LMB PRESIDENT DE LA VEGA ACCUSED OF FRAUD

Mexican League president Horacio de la Vega

The president of the Mexican League, Horacio de la Vega, is one of several people named in a criminal complaint alleging both fraud and patrimonial damage filed by a Mexico City-area mayor last week. According to the Mexidiario.com website, Iztacalco mayor Armando Quintero filed the complaint on July 30 with both the Mexico City attorney general and comptroller. Iztacalco is one of 16 boroughs within the Distrito Federal, with a population approaching 400,000 residents, and serves as the location for the Magdalena Mixihuca Sports City, which is where the complaint is focused.

The 227-acre complex opened in 1958 and was used when Mexico City hosted the Summer Olympics ten years later. The multi-sport facility underwent extensive renovations while de la Vega served as director of the Mexico City Sports Institute, which overees the Sports City, prior to his resignation from the post last year. The Magdalena Mixihuca Ciudad Deportes is the site of several sporting events throughout the year, and contains the Foro Sol and Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu, past and present home stadiums for the LMB Mexico City Diablos Rojos. Both structures sit within the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a 2.76-mile long motorsports race track.

Quintero's complaint alleges that more than 26 million pesos (US$1.2 million) worth of fraud was committed by de la Vega and others in relation to the renovations, that were done while he headed the facility under former Mexico City mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, a former city attorney general and longtime figure in the Party of the Democratic Revolution, or PRD, a political rival of Quintero's Morena party (from which Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador formed a coalition with two other parties to win Mexico's 2018 presidential election).

Map of Magdalena Mixihuca Sports City

Quintero's complaint claims that substandard workmanship and materials specifically affected an unfinished and unused BMX bicycle racing track, which is currently the subject of ongoing litigation between two private companies involved in its construction, and a new artificial lake was judged "unsustainable" because of the 3 million peso cost of maintenance, after a children's baseball field and several trees were removed to make room for it. Quintero also states that there were instances in which contracted work was never performed. The complaint says that the resulting "patrimonial damages," in which taxpayers would be required to fund repairs or complete unfinished work from the renovations, exceeds 80 million pesos (US$3.6 million).

The 45-year-old de la Vega, who represented Mexico in the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics as a pentathlete, became director of the Sports Institute in 2013 and led the organization for six years. He is credited with bringing events connected with the NFL, NBA, MLB and Formula 1 racing to Mexico City during his time in the position before stepping down last October, two months after the Sports City held reopening ceremonies. De la Vega was named to succeed Javier Salinas as president of the Mexican League last November.

PERICOS SLUGGER ORTIZ TO PLAY WINTERBALL FOR MONTERREY

New Monterrey OF Danny Ortiz

Faced with the recalcitrance of one of their top hitters from last season, the Monterrey Sultanes signed another highly-rated batsman for the upcoming season when outfielder Danny Ortiz agreed to terms for the upcoming Mexican Pacific League season. Ortiz will presumably replace fellow outfielder Felix Perez in Monterrey's as one of three foreigners allowed on the roster.

A former Reds farmhand, the Cuban-born Perez led Sultanes regulars last season with a .270 average and 48 RBIs while whacking 10 homers for the LMP expansion team, but is refusing to return to Monterrey at a reduced salary. Since the Sultanes also own his Mexican League rights, things could be sticky for the 35-year-old Perez next spring.

Bringing in Ortiz will hardly be a downgrade for the Nuevo Leon-based team, who will play their home games in Mazatlan for the Wuhan virus-altered season to save on travel expenses. The 30-year-old Puerto Rican was a fourth-round draft pick for the Minnesota Twins in 2008, but made his Major League debut with Pittsburgh on April 29, 2017 after signing with the Pirates as a free agent one year earlier. Ortiz went 1-for-12 for the Buccos in nine games before returning to the minors. He spent 2018 with the Phillies' AAA affiliate in Lehigh Valley before signing with Puebla after the season. In ten MiLB campaigns with three organizations, Ortiz hit a collective .257 with 121 homers and 572 RBIs over 1,102 games.

