MEXICAN BASEBALL HISTORY 4: Mexican Baseball in the 21st Century.

It would be hard to envision a sport not developing deep roots after spending over a century in a prominent position in any given country, and such is the case with baseball in Mexico, where baseball is known as “El Rey de los Deportes,” or “The King of Sports.” Although soccer has surpassed it in popularity across most of the country, baseball is still beloved among sports fans in Mexico, with its long, proud history there.

At the top of the mountain, the Mexican League is one of just three circuits with Class AAA status in Minor League Baseball, and is coming off a season in which over three million people attended games in the Liga’s 16 cities. Although the Mexican Pacific League is not sanctioned by Minor League Baseball, it is one of the best-organized winter leagues in the world and it’s not unusual for two million fans to click the turnstiles at Mex Pac ballparks, though their eight teams play just 68 games per season prior to its January playoffs. It’s not unusual to see the same people play in both leagues, as Mexico is the only nation anywhere in which pro baseball is played year-round. The top Mexican-born players from the Liga and Mex Pac form the core of Mexico’s National Team in international competition, along with select major leaguers.

The Liga and Mex Pac are not the only professional leagues in Mexico, however. During the spring and summer, the eight-team Northern League in Sonora plays a schedule, while there is a ten-team loop in Veracruz playing during the winter months, but there are also a number of smaller independent circuits in pockets of the country.

The Mexican League also operates a Baseball Academy near Monterrey in which over 100 players live in a 56-room dormitory at a complex which includes four full fields, batting cages, weight room, dining hall, infirmary and study facilities. The Academy is in session between June and December, and many products have gone on to play professionally in Mexico and the United States.

Of course, players don’t just pick up a baseball at age 18. Mexico has a well-developed youth baseball system with thousands of players under the auspices of Little League Baseball and the Mexican Baseball Federation (or FeMeBe). Mexico’s Little League program for kids 12 and under has been a strong presence for several decades, with Mexican teams winning the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania in 1957, 1958 and 1997 and finishing second another three times.

FeMeBe sponsors competition for players between 11 and 16 years of age in three divisions. Traditionally, Mexican baseball is strongest in the northwest states, and 2009 was no different. Sonora won the national title in the Infantil (11-12) Division, Coahuila broke through to won the Pre Junior (13-14) competition, and Sinaloa came in first among Junior (15-16) teams. In particular, Sonora teams had a great year, adding a second-place finish among Junior teams and coming in third in Pre Junior.

While American baseball has its Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Mexican baseball has its Salon de la Fama in Monterrey. Although five people comprised the first class of the Salon in 1939 and another six names were added to the rolls in 1964, it wasn’t until 1971 that a permanent home was built on the grounds of a brewery in Monterrey. Since then, well over 100 players, managers, executives and writers have been elected. Yes, sportswriters are given full membership in the Salon de la Fama as opposed to honorary status in Cooperstown.

MEXICAN BASEBALL HISTORY 3: The Mexican Pacific League

At the same time Jorge Pasquel was beginning his most concerted push to raid Major League Baseball rosters for players willing to come south to play in his Mexican League, Mexico’s premier winter league was beginning its first season of play.

In 1945, a group of baseball aficionados led by Teodoro Mariscal of Mazatlan formed what was then known as the Liga del Costa del Pacifico, or Pacific Coast League. The LCP began with four teams: The Maztlan Venados, Hermosillo Queliteros, Guaymas Ostioneros and Culiacan Tecuarineros. Mariscal served as league president the first season, and the first games were held the weekend of October 27-28, 1945. Alejandro “Fray Nano” Reyes, the founder of the Mexican League, threw out the ceremonial first pitch in Culiacan.

Mazatlan won the first Coast League pennant with a 30-24 record. The LCP was considered a success, and it expanded to six teams in 1947 with the addition of Los Mochis and Obregon. Although there would be occasional shifting around of franchises, the league stuck with a six-team lineup for years. The Pacific Coast League lasted through the 1957-58 season, and became a popular destination among American players and Negro League veterans for winter ball experience.

However, the league underwent an overhaul.before the 1958-59 season, changing it’s name to Sonora Winter League and cutting back to four teams: the Hermosillo Naranjeros, Guaymas Ostioneros, Obregon Rojos and Empalme Rieleros. This is considered the beginning of the modern era of what is now the MexPac. When the Culiacan Tomateros and Mazatlan Venados were brought into the circuit in 1965, the league was again renamed to Sonora-Sinaloa League. The league finally settled on its current name of Mexican Pacific League in 1970 when the Confederation of Caribbean Baseball (or COPABE) requested a name change as a prerequisite to admitting Mexico into the Caribbean Series, which was being revived that winter after an absence of ten years following the demise of Cuba’s winter pro baseball with the rise of Fidel Castro and communism.

