PREMIER12: MEXICO SWEEPS GROUP A, ON TO JAPAN

The Mexican National Team clobbered The Netherlands, 10-2, last Tuesday in Guadalajara to complete a three-game Group A sweep in the World Baseball Softball Confederation's Premier12 tournament.  The Verdes Grande had earlier defeated the Dominican Republic and the United States to clinch a berth in the second stage of Premier12 competition, the Super Round, this week in Japan.  No players on a 40-man roster in Major League Baseball are being allowed by their respective teams to play.

Mexico took an early lead over the Dutchmen in the bottom of the first when leadoff batter Jonathan Jones singled to left, advanced to third base on Noah Perio's single up the middle and then came home to score when Holland centerfielder Roger Bernadina made an errant throw to the plate that catcher Chadwick Tromp couldn't make a play with.  Perio advanced to second on Bernadina's throw, took took when Netherlands starting pitcher Tom Stuibergen uncorked a wild pitch to Efren Navarro and then plated a tally on Navarro's groundout to Sharlon Schoop at second base.

The Mexicans added two more runs in the third when Navarro doubled in Perio and Jesus Araiza later punched a two-out single to plate Navarro, bringing the score to 4-0.  After three scoreless innings, Mexico essentially put the game in their hop pocket with four seventh-inning runs.  A combined three runs came in on two Dutch errors and another scored on a wild pitch in an ugly defensive frame for the European side.  Ageless Yurendell de Caster, who played for Reynosa of the Mexican League in 2010 and 2011, accounted for The Netherlands' only scoring when the 40-year-old Curacao native rapped a two-run single up the middle off Jesus Rios in the top of the eighth but Mexico scored twice more in the bottom of the entrada for the final 10-2 margin of victory.

Mexico outfielder Noah Perio

Arturo Reyes started on the mound for the Verdes Grande and tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit ball, but it was reliever Manny Barreda who got the win by pitching 1.2 frames of no-run ball into the fifth frame.  Stuifbergen took the loss for The Netherlands.  Jones went 3-for-5 with two runs for the winners, who collected ten hits and three walks on the night.  Holland had seven hits and drew seven walks but 12 Dutch runners were left stranded on base as they finished 0-3 in the Premier12 under manager Hensley Meulens and coaches Bert Blyleven and Andruw Jones.  One night earlier, the United States beat the Dominican Republic, 10-8, to clinch Group A's second Super Round berth.

The Mexican National Team is now in Japan, where they'll open Super Round play against Taiwan Monday at Noon local time at Chiba Marine Stadium.  Taiwan finished second to unbeaten Japan with a 2-1 record while hosting Group B action in Taichung.  Mexico will open the second stage with a 1-0 record because they defeated the United States, 8-2, in the opening round while Taiwan starts the Super Round 0-1 after losing to Japan in Group B.  South Korea (3-0) and surprising Australia (2-1) emerged from Group C in Seoul, with the Aussies topping both Canada and Cuba to advance.  Each of the six remaining teams will play four games this week, followed by two games at the Tokyo Dome on Friday: A Bronze Medal game between the third and fourth place finishers at Noon and a Gold Medal Game between the top two seeds at 7:00PM.  Two teams will advance to next year's Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

It was a good week all around for Mexico manager Juan Gabriel Castro, who was also hired as an infield coach for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2020.  Castro gave up a coaching job with the Los Angeles Dodgers for an ill-defined with the Tijuana Toros in 2018, only to be fired two months after his hiring.  Castro spent last summer in the Phillies organization as coordinator of minor league infielders and will join new manager Joe Girardi in Philadelphia to replace Bobby Dickerson, who left for a bench coaching job with the San Diego Padres.

MEXICO PREMIER12 SUPER ROUND SCHEDULE
Monday, Nov. 11 (12pm) vs. Taiwan, Chiba Marine Stadium
Tuesday, Nov. 12 (12pm) vs. Australia, Tokyo Dome
Wednesday, Nov. 13 (7pm) at Japan, Tokyo Dome
Thursday, Nov. 14 (7pm) at South Korea, Tokyo Dome


THREE LMP MANAGERS FIRED; WILL OSUNA PITCH FOR CHARROS?

New Mexicali manager Pedro Mere

Less than one month into the 2019-20 season, three Mexican Pacific League managers were fired with the usual thanks from teams not thankful enough to spare their jobs.  While it's a little unusual to see three skippers axed after fewer than four weeks, this is an LMP expansion year and there are now ten helmsmen to show the door.