Felix Perez taking batting practice last summer

His first year with the Pericos was a coming-out party of sorts, as the 30-year-old Ortiz exploded for career highs with 42 homers and 114 RBIs in 117 games for Puebla while batting .312 in 2019. He was selected to play in the Mexican League All-Star Game, his third after performing in the 2011 Midwest League and 2013 Eastern League midseason showcases, and finished second in homers to Monclova's Chris Carter (who hit 49) and came in fourth in ribbies. Ortiz also won the 2019 Home Run Derby during All-Star Weekend in Mexico City. Although his power numbers won't be aided by either Puebla's high altitude or the since-discarded Franklin ball in the pitcher-friendly Mex Pac, Ortiz is expected to be a middle-of-the-order force for new manager Gerardo Alvarez' Sultanes.

This will be his first season in the LMP, but Ortiz is no stranger to playing baseball in the winter months. The Caguas-born gardener spent all or part of ten seasons in his native Puerto Rico with the Mayaguez Indios between 2010 and 2019. Although his career winterball numbers aren't the most imposing (a .248 average, 15 homers and 132 RBIs in 332 contests), he's a two-time postseason All-Star and 2017 league MVP who's played on four pennant-winnters and in five Caribbean Series.

MLB: GONZALEZ MAKES DEBUT, URIAS EARNS FIRST WIN

Victor Gonzalez during first MLB outing

Victor Gonzalez became the 130th Mexican-born player to appear in a Major League Baseball game last Saturday when the Los Angeles Dodgers rookie made a relief appearance during their game in Phoenix against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

A 24-year-old native of Tuxpan, Nayarit, Gonzalez was sent to the mound the open the bottom of the fifth inning by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts with a 2-0 lead after starter Tony Gonsolin had tossed four frames of one-hit shutout ball. Although he showed good control by throwing 17 strikes in his 24-pitch appearance, Gonzalez did not come away unscathed.

Diamondbacks leadoff batter Christian Walker welcomed the recent call-up from the minors with a first-pitch single to shallow right field on a 96 MPH fastball, then advanced to second on David Peralta groundout to third. After getting Stephen Vogt swinging on a slider for the second out, Gonzalez plunked Jake Lamb on an 0-2 pitch to put runners and first and second before inducing Idelmaro Vargas into a groundout to short to end the threat with a scoreless entrada.

Things didn't go much better in the sixth for Gonzalez, who gave up a single to right by first batter Ketel Marte followed by a run-scoring double (also to right) by Kole Calhoun that cut the Dodgers lead to 2-1. That was enough for Roberts, who called it a night for Gonzalez by signaling to the bullpen for Tony Floro, who went on to end the inning with no further scoring. Arizona went on to a 5-3 comeback win, thanks to a four-run outburst in the eighth. 

A 6'0" lefty, Gonzalez signed with Los Angeles in 2012 as a 17-year-old after being scouted by Mike Brito. He struggled his first four summers in the Dodgers organization, going 11-20 before missing the 2017 season after Tommy John surgery. His future remained in doubt upon his return when he went a combined 1-4 for Class A Great Lakes and Rookie Ogden in 2018.

However, he turned things around last year by starting out 2-1 with a 1.65 ERA in eight appearances (five starters) at Class A Rancho Cucamonga. He then went 3-1 with a 2.23 ERA in eight starts after a May call-up to AA Tulsa before finishing the season with AAA Oklahoma City, where he had no decisions and a 3.86 ERA in 15 relief outings. Gonzalez was on the Dodgers taxi squad prior to being brought to the big club Thursday and making his MLB debut one night later.

Julio Urias earned first win in over a year

Although Dodgers moundmate Julio Urias is a year younger than Gonzalez, he's served as a mentor of sorts for the rookie lefty. It was Urias' turn to get into the act on Saturday with 11-2 triumph over Arizona for his first win of the year. Urias, 23, had a rocky start by throwing 28 pitches in the first inning and falling behind 1-0 on Eduardo Escobar's RBI single, but settled down enough to allow only one more run in the fourth before leaving the game with an 8-2 lead after allowing five hits on 90 pitches for his six innings of work. It was Urias' first win since June 25 of last year, when he put in another six innings in relief against the D-Backs, also in Phoenix.

A product of Culiacan, Urias shares four things with Gonzalez: He's from Mexico, he's a lefty, he was scouted by Mike Brito and he signed with the Dodgers in 2012. He was also the last Mexican to debut for Los Angeles before Gonzalez, making his first appearance in 2016.

