italy last September.  Two more qualifying tournaments, an Americas group in Arizona consisting of nations that fell short in the Premier12 (with the winner advancing to Tokyo) and a Final qualifier in Taiwan for the sixth and final berth, have been postponed.

OBREGON, LOS MOCHIS TO CO-HOST U23 BASEBALL WORLD CUP

The World Baseball Softball Confederation has announced the sites of their 2020 Under-23 Baseball World Cup tournament.  Obregon and Los Mochis have been tabbed to co-host the event, which will be held between Wednesday, September 30 and Friday, October 9.  The selection was somewhat surprising in that while located in the middle of Mexico's prime baseball hotbed, the two agricultural centers are among the smallest markets in the ten-team Mexican Pacific League (only Navojoa and Guasave have fewer residents) and lack the kind of amenities offered in other Mex Pac cities like Guadalajara or Monterrey, where tournaments of this caliber typically end up when Mexico is the host country.

Even so, there is little doubt that the U23 Baseball World Cup will be embraced in both cities, partly because they rarely (if ever) see global events on this scale but mostly because fans in Obregon and Los Mochis have proven over time that they love a good ballgame.  While a schedule has not been released, it's expected that Group stage games in the 12-nation tournament will be shared between the two cities while Obregon will host later contests all the way through the October 9 final game. 

Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada, Los Mochis

Los Mochis, a city of over 250,000 not far from the Copper Canyon in northern Sinaloa, is home to the Mex Pac's Caneros, who christened the recently renovated 12,000-seat Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada last October. The ballpark's 400 million peso facelift included a total redo of the main grandstand, which now includes three levels: lower and upper box seats plus luxury boxes. Along with Guasave's Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon, the facility is the "newest" in the LMP as the league seeks to modernize all of its playing fields and leaves Navojoa's Estadio Manuel "Ciclon" Echeverria, which opened in 1970, as the last remaining non-modern facility in the league.

Home to over 400,000 residents, Ciudad Obregon (named after Revolution leader Alvaro Obregon, who later became preident of Mexico) is near the southern tip of the state of Sonora. Like Los Mochis, Obregon is an agricultural hub and is served by an international airport (Los Mochis' is for domestic flights only). The LMP Obregon Yaquis play in the 16,500-seat Estadio Yaquis, which was completed in 2016 and is considered one of the country's nicest ballparks.

Estadio Yaquis, Ciudad Obregon

Both stadiums to be used for the U23 Baseball World Cup are symmetrical: Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada in Los Mochis has 320-foot foul lines with a straightaway center field fence of 400 feet while Obregon's Estadio Yaquis is 325 feet down each foul line and 400 feet to center field. Players and coaches will have Class AAA-level clubhouse facilities in both venues as well.

Among the 12 nations represented at the U23 Baseball World Cup, four are in Latin America: Besides host Mexico, teams from Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela will compete. Asia will also send four national teams from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China while Germany, South Africa, New Zealand and the Czech Republic will round out the field. New Zealand replaced Australia as Oceania's delegate squad after the Aussies pulled out of their qualifying series. Professional players are allowed to represent teams at the tournament and several Mexican Leaguers are expected to fill out much of the Mexican National Team's roster, along with minor leaguers from MLB affiliates.

Mexico won the 2018 U23 Baseball World Cup in Barranquilla, Colombia under manager Jose Enrique Reyes, the first time the country had won a world championship in the sport above the Little League level. One of Mexico's three All-World Team members that year, catcher Orlando Pina, hit .294 and belted 16 homers in 90 games for Oaxaca last summer.

WILL PROBEIS TAKE OVER ACADEMY FROM LIGA?

A game at El Carmen Baseball Academy

According to Hector Bencomo of the Hitazo website, a proposal has been made to the organization charged by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador with building baseball interest and participation throughout the country, asking that organization (known by the acronym Probeis) to take the reins of the Mexican League's academy in El Carmen, Nuevo Laredo (near Monterrey) from the LMB.

Bencomo reports that rumors of the academy's "disappearance" have grown stronger since the last LMB Assembly of Presidents Meeting. The facility was the brainchild of Mexico City Tigres owner Alejo Peralta, Mexico City Diablos Rojos team president Roberto Mansur and Mexican League president Petro Treto Cisneros and inaugurated on March 25, 1996. 