The first firing came November 2 in Guasave, one of the MexPac's two new clubs, who parted ways with manager Rigo Beltran.  A former MLB and NPB pitcher who was a winterball mainstay in Culiacan, Beltran has spent the past six summers as pitching coach for the Indians' AAA Columbus affiliate. The Algodoneros decided they'd seen enough after a 6-12 start, jettisoning both Beltran and pitching coach Jose Silva.  The Cottoneers' new dugout boss will be Oscar Robles.  Robles was LMP Rookie of the Year in 1995-96 for Guasave and has managed both Culiacan and Obregon, and was recently fired from Tijuana in the LMB after leading the Toros to the best regular-season record in the Liga.

Four days later, the axe fell on Adan Munoz in Navojoa.  The longtime catcher who did a decent job in Cancun after being named Quintana Roo manager on May 9 and leading the Tigres to the postseason.  Munoz was in his first season with the Mayos when he was let go with the team in last place after going 6-14 over the first 20 games.  Pitching coach Hector Heredia was named interim Navojoa manager while the front office looks for a permanent (relatively speaking) replacement for Munoz, who may be reassigned elsewhere within the Mayos organization.

The Mexicali Aguilas capped the opening week of canning season by pink-slipping yet another first-year manager, Bobby Dickerson.  A former Yankees draft pick and farmhand, Dickerson was an infield coach for Baltimore for seven seasons and spent last summer with Philadelphia before taking a similar job in San Diego next season.  This was his second stint with Mexicali (he managed the Eagles to the playoffs in 2009-10), but ownership became disaffected with the Aguilas' 7-16 record, although they did "thank Bobby Dickerson for his dedication and professionalism, recognizing him as a hard working and committed manager, wishing him much success in his future projects."  Pedro Mere becomes the latest to enter the revolving managerial door in Mexicali.

Osuna signed with Charros in 2017, but didn't pitch

Meanwhile, a couple of MLB players have been talked about as possible MexPac performers this winter, although one of them has ruled out the possibility.  Telediario of Guadalajara reports that Houston closer Roberto Osuna has told Jalisco team president Salvador Quirarte that he wants to pitch for the Charros this winter.  "When it was the Houston game in Monterrey," Quirarte said, "I was talking to Roberto and he said, 'Hey, I want you to take me with the Charros this year."  Quirarte admits it's up to the Astros to allow Osuna to pitch anywhere this winter, saying "We have to wait, although being very clear and seeing the Houston team so strongly, I don't see much hope."  Another big league pitcher, Sergio Romo, is already in Guadalajara with the Charros, but the 12-year MLB veteran is a free agent and not under the same restrictions Osuna is.

Another MLBer, Luis Urias, was rumored to be a possible addition to the Obregon roster this winter, perhaps as soon as this month.  However, El Fildeo reports that Urias himself is discounting the talk on social media.  A middle infielder, the 22-year-old Urias played 71 games for San Diego this year, batting .223 with 4 homers, and is considered one of the Padres' top prospects.  He hit .280 over 36 games for the Yaquis as an 18-year-old in 2015-16.  Like Osuna, Urias' availability would be subject to his parent club's approval and it's not known whether the San Diego organization would sign off on it.

The battle for first place remains tight with only nine games remaining in the first half.  Culiacan (16-9) holds the narrowest of leads over Hermosillo (15-9) and Jalisco (15-10) at the top of the table, while Lobregon and Los Mochis (both 14-11) sit two games out of first.  At the bottom of the standings, Mexicali (8-17) is eight games out of first and as mentioned above, former manager Bobby Dickerson bore the brunt of the Aguilas' slow start.

Jose Aguilar of Obregon leads the batting race with a .373 average while Culiacan's Sebastian Elizalde is second at .361.  Jalisco's Stephen Cardullo may be hitting a pedestrian .255. but he's making the most of what he can with an LMP-best seven homers among his 24 base hits.  Teammate Dariel Alvarez and Obregon's Art Charles are among three players trailing Cardullo by one homer while being tied at the top with 21 RBIs apiece.  Culiacan outfielder Rico Noel has stolen 14 bases in 16 attempts to take a healthy lead in that category.