Fragoso elected Presidente of Mexico's largest Little League

Whether you attend a pro baseball game in Phoenix, Puebla or Pawtucket, you’re watching athletes who’ve been honing their craft on baseball diamonds for years, even decades.  For nearly all ballplayers, the process of becoming good enough to draw a paycheck begins when they’re grade schoolers, and the yellow-brick road leading to Fenway Park or Estadio Monterrey almost invariably starts on the scaled-down fields of Little League Baseball.  Anyone who has played baseball seriously will tell you just how hard baseball is to play WELL, no matter how gifted you are or where you’re playing it.

Mexico’s largest Little League organization is the Liga Olmeca in Mexico City, where nearly 1,000 boys and girls first swing a bat in earnest and can spend years learning the fundamentals of the sport such as how to field a grounder to their right, hitting against pitchers who can throw breaking stuff and turning a double play around second base.  Since its formation in 1963, the Liga Olmeca has produced future major league pitcher Rodrigo Lopez (AL Rookie of the Month in July 2002 while hurling for the Orioles) along with numerous minor league and college players.  Former Chiquita CEO Fernando Aguirre, who is also owner of the Class AA Erie Seawolves and a minority owner of the Cincinnati Reds, also learned to play ball in the Liga Olmeca.  However, the organization’s new president, Carlos Fragoso, says the focus isn’t on discovering future MLB or LMB players but rather on the traditional Little League values of “helping boys and girls develop into a future valuable citizen through the practice of baseball.  If we happen to find a prospect, well, that will be a plus.”

Fragoso (pictured next to Ken Griffey Jr. at a Liga Olmeca clinic) is a native of Obregon, Sonora who now lives in Mexico City and has worked as an engineer with Siemens for several years.  He is also a certified baseball nut who is godfather to Dodgers star Adrian Gonzalez and has served as an advance scout for both the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.  He was unanimously voted in as Liga Olmeca president last Sunday in Mexico City, and will begin his term in August.  

Salon de la Fama member Tomas Morales, a leading Mexican cronista since the days of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio (think a Latino version of Shirley Povich), devoted his Tommy al Bat column to Fragoso on Monday and I’m barely smart enough to know his words carry more weight than mine.  Here is a translated version of Tommy’s column in its entirety:

For the first time in the history of Little League of Baseball in the capital, a Major League scout was named president of one of the circuits.  That’s what happened on Sunday when the Liga Olmeca chose engineer Carlos Fragoso as the new boss of this circuit, which is considered the jewel of the crown between Little League Baseball organizations in the DF, having the best fields for the practice of the king of sports. Fragoso is currently a scout for the New York Yankees as the right arm of Lee Sigman in Mexico City, and has for several years been linked to the Olmec League that has now elected him as the new president.

Throughout his life Carlos Fragoso has been a lover of our King of Sports and some years ago, as a scout of the Boston Red Sox, discovered the young pitcher Luis Alonso Mendoza, who was signed by Lee Sigman on the recommendation of the engineer, reached the Major Leagues with the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals, is currently pitching in Japan and whose right of return is held by the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.  For the Red Sox, Fragoso also signed left-handed pitcher Mauricio Lara, who was injured but after recovering has had a good run on the Mexican ball.  His contacts in baseball meant that past Liga Olmeca season inaugurations were attended by Major League players like Edgar Gonzalez as well as pitchers Alfredo Aceves and Fernando Salas.

Now Carlos Fragoso has put his back into the intense work that will be to successfully lead the destinies of the Olmec League in this new season that started on Sunday with the election of a new president. Of course it is not an easy task to take the reins of this Little League that numbers a population of almost a thousand young people between 3 and 21 years of age who play on the fields of Liga Olmeca, including girls softball.  Carlos Fragoso told us that his main goal is to consolidate the good path that has led the league over the years and praised the work that the previous presidents have done.  One of the goals set by the new president is to improve the quality of baseball that is played, and for this he announced that the Liga Olmeca will take part in tournaments as famous as Williamsport as well as the International Pony League.

Fragoso has the full support of the Mexican Amateur Baseball Federation, which was represented on Sunday in the Liga Olmeca by the president of that body, Enrique Mayorga, and treasurer Carlos Buenrostro, who is also in charge of overseeing all The Little and Juvenile Leagues of the capital.  Fragoso, Mayorga and Buenrostro all came to play in those tournaments of the Metropolitan League with pleasant memories of what for a long time had Social Security Park as a stage, and who one of the founders and president of the circuit for many years was the unforgettable gift Miguel Oropeza.