Since then literally thousands of homegrown prospects have lived in the dormitories and played on the academy's diamonds, many of whom moved on to long careers in Major League Baseball or the Mexican League, including current Houston Astros closer Roberto Osuna, longtime MLB reliever Joakim Soria, Monterrey infielder Ramiro Pena (who spent time in both MLB and Japan), Diablos Rojos slugger Japhet Amador and shortstop Heber Gomez, who parlayed his academy stint that first year into a 22-year Liga career, mostly with Monterrey.

Prospects eating in Academy dining room

The Mexican League's 16 franchises have traditionally shared the costs of housing and development of academy prospects, typically with eight teams supplied with players from two LMB teams each playing a spring schedule after months of on-site training. Since the fine print in a new agreement between MLB and the Liga agreed to last year all but ended the past practice of big league organizations compensating LMB teams for the rights to young players, the expense of keeping the academy operational has become too burdensome on cash-strapped Liga clubs with little to no prospect of recouping some of those costs through player sales. Annual expenses are between 8 to 12 million pesos (US$400,000-US$600,000) per LMB franchise, bearable for wealthier organizations like Mexico City or Monterrey but a real burden for the likes of Aguascalientes and Campeche.

A team of Tijuana prospects ran away with last year's Academy League title, sporting a 42-16 record to finish 8.5 games ahead of a squad of teenagers owned by Monclova and Saltillo. Unsurprisingly, two top Liga Academia players to emerge were both Toros property: Jared Serna hit .367 with seven homers and 52 RBIs in 52 games while pitcher Victor Sepulveda went 5-1 over seven starts (saving two more games) with a 2.31 ERA and 54 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched).

Near futures talking with distant futures

What happens now is anyone's guess. Bencomo says sources have told him a formal proposal has been made to former MLB and NPB infielder Edgar Gonzalez, now director of Probeis, asking that the AMLO-created agency take over operation of the academy. In return for expenses related to housing, feeding and developing top young Mexican ballplayers, Probeis would have the authority to sell them to MLB organizations and keep the proceeds. Whether the same conditions preventing LMB teams from selling players with less than one year on a Liga roster would apply to Probeis because they were not a party to the agreement is a legal grey area that would have to be addressed.

Bencomo says another suggestion was that Probeis broker a deal in which MLB itself takes over the El Carmen facility, which includes four baseball fields with adjacent batting cages and practice pitcher's mounds, a 79-room dormitory for players and coaches, a kitchen and dining room, separate housing for umpires (who also train for future LMB work), two meeting rooms, an administrative offices and a guardhouse at the entry.

The LMB is hoping for a response from Probeis by no later than the April 6 Liga regular season opener. A later answer would likely mean a delay in reporting to El Carmen by young players for this year's session.

MLB, UNION TO ALLOW SOME 40-MAN ROSTER PLAYERS IN OLYMPICS

The World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball and its players union allowing players on MLB 40-man rosters to participate in this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo. Previously, nobody on a 40-man roster was eligible for Olympic baseball but the new deal allows such players to take part as long as they are not on their big league team's 26-man active roster. The change means up to 420 more players belonging to an MLB organization will be eligible to play in Japan this July and August.

After an absence of twelve years from Olympic competition (South Korea beat out seven other national teams to win the 2008 gold medal in Beijing), baseball is returning as a demonstration sport with six teams competing. Japan is an automatic entrant as host nation

Fukushima's Azuma Stadium

and will be joined by Mexico, South Korea, Israel and two undetermined teams in Yokohama Stadium and Azuma Stadium in Fukushima. 

Mexico will make its first-ever Olympic appearance after qualifying as the highest-finishing Americas team in last winter's Premier12 tournament, South Korea was the highest-placed Asian team not named Japan in the same competition and Israel was the surprise winner of last fall's Africa/Europe qualifying tournament. The final two teams will be determined at an Americas qualifier tourney in Arizona later this month and a Final qualifier in Taiwan in June. Both events will feature teams that didn't make it past either the Premier12 or Africa/Aurope tournaments last year.