Yoanys Quiala of Los Mochis leads the LMP in wins with a perfect 5-0 mark after six starts.  Quiala's 1.95 ERA is third behind Hermosillo's Mike Kickham (1.55) and Teddy Stankiewicz of Guasave (1.91).  Quiala also leads in strikeouts with 31 (Obregon's Arturo Lopz has 30) and his 0.81 WHIP is also tops, just ahead of Kickham's 0.86.  Monterrey's Ralph Garza and Trey McNutt of Hermosillo are tied for saves supremacy with eight apiece.  Even though Garza's Sultanes teammate Nick Struck's ERA of 4.09 may not be overly impressive, his eight holds are.

The MexPac says the one-million mark in attendance had been surpassed by the 21-game mark of the first half on November 8.  The LMP states that a total of 1,108,336 attendees witnessed games across the loop's ten cities through seven series, a number that projects to an overall average of 10,556 per opening, which is higher than any MiLB league north of the border.  According to a story on the league website, Culiacan leads with 15,853 attendees per game, followed by Hermosillo's 15,155 average.


MEXICAN LEAGUE CUTS BACK TO 102 GAMES IN 2020; 80 GAMES IN 2021?

After expanding its regular season schedule to 120 games per team for the first time since 2001, the Mexican League is making a drastic cut in games for 2020 and at least one prominent baseball writer south of the border things the LMB could be looking at even fewer openings in 2021.

The Liga once played as many as 140 games per season but gradually adopted shorter schedules until adopting a 110-game calendar in 2002, a format the circuit kept until creating two separate 56-game seasons last year.  When that proved unworkable, the LMB returned to a single-season format in 2019 with 120 games and although the loop drew 5 million fans for the first time in the 21st Century, the decision was made among owners last month to cut back to 102 games, the fewest since the reorganized Mexican League joined the National Association (Minor League Baseball's predecessor) in 1955 with a Class AA designation.

The 2020 schedule will open Monday, April 6 when the newly-crowned champion Monclova Acereros host the rival Monterrey Sultanes at Estadio Monclova, the "Biggest Oven in Mexico" (as per the LMB's own website).  Even though the schedule has been shortened, the format has each team hosting and visiting every Liga opponents so home fans will be able to watch all 15 other LMB teams in their own ballparks next season.

The two-half system will be back for a second year in a row, with the First Half closing on June 4, followed by All-Star Weekend between June 5-7 in Monclova.  The Second Half opens on June 9 and ends August 6.  As in past seasons, if three games or fewer separate the fourth and fifth place teams in either division, a wildcard game will be held August 7 at the fourth-place team's ballpark.  The full playoffs (all best-4-of-7 series) will begin Tuesday, August 11 with the Division Semifinals.  Division Championship Series will open Saturday, August 22 while the Serie del Rey for the LMB title opens Tuesday, September 1, with a Game Seven (if needed) slated for Wednesday, September 9.

Tabasco Olmecas game in Villahermosa

The point system for playoff seeding will now reflect the one used in the Mexican Pacific League per half:  First place in each division gets 8 points, second place gets 7 points while third place gets 6 points.  Fourth place gets 5.5 points, fifth place gets 5.0 points, sixth place gets 4.5 points, seventh place gets 4.0 and eighth place gets 4.5 points.

Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros notes that the elimination of almost one month from the Mexican League season is in response to "great economic losses" after what he said was "another of the bad decisions taken in the Javier Salinas era by the council of owners."  The new 2020 calendar will be approved at December's Baseball Winter Meetings in San Diego.  Ballesteros, who says the LMB wants to cut its schedule back further to 80 games in 2021 (which would make it difficult for the Liga to remain at Class AAA in the MiLB structure), all 16 franchises will vote for a new president to replace Salinas.  According to Ballesteros, Salinas was installed by just three clubs, "and today they are sorry as a league in general."

MONCLOVA COMEBACK WINS CLINCH CITY'S FIRST FLAG

Mexican League champion Monclova Acereros

Monclova's Erick Aybar socked a three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning and stroked a go-ahead RBI double one frame later as the Acereros went on to beat Yucatan, 9-5, last Wednesday at home in Game Seven of the Serie del Rey, giving the Steelers their first Mexican League pennant after debuting in the LMB in 1974.  The two teams came into Monclova with Yucatan holding a 3-games-to-2 lead in the series, but the Acereros responded with a pair of wins at a sold-out Estadio Monclova to take the flag from the grasp of a Leones team looking for their second title in three seasons.  Monclova had to win three consecutive Game Sevens versus Monterrey, Tijuana and finally Yucatan over 21 playoff contests in order for owner Gerardo Benavides two bring a title to his hometown team, which was formed by his grandfather 45 years ago.