Fragoso will have a lot of positives to start working with, including a complex of fields (with clubhouses and a food court) considered among Mexico’s best Little League facilities with in-house groundskeepers and maintenance workers.  A crew of 14 full-time trainers and coaches works with the Liga Olmeca’s young ballplayers drawn from the hemisphere’s second-largest city of 21 million inhabitants.

Conversely, the Liga Olmeca now has one more positive to work with: Carlos Fragoso will be occupying their Presidente’s chair.

MexPac looking to go national?

There's little doubt that the Mexican Pacific League has become a huge success.  Based in Mexico's western states of Sonora, Sinaloa and Baja California Norte, the MexPac has grown into the Western Hemisphere's most highly-attended baseball league outside the Majors, with crowds averaging nearly 10,000 per game last winter.  In comparison, according to Ballpark Digest, the Class AAA International and Pacific Coast leagues drew between 6,000 and 7,000 fans per opening leaguewide in 2016.  In fact, not one minor league team north of the border came close to matching the LMP's record-setting regular season average of 9,688 per night.  Three MexPac franchises pulled in more than 12,000 per game last winter, with Culiacan leading the loop with a 16,316 average over 34 home dates.

By any measure, those are great numbers for an unaffiliated winter circuit.  One question facing LMP league president Omar Canizales and team owners may be what to do for an encore?  "Puro Beisbol" editor Francisco Ballasteros believes he may have an answer:  Turning the MexPac into a national circuit.

The 2014 move of the former Guasave Algodoneros to Guadalajara, which sits nearly 1,000 miles east of the Pacific Ocean, has been an unqualified success.  The summer Mexican League has had teams in Jalisco in the past, but none were nearly as popular as the newest edition of the Charros have been in Mexico's second-largest city, with an average of 8,914 for the 2016-17 regular season.  Credit for the LMP's success in Jalisco must go to Charros team owner Armando Navarro, a man of equal parts ambition, vision and impatience whose efforts in landing last month's World Baseball Classic Pool D and pulling in very good crowds until the final day showed that he's making inroads for baseball in the same city where the beloved Chivas soccer team plays their home games.

By any measure, the Guadalajara gamble has paid dividends for Canizales and company.  But what of Mexico City and Monterrey?  Canizales has mentioned his desire to place a MexPac team in the nation's capital in the past, a notion that might have been laughed at by some at the time but looks much more realistic in 2017.  There's no question that placing an LMP franchise in Mexico City, with its enormous population and longstanding baseball history, would be a coup for the league.  However, unless the MexPac (or Mexican Premier League, a less-regional name that's been floated in some circles) is willing to occupy Estadio Fray Nano after the Mexican League's Diablos Rojos move into their new stadium in 2018, they will need to deal directly with Diablos owner Alfredo Harp Helu and team president Roberto Mansur.  The Diablos own the new 13,000-seat ballpark, thus making any other team playing there a tenant.  While Harp and Mansur may not be opposed to collecting revenues from a winter league team playing 34 regular season games plus playoffs while the Liga is in its offseason, the Diablos have strugged at the gate over the past few seasons and the two proud men may not be enthused to house a team that could perhaps outdraw their own.  Even though the two leagues play non-overlapping schedules, they ARE competitors, a fact that should not be overlooked.

Monterrey may be the easier city to set up shop for winterball.  The 27,000-seat Estadio Monterrey is owned by the government and not the LMB Sultanes, thus lessening possible interleague jealousies regarding negotiations for playing dates and rental rates.  The purchase of 50 percent of the Sultanes by Grupo Multimedios is a potential game-changer as well.  Ballasteros says the media conglomerate is, in fact, interested in placing a MexPac franchise in Monterrey, noting a recent article to that effect in the group's Milenio newspaper.  Longtime Sultanes owner Jose "Pepe" Maiz may or may not object to another baseball team coming into a city he's had sole territorial reign for decades, but Maiz appears to be losing his grip both on the so-called Old Guard ownership group within the Mexican League and the Sultanes in general.  According to Ballasteros, businessman Carlos Bremer has been mentioned as the preferred owner of a Monterrey LMP team.