Of course, the breakout of the coronavirus has put many public events either on hold, in doubt or on the cancellation list because of public health concerns. Since the virus first appeared in Wuhan, China and has begun to spread across borders, NPB exhibition games in Japan have been held virtually behind closed doors. The New York Times reports the

Mexico celebrates Olympics-clinching win

World Health Organization held a discussion with doctors from various sports federations recently about continuing the policy during the Olympics as a precautionary measure.

If Olympic baseball is played with or without fans, the El Fildeo website claims a preliminary 24-man Mexican team roster has been discovered. Without attributing a source, El Fildeo says the following is the so-called "shortlist" of 24 eligible players targeted to play for the Verdes Grande this summer (with two more players allowed for Tokyo):

PITCHERS (11): Manny Barreda (Tijuana), Brennan Bernardino (Tijuana), Jordan Guerrero (Tijuana), Carlos Hernandez (Tijuana), Kyle Lobstein (Tijuana), Vidal Nuno (Tijuana), Juan Pablo Oramas (Tabasco), Jose Samayoa (Tijuana), Gerardo Sanchez (Tijuana), Teddy Stankiewic (Tijuana), Edgar Torres (Durango).

CATCHERS (2): Xorge Carrillo (Tijuana), Gabriel Gutierrez (Tijuana).

INFIELDERS (6): Japhet Amador (Mexico City), Daniel Castro (Tijuana), Luis Alfonso Cruz (Tijuana), Philip Evans (Pittsburgh), David Jack Mayfield (Houston), Isaac Rodriguez (Tijuana).

OUTFIELDERS (5): Carlos Figueroa (Mexico City), Fabricio Macias (Pittsburgh), Efren Navarro (Tijuana), Juan Perez (Saltillo), Nick Torres (Tijuana).

Nothing against any of the players listed above, who are no doubt good ballplayers and fine fellows one and all, but the presence of nine pitchers and seven position players from Tijuana on this 24-man roster makes it dubious at best.

PROCESO'S PEREYRA TALKS WITH LMB PRESIDENT DE LA VEGA

New LMB leader Horacio de la Vega

One of Mexico's best sportswriters, Beatriz Pereyra of Proceso, recently sat down with new Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega and talked about some of the problems he inherited when he was hired by the LMB last November to replace Javier Salinas.

It's a very long read (the original is posted at www.proceso.com.mx) so BBM is posting excerpts with as little editing as possible, but the issues discussed are vital as the Mexican League approaches its 96th season of operation with a myriad of issues that De La Vega and the Liga's 16 owners will face in 2020:

Horacio de la Vega will begin his tenure as president of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB) with empty coffers, which means that the owners of the 16 clubs will once again have to solve - temporarily at least - the operating expenses while signing trade agreements that allow for the consolidation of finances.

In addition to payroll, the owners of the teams will be responsible again for the payment of baseballs with which the 2020 season will be played, the operating expenses of the Academy of El Carmen, and the air tickets, lodging and travel expenses of the umpires.

In a January interview, De la Vega explains that he had no room to operate because his appointment was at the end of the year (last November 26), when there was no time to manage sponsorships.

“We have guaranteed the operation of the LMB the first three months of the year. We have no risk of stopping but we definitely have to look for trade agreements soon. I trust that we will not stop operating because I have other types of agreements that are not sponsorships to get resources and free the teams from those expenses,” he says. “Javier Salinas did a great job in the commercial end because the LMB for years generated nothing. He started very well, had ups and downs, but failed to make commercial projects that integrated with those of the teams. That did not allow for growth.”

De la Vega says that in the desire for clubs to stop making economic contributions and the LMB to become self-sustaining, former president Salinas took away the commercial assets from the teams and was in charge of selling them to raise that money. This means that, for example, in a baseball stadium there are spaces that can be marketed, such as the mound. Before Salinas was president, each team sold those spaces.

“When you take away the commercial assets, you harm them,” said de la Vega. “On the other hand, if you do not do so, then the LMB does not have to sell and they have to contribute the money to operate the league.

New sponsorship opportunities are sought

“The question is how do we make it so that the clubs do not continue financing the LMB, it is strengthened, collects more money and can be self-sufficient. Right now there are few commercial assets. If the LMB had five spaces per team, the dugout or the mound in the fences, I would have more to sell. Right now I can't do it.”