The Acereros had pulled even with Yucatan at three wins apiece by virtue of their 6-2 Game Six win last Tuesday night.  Bruce Maxwell grounded a single to left to score Noah Perio in the bottom of the first to give Monclova an early 1-0 lead that held up until the top of the fifth, when Walter Ibarra's RBI single tied it up and a Jorge Flores sacrifice fly to center plated Xavier Scruggs with Yucatan's go-ahead run.  Perio tied the contest back up with a solo homer off Leones starter Yoanner Negrin in the bottom of the fifth and Francisco Peguero's three-run bomb against reliever Manny Parra in the seventh put Monclova ahead for good.  Alex Mejia's run-scoring safety in the eighth added an insurance run as former Detroit middleman Al Albuquerque came out of the bullpen to toss 1.2 scoreless innings with three strikeouts for the win.  Acereros starter Spencer Jones lasted one out into the fifth inning, giving up two runs on four hits with five strikeouts in a decent pitching battle with Negrin.  The 2016 Pitcher of the Year went six entradas on 107 pitches and allowed a pair of runs on five hits before Leones manager Geronimo Gil replaced him with Parra, a move that boomeranged with Peguero's longball.  Aybar and Mejia each had two hits for the winners while Perio scored three times.  Ibarra and Scruggs had two singles apiece for Yucatan.

Monclova's Serie del Rey MVP Noah Perio

That brought things to Wednesday's season-ending Game Seven.  Yucatan jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Alex Liddi clubbed a two-run homer off Monclova starter Conor Harber.  Perio belted a Jose Samayoa pitch for a two-run roundtripper in the bottom of the third to knot the game up, but Sebastian Valle lined a three-run homer to left off Harber in the fifth to put the Leones back on top with a 5-2 advantage.  Aybar, an All-Star and Gold Glove-winner during a seven-year stint as the Los Angeles Angels' starting shortstop, crashed his three-run circuit clout in the fifth off Leones reliever Miguel Pena, who was immediately yanked by Gil after hurling just five pitches (one too many) to even the score back up.  Aybar's double off the luckless Parra in the sixth put the Acereos ahead for good, and Monclova padded their lead with two runs in the seventh and one more in the eighth for the final margin of their title-clinching victory.  Aybar ended up with four RBIs while Maxwell and Jose Amador had three-hit nights for the Acereros.  Valle finished with two hits and three ribbies for Yucatan.  Zach Phillips struck out two batters in the top of the sixth and was awarded the win after Aybar's double gave his Monclova mates the last lead change of the night.  A former reliever for the Orioles, Marlins and Pirates, Phillips made the most of his limited work in the Serie del Rey by winning two games over four innings in five outings and did not allow a run in eleven postseason appearances.

Monclova manager Pat Listach

The finals MVP award went to Noah Perio, who went 11-for-25 (.440) with three homers, scoring eight runs and collecting seven RBIs against Yucatan.  A Marlins 39th-round draft pick in 2009 who also played in the Dodgers and Padres systems, Perio was released by Puebla on June 9 after batting .233 in 22 games after signing with the Pericos as a free agent in April.  Monclova picked him up one day later and while he hit better for the Acereros the rest of the regular season (.295 with 9 homers in 55 games), the 27-year-old Californian was an unlikely postseason hero on a roster with several former MLBers like Aybar, Maxwell, Chris Carter and Eric Young, Jr. along with former Mexican League MVP Cesar Tapia and LMB All-Star Game MVP Jose Amador.

Besides Benavides, Monclova manager Pat Listach received a measure of vindication when his team copped the pennant.  After a playing career that saw him win the 1992 American League Rookie of the Year award with Milwaukee en route to a six-year MLB stint, the Arizona State grad coached in the majors with the Nationals, Cubs and Astros before managing the Mariners' AAA Tacoma affiliate for four seasons before he was let go following the 2018 season.  Listach was hired in Monclova on July 1 to replace the fired Pedro Mere, a curious move because Mere had the Acereros at 44-25 overall at the time.  Listach went 31-20 over the rest of the regular season and we all know how the playoffs went for him.  Benavides has shown a proclivity for hiring former Major League players as manager (including one, Wally Backman, who could not speak Spanish, a helpful skill in Mexico).  This move worked out fine, but Listach should savor the off-season as much as he can because no manager's job in Mexico is ever safe, even on the heels of a championship season.