So how would this all come about?  Ballasteros speculates that current LMP teams in the smaller cities of Los Mochis and Navojoa (both operating in aging ballparks) would be prime candidates to move rather than a simple expansion.  He notes that there have already been discussions between the MexPac and Televisa TV network regarding future ties between the two bodies.  The LMP plays its schedule between the Apertura and Clausa schedule for Mexico's popular Premier soccer league, and Ballasteros says it was Televisa who floated the idea of renaming the loop the Mexican Premier League to give it a national scope.

The overall question has to be where all this discussion will lead in reality.  Ballasteros ends his column on the cautionary note that it should be "taken into account that the LMP is perhaps the professional sports league most reluctant to change in Mexico."  Perhaps it is, but since taking the helm of the MexPac in 2009, Omar Canizales has shown a willingness to change things within the 63-year-old circuit.  The numbers imply that those changes have usually been the right ones.  Keep an eye on this.

Astros, Padres split Mexico City Series; Valencia wins HR Derby

Major League Baseball held its first exhibition games in Mexico City since 2004 over the weekend, with the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres splitting two games at Estadio Fray Nano on Saturday and Sunday.

Festivities kicked off Friday with a home run derby won by Tijuana Toros second baseman Carlos Valencia at a makeshift diamond built on the city's Zocalo (pictured above), Mexico's largest public square and a ceremonial spot dating to the Aztec dynasty prior to the arrival of Hernan Cortez and the Spanish Conquistadores.

Valencia beat out Mexico City Diablos Rojos outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Quintana Roo Tigres teammates Jorge Cantu and Esteban Quiroz for the title.  In the first round, Cantu led all four batsmen with 10 homers, followed by Valencia at 8, Quiroz with 7 and 5 for Terrazas.  Hitting into a headwind in the final round, Valencia jumped out to an early lead over Cantu before the former MLB infielder started finding his groove, albeit a little too late as Valencia finished with 15 dingers to Cantu's 7.

Also on Friday, a clinic for young Mexican ballplayers was held, with former major league third baseman Vinny Castilla joined by ex-pitchers Esteban Loaiza and Ismael Valdez addressing the assembled youths. Oh, and they played a little baseball over the weekend, too.

On Saturday, Houston bombed San Diego, 11-1, behind the strong pitching of Chris Devenski.  An Astros farmhand ticket to start the season at Class AAA Fresno, tossed 4.1 shutout innings and struck out seven Padres batsmen.  The 2015 National League Rookie of the Year, Carlos Correa, joined with Tyler White to open the fourth inning with back-to-back solo homers to give Houston a 2-0 lead.  The Astros put two more scores on the board in the bottom of the sixth before pounding Padres pitching for seven runs in the seventh to put the game away as 5,602 onlookers watched at Estadio Fray Nano.  Mexican product Leo Heras went 2-for-3 for Houston, scoring once and driving in two more runs.

Saturday's contest was a pitcher's duel in comparison to what happened Sunday as San Diego roared back to cop a 21-6 victory in front of 6,143 fanaticos at Fray Nano.  This one was pretty much over after the first inning, with the Padres converting three-run homers by Jabari Blash and Jon Jay plus a two-run longball by Adam Rosales into a nine-run outburst.  The Friars got subsequent homers from Travis Jankowski and Casey McElroy in the blowout.  All the San Diego scoring would have obscured the work of Padres starting pitcher Cesar Vargas had he not been a native of Puebla, 85 miles south of Mexico City.  Vargas went three shutout innings and struck out five Houston hitters to earn the win.  Colin Moran went deep for the Astros, but this game belonged to the Padres from the get-go.

As good a weekend as it was for baseball fans in the capital city, it was at least as good for ticket resellers.  Ducats for the two games were originally priced at up to 1,800 pesos (US$103 at the current exchange rate), but scalpers outside Fray Nano (pictured right) were getting 3,500 pesos (US$206) for some tickets while being unbothered by law enforcement or stadium security officers.

Astros, Padres square off in Mexico City this weekend

The Houston Astros and San Diego Padres are sending split squads to Mexico City for a two-game MLB exhibition series this weekend at Estadio Fray Nano, home of the Mexican League's Red Devils.  There will also be a Home Run Derby involving LMB players and a clinic for youth players overseen by former All-Star third baseman Vinny Castilla, a native Oaxacan.  The games will take place Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

The two teams have finalized their respective 28-man rosters for the trip to the D.F.  Houston has released their list of players, which will include All-Stat second baseman Jose Altuve (pictured), shortstop Carlos Correa (the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year) and outfielder Leo Heras, a veteran of both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific Leagues who is in the Astros' training camp in Florida.  San Diego's entourage will include six Mexican-born players in the Padres' Arizona camp, including 24-year-old right-hander Cesar Vargas of Puebla, who will take the mound to start Sunday's contest.  Shortstop Alexei Ramirez, a Cuban in his first year with San Diego after eight seasons with the White Sox, had both his agent and lawyer clear up any possible visa issues so he could make the trip.