While the Mexican Pacific League is not officially recognized by Minor League Baseball, it is probably a stronger organization than a number of circuits north of the border. Almost all eight MexPac teams average more than 5,000 fans per opening over their 68-game schedules, and the level of play is comparable to Class AAA ball as team rosters feature a mix of Mexican League veterans and top prospects from Major League Baseball organizations, although MLB teams are not sending as many young players to spend their winters in Mexico or other Caribbean leagues because of the growth of offseason programs in their spring training complexes in Florida and Arizona.

Over the five decades of winterball in Mexico, Hermosillo teams have won 16 pennants since 1947, while Mazatlan and Culiacan have both won 14 titles. The MexPac has enjoyed limited success in the Caribbean Series, winning just five championships since 1970, most recently Mazatlan’s remarkable champions of 2005. That year, the Venados lost their first-round LMP playoff series, but advanced to the semifinals as the so-called “lucky loser” team with the best record in defeat. They then went on the win the MexPac title and took the Caribbean Series held that February at home in Mazatlan. It remains one of Mexican baseball’s greatest comeback stories.

NEXT WEEK: Mexican Baseball History 4: The Modern Era

MEXICAN BASEBALL HISTORY 2: The Liga Reorganizes

The death of Jorge Pasquel in 1955 put an exclamation point on the end of the free-spending era of Mexican League baseball, but by then, the Liga had problems of its own. Pasquel was a tempestuous man, but when he pulled out of the game altogether in 1951, he left a void not easily replaced, and the Liga was on the deathwatch by the winter of 1954-55.

However, two things saved pro baseball in Mexico: Most important was the infusion of new ownership of teams in the Mexican League, bringing new capital and ideas. The reformed Liga then made peace with the Major Leagues and Organized Baseball, who had severed relations with the “outlaw” league after Pasquel’s concerted player raids in 1946 raised salaries across the border when American teams were forced to pay better to keep their players. The “new” Mexican League officially became a Class AA minor league, ending the ten-year war.

Among the new owners, the most notable was Alejo Peralta, who began the Mexico City Tigres in 1955. Peralta was similar to Pasquel in that he was a very wealthy man, but there was a vast difference between the two men in the kinds of teams they built. Where Pasquel tried to recruit top players from America to Veracruz, Peralta insisted that the Tigres’ roster consist entirely of Mexican players. Pasquel wanted to build a dynasty, period, but Peralta wanted to prove Mexicans could be great ballplayers without foreign help. Peralta’s Tigres went on to win six Liga pennants through 1997 (the year he died at age 80), he personally started two minor leagues and supported another, and served as LMB commissioner for many years. He is arguably the most important man in Mexican baseball history.

The solidified Mexican League then entered a period of relative stability for several years, although (as now) a number of teams came and went. Mexico City was shared for decades by the Tigres and Diablos Rojos until the Tigres finally left town and began an odyssey that has seen them end up in Cancun, former home of the Langosteros franchise which was displaced after severe hurricanes in 2006 caused severe damage to the ballpark there. Other long-standing teams over the years have been the Veracruz Aguilas, Monterrey Sultanes, Yucatan Leones, Campeche Piratas and the Saltillo Saraperos.

Ironically, before Saltillo won the pennant in 2009, the only other time the Saraperos claimed the flag in their 40-year history was in the strike-interrupted season of 1980. That year, the Liga season began as normal in March amid growing calls among Mexican players for higher wages and allegations of preferential treatment for imported players from the United States. Finally, the domestic players walked off the job in July and eventually formed their own league of striking players in various Mexican cities. Although the Liga tried to fill with void with strikebreaking players, the remainder of the 1980 was a disaster, with no playoffs held. Although Saltillo was awarded the Mexican League “pennant because the Saraperos had the best record when play halted, many historians do not recognize the championship as legitimate.

Although the Mexican League is now considered Class AAA by Minor League Baseball, it is unlike any other circuit in that all Liga teams are independent. It perhaps bears the closest resemblance to the old-time minor leagues among all current members of Organized Baseball.
At present, the Mexican League has 16 teams in two divisions, with a 110-game regular season running between March and July, followed by playoffs throughout August.

NEXT WEEK: MEXICAN BASEBALL HISTORY 3: The Mexican Pacific League