PROCESCO's PEREYRA:  48-YEAR-OLD P DIAZ A NATURAL SURVIVOR

When Durango Generales pitcher Rafael Diaz entered a 2-2 game in the bottom of the tenth inning on the road against his former Tijuana Toros teammates on April 6, it was the first game of his 22nd season pitching in the Mexican League.  And a game he'd likely love to forget, as the 48-year-old righthander allowed a walkoff homer to leadoff batter Logan Watkins.  It would be that kind of year for Diaz, who was 0-2 with an 8.53 in 13 relief outings before being released May 25.  He has not pitched since and the only man in LMB history with more than 100 career wins (102) and saves (106) faces an uncertain future in a sport that's meant a paycheck since 1990, when he went 4-3 and 3.02 for Montreal's Short-Season A Jamestown affiliate in the New York-Penn League.  The four-time All-Star became a baseball survivor after life had prepared him for such a grinding existence, sometimes harshly.

There are many good baseball writers in Mexico.  Fernando Ballesteros, David Braverman, Hector Bencomo, Salo Otero, Bambino Sedano and Dean of cronistas Enrique Kerlegend rank among the best and there are others.  However, the most prosaic baseball writer south of the border may be Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico City's Proceso. Her August 25 feature on Diaz contains a frequent Angellesque elegance that even Google Translate couldn't butcher into submission.  With as little editing and guessing done as possible (a few sentences couldn't be ungarbled), here is Pereyra's piece in its entirety:

Pitcher Rafael Diaz was with Durango iin 2019

MEXICO CITY (Proceso) - Rafael Díaz Adame was encouraged by three things to be a professional baseball player: his paternal grandmother, who raised him and insisted on taking him for three years to a baseball league in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; the Fernandomania that he witnessed as a teenager in the Dodgers stadium, every time his father's salary was enough for a ticket; and Nolan Ryan, the pitcher of five thousand 714 strikeouts and seven games without a hit or run in the majors.

As a starter or reliever pitcher, Díaz has spent 22 seasons in the Mexican Baseball League (LMB). He is now 49 years old. He is the oldest player on Mexican diamonds in the last decade.

Skin tanned by the sun shows a few wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. The odd gray hair looks out from his dark fine hair. His right shoulder is intact. Same elbow of the same arm. The 1,552 innings thrown in summer baseball did not dent him.

He reached 1,067 strikeouts with fastballs up to 97 miles per hour in his years of splendor that time diluted to 88. He has also lived on the curve and the change of speed, and from a slider he wanted to learn from Chito Rios, with much work that he went through, before he eventually invented it himself.

“I asked coaches and players how to throw and it didn't come out, the ball didn't move. I throw the curve with the knuckle inwards and break the wrist at the end of the pitch. I practiced the slider like I hold the curve, but I threw it as if it were a fastball. It began to move better and better. No one believed how I hold the ball because it is not the typical way for a slider. ”

Is that why his right arm is intact? Dr. Cuauhtémoc Reyes, a famous orthopedist in Mexican baseball, assured him that yes, the angle with which he throws him does not stress his joints.

U.S. abuse

Rafael Díaz takes care of his arm with the care of a collector. He just gets off the mound and already brings his five-pound dumbbells: He does two sets of five repetitions with side and front lifts lying face down on the massage bed. He must strengthen shoulder and elbow. Then a bag of ground ice is placed, but not for more than 20 minutes. It’s been the same ritual for 31 years.

The rest of his body receives a similar treatment: He sleeps between seven and nine hours a night, gets up very early, eats protein and carbohydrates, zero sweet drinks, only drinks water. His physical condition is envied by rookie players.

“If a team is still interested in my services, I will continue to compete,” says Diaz. “When I see that I can no longer pitch because my performance drops or my arm can no longer work, it will be the time to say goodbye.  I have had my bad games. I know myself, I know how I am physically and mentally and I try to show coaches and managers that I can still compete. ”

On May 22 he was deactivated from the Durango Generals' roster, the fifth team he has played with in the LMB. A very high 8.53 ERA with two games lost in 12 and two-thirds innings took him away from a baseball field where he had been uninterrupted for four decades.