The Home Run Derby was scheduled for Friday at Fray Nano, with Quintana Roo Tigres infielders Esteban Quiroz and former MLBer Jorge Cantu, Diablos Rojos' outfielder Ivan Terrazas and Tijuana second baseman Carlos Valencia (who played in Mexico City from 2006 through 2013) rounding out the four participants.

Castilla, who had more homers, runs batted in, runs scored and hits in his MLB career than any other Mexican-born player, is now a special assistant with the Colorado Rockies, for whom he had his best seasons in the 1990's.  He was to be joined at the clinics by former White Sox pitcher Esteban Loaiza, who won 21 games for the White Sox and led the American League with 203 strikeouts in 2003 (finishing second in Cy Young Award balloting that year) and ex-Dodgers hurler Ismael "Rocket" Valdez, who reached double figures in wins five times in his major league career, including four straight years in Los Angeles in the mid-Nineties.

Estadio Fray Nano is the smallest ballpark in the Mexican League with 5,200 seats, but has been expanded to fit 6,464 fans this weekend.   Saturday's game will be carried live on Univision Deportes in the USA and Telvisa Deportes in Mexico, with Astros Spanish broadcaster Francisco Romero calling the play-by-play.

Escalante to stay two more years as Liga president

The Mexican League's Assembly of Presidents met in Mexico City Monday to discuss a number of issues the league is facing in 2016.

Perhaps the most pressing was replacing league president Plinio Escalante (pictured), who announced his retirement effective at the end of the upcoming season after sitting behind the big desk since replacing Alejandro Hutt in 2007.  The dilemma essentially solved itself when Escalante agree to serve two more years in office, moving his exit down the road to 2018.  Although the LMB has tended to sputter along during Escalante's reign while the while the Mexican Pacific League has exploded in both attendance and presence in recent years, the Yucatecan has provided a measure of stability during his nine years at the helm at the Liga's Mexico City headquarters.  Escalante met with LMB directors for two hours Sunday night hammering out details of his extension prior to Monday's announcement.

Introduced at Monday's session was Javier Balseca Gonzalez, the Mexican League's new director of marketing and merchandising.  Balseca, who was hired to the post in January, gave a presentation to Liga leaders whose 16-team league drew 3.87 million fans in 2015 for an average of 4,565 per opening. Conversely, the AAA International League pulled in 7,199 per contest while Pacific Coast League teams welcomed 6,508 people through the turnstiles per night.  The Mexican Pacific League led all non-MLB leagues in the hemisphere with a regular season average attendance of 9,670.

The team presidents also discussed moving the date of the Liga's 2016 All-Star Game in Monterrey, which was originally scheduled for May 29, a date that coincides with Mexican soccer's Premier Division championship game.

Finally, Laguna Vaqueros CEO Carlos Gomez del Campo told his peers the Torreon-based team is in the process of finding new partners, a topic that was tabled until the Assembly's September meeting in Oaxaca. The next such gathering is scheduled to take place May 27 in Monterrey during All-Star Weekend but, as noted above, that may change.

Canizales talks LMP expansion, rules changes

In the afterglow of watching one of his teams win the Caribbean Series for the fourth time in six winters after setting box office records during the regular season, Mexican Pacific League president Omar Canizales shared his thoughts with ESPN Deportes about possible expansion of the eight-team circuit into the nation's capital and changes in the system used to determine the loop's six playoff teams.

Saying there's no timeline, Canizales admitted that the LMP has already looked at placing a team in Leon while he dreams of a MexPac franchise in Mexico City. "The Liga Pacifico is deeply rooted in the culture of the people of the north," Canizales told ESPN. "We have the challenge of crossing that border.  There are plans to expand to Leon and the dream is to have a team in Mexico City, although that hasn't been talked about."