One of the most urgent issues to address is the famous clause of the agreement for the sale of Mexican baseball players that the MLB office signed in March 2019, with the LMB teams receiving an additional bonus equivalent at 35% of the amount each player will receive. The objective of that percentage was to financially compensate the clubs that invested in the development of the prospects, but Clause III.C contravenes the nature of the agreement and, because of its deceptive wording, refuses to hand over compensation to Mexican teams. The signing of this agreement, among other factors, triggered the departure of Salinas as president.

“I do not rule out making a renegotiation specifically of that clause so as not to have to give away to our players,” states de la Vega. “The agreement is in force for this year and we must comply with it, but I don't see it as a one hundred percent loss. I will travel to New York (headquarters of the MLB office) to make a proposal. The position of club owners is that you have to unlock this,” he says.

Horacio de la Vega details that he wants to improve that agreement because there is a legitimate interest to continue exporting players to the majors. However, that cannot undermine the finances of the teams. He says he intends to reach a broader agreement that allows more regular season games to be held in Mexico and for the fan base to grow.

The president of the LMB was asked whether in this scheme the only winner is the Big Leagues, a business that generates around 10 billion dollars annually, and that has no interest in helping the development of Mexican baseball or in growing the LMB, but it is obvious that there can be no distancing or conflict with such a powerful entity?

"I agree,” de la Vega replied. “The autonomy of the Mexican League must be protected. You're right: Here there are no options of where to sell players, the most viable is the MLB. It is monopolistic. The strategy cannot be such a negotiation. You have to understand that they are a business and have their interests. The LMB wants more Mexicans in the majors.”

It is abusive that there is a clause that goes against the payment of a percentage for the clubs that develop the players. Should we make MLB see what they are doing?

“Totally. You have to face it like this. It is not a subject of interpretation of the clause. The international players' signature is a business for them. Period.

“We cannot fight with a giant of that size. That is why the negotiation will be interesting. We aim to sell, not to give players away. We are in a position of openness and understanding.”

If you fail to cancel that current agreement, and MLB offers to pay less than 35%, as they did at the beginning, would you accept it?

“When you have nothing, to rescue something is a breakthrough. That contract has a direct impact on the teams and that cannot happen again.”

De la Vega seeks more fans in the stands

The most important project that de la Vega says he will promote will be to standardize the production of baseball games, in order to sell them to all those interested in transmitting them, insisting that it is essential to improve the lighting in the stadiums. All parks must have the same light intensity. In addition, he will generate a production notebook that clubs must agree on together, such as how many cameras there should be, where they should be placed and what angles or shots they should cover.

“I am very clear that it is urgent to achieve the standardization of production,” de la Vega insists. “If we don't have a homogeneous product, I can't sell it.”

How can it be achieved if not all teams have money to invest in that facet?

“It is part of my job to see how to get public resources.  Most of the stadiums are owned by state or private governments with local or foreign entities. I have to generate that system.

“I am not convinced to sell it to a single television station. I am skeptical of that. I prefer a model with many outputs for content distribution. You will remember that last year Facebook had a contract (the social network paid 500 thousand dollars and not the 2 million dollars that were announced), made its selection of games and stayed with the best. That type of system must be changed. I don't know, give Facebook one day and that day only they broadcast. ”

Can you confirm that 2020 will see continued transmissions on Facebook?

“The contract is not signed yet, but we are very advanced. This year will be trial and error. There are also Twitter, Twitch and other social networks. We are going to analyze what suits the league in economic terms, scope and penetration.

“We must also insist that people go to the stadiums and have the best experience. We have to turn out children and young people, because we are interested in them being fans of the LMB clubs. We have to provoke that. How do we do it? By massing baseball with the children in the schools. One strategy is the world championships that we will have in Mexico this year, one of them is Baseball 5, and baseball being promoted in schools.”

The president of the league sets out the example of skateboarding as an Olympic sport: “I would never have imagined seeing skateboarding as an official sport in the Olympic Games, but I understand that it is a youth sport, which is very attractive for television coverage and there are a lot of people who consume that product.

“You have to turn into that or you die.”