Diaz pitching for Tijuana Toros

But Rafael Díaz not only has the steel physique, his will is indestructible. Only in this way is it explained how a little boy who barely walked could grow up without a father, because he abandoned him. Only then is it explained that a child can also resist the abandonment of his mother, surrendered by poverty, to leave him together with his little brother Jorge in the hands of his paternal grandmother. Only in this way can one explain how a person can find comfort in the wastelands of a gray city of Juarez and have the encouragement to play with bats and balls as if nothing bad happened.

His grandmother did not delay in taking her grandchildren to the children's league when the children asked her to. Rafael, nine years old, did not understand the rules, but he played by pure instinct because the baseball comes from the blood of the maternal uncle, Alfredo, who wore the Chihuahua Dorados uniform.

In the summer of 1982, Rafael's father returned to Ciudad Juarez for his kids, putting them in a van under the back seat. The three crossed through the San Ysidro checkpoint in Tijuana until reaching East Los Angeles, the Hispanic neighborhood - populated mostly by Mexicans - where Mr. Díaz was already established for several years. In a house with only one room, perhaps about 40 square meters (or 431 square feet), Diaz lived with the father's new wife, her three children and little Alice, Rafael's half-sister.

The senior Diaz made a living as a furniture assembler. Despite the shortcomings, there was always a little money to go to Dodger Stadium to see Fernando Valenzuela, the winner of the Cy Young Trophy and Rookie of the Year in 1981, who threw complete games and dominated his rivals with his indecipherable pitches.

Nothing more inspiring than seeing a dark Sonoran, the migrant countryman, conquering American territory. Rivers of Latinos turned to the stadium and the Anglo-Saxons also surrendered to El Toro de Etchohuaquila. The pride of being Mexican swelled in Diaz's chest.

Rafael does not forget that his first major league game was the Dodgers against the Houston Astros, a starters duel between Valenzuela and Nolan Ryan. The speed of the Texan's fastball alerted Rafa's senses. He dreamed awake to be like him.

On the fields of the Los Angeles Belvedere League, he spent his teenage afternoons. Thanks to Fernandomania, baseball grew tremendously among the Hispanic community. Rafa did not speak English. In high school, Mexican Americans bullied him.

“They called me Indian, illegal. I was frustrated because sometimes I didn't understand what they were saying, but I knew they insulted me,” Diaz recalls. “They threw my food on my back, my athletic teammates didn't even talk to me and they hid my uniform. I had no friends. I became very fierce because it never left me. The ones that bothered me were the Mexican Americans, unfortunately. Everyone who came from Mexico and did not speak English was caught up.”

And if at school the conditions were unbearable, in their neighborhood they were somewhat worse. Díaz grew up surrounded by gangs. It was the time of the power struggle between Mexicans and Salvadorans. The Mara Salvatrucha reigned.

Afterwards, the elder Díaz's marriage dissolved. The boys and their father moved to Bell, just outside Los Angeles. It's another violent and insecure Hispanic neighborhood, where gang members also wanted to recruit Diaz, but they couldn't.

Rafael enrolled in high school, where he became an athlete. His height and speed served him for baseball, but coach Bob Morony took him out of class for not catching balls with both hands.

“I had to wait until my third year of high school to play baseball. I went with a friend to see if we’d stay on the school team. Now I did grab the ball with both hands in left field and I threw it to second base. The coach was impressed and asked me: 'What's your name? Why didn't you play? 'Because you ran me off,' I told him. He laughed and said: 'Tomorrow you come…' That's how I stayed on the team.”

Diaz is only LMBer with 100 wins and 100 saves

Rafael Díaz's talent put him on the radar of the Montreal Expos. With 6-foot height, 205 pounds and a right arm touched by the finger of God, he was about to graduate from high school. Talent hunters followed prospects like honey bees.

The famous scout Jethro McIntyre phoned the Diaz house. Rafa didn't even know what a scout was. That is why he did not understand why there were some gentlemen in the stands who pointed a radar gun at the games.

Diaz recounts that McIntyre called and said: “‘We got you in a draft round and we want to talk to your parents to sign you’. I said: ‘Oh, yes, thanks,’ and I hung up. My dad asked me who it was and I told him that, well, Mr. McIntyre, because I was signed by the Montreal Expos. I just knew the Dodgers, the Giants and the Angels, the teams in California. Who knew what the Expos and the draft were? My dad didn't know either and he said: ‘Oh, well.’