Leon is a city of more than 1.5 million residents in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato that has had Mexican League teams in the past, most recently in 1991. Leon's ballpark, Estadio Domingo Santana (pictured), underwent renovations in 2014 that included work on the playing surface and in some areas within the existing structure, but the seating capacity remains at 3,000, far too small for a league that averaged nearly 10,000 fans per opening this winter.  Longtime Mexican baseball coach and scout Carlos Fragoso, who has recommended players to both the Red Sox and Yankees, says that while Leon is an open market at present, the LMB has "reserved" it as a possible franchise site should one of its 16 teams seek to move from its current locale in the future.

It would not be any easier to establish a team in the Distrito Federal, where the Mexican League Diablos Rojos have created a virtual baseball hegemony, making it tough for competitors to gain a foothold.  The Diablos could be considered the Liga's flagship franchise, given their location, history of success, the deep pockets of owner Alfredo Harp Helu and the insider power of team president Roberto Mansur.  In addition, Mexico City's best-suited facility for the sport, Estadio Fray Nano, holds only 5,200 onlookers and is controlled by the Red Devils while a new 13,000-seat ballpark is in the works.

Canizales also touched on the end to the MexPac's regular season in December, in which the Jalisco Charros were in the position of qualifying for the playoffs if they LOST their last game.  "It's necessary to improve the system of competition, although there've only been three times when a team has reached the final game needing to lose to advance to the playoffs," he said.  "Maybe a playoff game between the teams involved would provide a solution."

MLB to stage "Mexico City Series" in March

Major League Baseball will return to Mexico City for the first time in twelve springs when the Houston Astros and San Diego Padres play exhibition games March 26 and 27 at Estadio Fray Nano.

The series will be the third time the Padres have played in Mexico City after previous visits in 1971 and 1981.  The Southern California club has also had exhibition games in Tijuana and Hermosillo with two trips to Culiacan, and hosted a three-game regular season series with the New York Mets in 1996 in Monterrey, where they also opened the 1999 schedule against the Colorado Rockies at Estadio Monterrey.

Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow was born and raised in Mexico City.  "I'm thrilled that the Astros will have the opportunity to play in Mexico," Luhnow says.  "The Mexican people have a great love for baseball, so I know these games will be well-received."  Luhnow was joined at a press conference by Astros All-Star second baseman Jose Altuve.  The two-game set between Houston and San Diego is being billed as the "Mexico City Series."  Both teams will send split squads due to concurrent spring training games in the States.

Estadio Fray Nano is home to the Mexico City Diablos Rojos.  MLB's last appearance in the Mexican capital was in 2004 when the Astros played two games with the Marlins at Foro Sol, which could hold 25,000 for baseball but was designed more for concerts and never a comfortable fit for baseball.  At 5,000 seats, Fray Nano is much smaller than Foro Sol, but much more hospitable to the King of Sports.  The Red Devils played at Foro Sol from 2000 through 2014 after longtime home Social Security Park was razed to make way for a shopping center.  A new Estadio Diablos Rojos, with seating for 13,000 plus an outfield grass berm holding 3,000 more, is targeted for a 2017 opening.

One MLB preseason game was played in Mexico last year when the Arizona Diamondbacks met Colorado on March 29 in Hermosillo.

GONZALEZ BROTHERS TO VISIT LIGA OLMECA OPENER SATURDAY IN MEXICO CITY

Brothers Adrian and Edgar Gonzalez (pictured with Edgar on left) will be on hand Saturday in Mexico City for the annual opening ceremonies of the Liga Olmeca youth baseball organization. The Liga Olmeca is one of Mexico’s biggest and strongest organizations for budding ballplayers, and a number of current and former major leaguers have taken part in past openers, including Vinny Castilla, Jorge Cantu, Esteban Loaiza, Rodrigo Lopez and last year's special guest, Alfredo Aceves.

The Gonzalez brothers were invited by New York Yankees scout Carlos Fragoso, an Obregon native and current Mexico City resident active with the Liga Olmeca. Fragoso is a godfather to both as the result of a lifelong friendship with their father David, himself a former star amateur ballplayer and head of what ESPN senior writer Jorge Arangure, Jr. once called “the first family of Mexican baseball.”

Adrian Gonzalez is coming off another banner season with the San Diego Padres, for whom he hit .298 with 31 homers and 101 RBIs this year. Edgar, who played alongside Adrian in San Diego, played for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan last summer and hit .263 with 12 homers in 100 games.

Opening ceremonies will be streamed live on the Liga Olmeca website at www.ligaolmeca.mx.