“McIntyre called again, went to the house and explained. We didn't have money for me to go to college, my future was to work or sign with the Expos. They gave me a 20 thousand dollar bonus and my dad opened his eyes. ”

Facing his idol

It was 1989 when Diaz arrived at the Rookie League in Bradenton, Florida, where the Montreal Expos shared a complex, with stadium and dormitories, with the Atlanta Braves and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

As a player in formation in the Minor Leagues, Díaz earned around $500 a month for those years. He traveled in second-level trucks, slept in the worst motels and ate where he could. In Bradenton he shared a bedroom with nine other young players.

“That year was super bad for me and there I said I no longer do it,” remembers Diaz. “I was in Triple A and they sent me down to Double A. Better that I go now. The pitching coach told me to go home, think about it and make a decision. However, I changed my attitude and said to myself: ‘That it is not for me. Especially because of the place where I came from and for the things that have happened, I will continue to work and I will not give up. I started doing well and finished that year at Triple A. ”

For seven years Rafael Diaz stung stone, but the majors were not in his destination. In 1995 he became a free agent. During the winters he had been playing with Los Mochis in the Mexican Pacific League. Francisco “Chico” Rodríguez had become his friend and suggested playing in the LMB. He recommended Diaz to the Monterrey Sultanes, with whom he debuted in the 1996 campaign. In 2003, he was signed by the Saltillo Saraperos and stayed for 10 seasons pitching to the best catchers he’s had: Noé Muñoz and Jonathan Aceves.

Is he satisfied with his career? Diaz failed to reach the majors, but in Mexico he consolidated a career. “There are many better pitchers than me,” he replies. “What fills my heart is that they have noticed the way I gave myself. That makes me proud. I have tried to be an example of consistency. I don't know if I succeeded. I don't consider myself an idol, just a surrendered player.

“Look at an example: Fernando Valenzuela. I was with him in Navojoa (with the Mayos). It was my second year in the Pacific League. I would be about 19 years old. Out of nowhere on the bus, the man got up and said: 'I will leave it for you'. And me: ‘Why, what did I do to you?’ 'You, pochito,' he told me. He thought I was a little pocho because I spoke English. You know, the Mexican versus the pocho and vice versa. It has always been that way.

“I got up and said: 'I respect him, but I will defend myself.' The veterans told him to calm down because I had done nothing, to leave me alone. But Valenzuela insisted: 'No, no, worthless pocho.'

“And that's when I stopped having idols. I don't like to be considered an idol, nor do I consider myself. Admire the work of the players yes, but do not idolize. We all have negative things. ”

Valenzuela did not cut like Rafael Díaz's mother, but he broke his heart. The player tells this episode while wearing a Dodgers cap. “He was one of the reasons why I wanted to be a baseball player. The root was my grandmother, but I wanted to continue playing for him. In the children's leagues in Los Angeles, we wore the Dodgers uniform. I have never liked to be told a lot. I have told the journalists, the players and they don't understand it. They keep telling me a lot.”

Reunion

Next stop for Diaz: Salon de la Fama?

He was seen again by his mother, Margarita Adame, 20 years after she left that room built with cardboard walls attached with Coca-Cola tacks and corks, heading to her grandmother's house. Pushed by the curiosity of his eldest son to meet his maternal grandmother, Diaz and his wife were encouraged to return to Ciudad Juarez. He walked the same streets in search of his mother.

The cardboard room no longer existed. He approached a woman to ask if she knew where to find Margarita. "Who is looking for her?" He asked. "I am Rafael, her son." She turned yellow. "I am your mother," she replied. And Rafa also turned yellow.

In her second marriage, Margarita Adame gave birth to Julio Daniel Frías, El Maleno, the star striker of the Ciudad Juarez Indio when football fever helped lower crime rates during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón.

When asked what is the best thing baseball has given him, Diaz answered, “Having seen my country. If it had not been for that reason I would not know about the people and their customs. In baseball I have cried and laughed. It has been my escape to my past, to what my life has been.”

Tears interrupt the story. They get stuck in the throat. Rafael Díaz swallows. “On the hill I forget everything. I have always been very explosive. Many people don't know what I've been through, they just know the player, but not the person. My baseball career has been very beautiful, but my personal life very difficult. I still carry my past. Until I break my past, I will not have peace.”