LAGUNA SKIPPER OMAR MALAVE, 58, COMMITS SUICIDE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CULIACAN P RAMIREZ HOSPITALIZED AFTER LINER BEANING

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TECOS, TIGRES FIRE MANAGERS: 3 OUT AFTER 4 WEEKS

Pablo Ortega out as Tecos skipper

    Three Mexican League teams have fired managers just four weeks into the truncated 2021 season after both the Dos Laredos Tecolotes and Quintana Roo Tigres changed horses in midstream last week. The Monterrey Sultanes let Homar Rojas go as their LMB skipper earlier this month.

    The Tecos sent first-year manager Pablo Ortega packing last Thursday on the heels of a 4-3 loss to Durango the night before. The defeat dropped Dos Laredos' record to 8-14 after 22 games, enough of a sample size for the front office to fire the former All-Star pitcher. Third base coach Rafael Rijo replaced Ortega on an interim basis, although it might be argued that all managing jobs south of the border are on an interim basis. The Tecos are now on their fifth helmsman since 2019, including a 2020 season that was canceled.

    Ortega is already becoming well-versed in the vagaries of managing a Mexican baseball team. Last November, he was elevated from pitching coach in Mazatlan to replace Juan Jose Pacho as skipper of the Mexican Pacific League's Mazatlan Venados. The Deer ironically had an 8-14 record when Pacho was cut loose, but Ortega was able to steer the team to a 20-16 mark over the remainder of the regular season before losing a first-round playoff series to Hermosillo in six games.

    The Dos Laredos front office issued the usual laudatory statement that accompany a managerial firing: “Mr. Pablo Ortega is thanked for the work and professionalism carried out during his time as manager of the Tecolotes, wishing him success in his future personal and sports-related projects.”

    Two days later at the other end of the country, the Quintana Roo Tigres parted ways with Adan Munoz as their skipper and named former Tijuana manager Oscar Robles as their new dugout boss. Munoz was fired for committing the cardinal sin of posting an 11-13 record over the Tigres' first 24 games, although seven losses in their previous ten games was likely a larger factor. Batting coach Javier Robles (no relation) filled in after Munoz' departure until Oscar Robles' arrival on Saturday for the second game of a series against rival Mexico City.

    Even though he led the Tigres to a 62-57 record and a playoff berth in 2019 in his only season at the helm, Munoz may have been on borrowed time even before the season opened. An erroneous report out of Cancun in February said that the ex-catcher had been fired by owner Fernando Valenzuela and replaced by another former receiver, Tigres bench coach Hector Paez. That never happened but the axe did swing four months later.

    Robles was named the LMP's Manager of the Year last season after leading the Guasave Algodoneros to a 31-26 record and a postseason slot after the Algodoneros went 26-37 and missed the playoffs in 2019-20, their expansion season. Earlier, Robles had managed Mex Pac teams in Obregon and Culiacan. The former MLB infielder had previously managed in the Liga with the Tijuana Toros, posting an 18-9 record in Fall 2018 and followed up with a 75-45 ledger in 2019 and reached the LMB North Championship Series, falling to eventual champion Monclova in seven games.

Oscar Robles is new Tigres boss

    Both Rijo and Robles have a short time to turn things around for their respective teams during the Liga's 66-game schedule. The Tecos won three of their first four games under Rijo and currently hold the sixth and final playoff position in the LMB North at 11-15, two games behind surprising Union Laguna (12-12). Guadalajara (19-7) and Tijuana (18-8) are in the top two slots, with Monclova (17-10) and Saltillo (16-11) within striking distance. The Mariachis have won eight of their last ten contests and have the best record in the league, but they'll be losing manager Benji Gil and Adrian Gonzalez to the Mexican Olympic Team in Tokyo next month. Shortly after being confirmed as Mexico's new Olympic manager, Gil confirmed that El Titan WILL make the trip to Japan.

    In the LMB South, the Tigres were in seventh place with a 12-15 after dropping two of their first three games after Munoz was fired. Mexico City is atop the standings at 16-9, one game up on 15-10 Puebla and two games ahead of 14-11 Yucatan. The hottest team in the division has been expansion Veracruz, whose seven wins over their last ten games has vaulted them into fourth place at 14-12. While ex-MLBer Yasiel Puig (.314/5/16) has done well thus far in his first season in Mexico, socking a pair of homers in last Thursday's 14-9 win over Quintana Roo, three other Aguilas (Alexei Amarista, Alejandro Ortiz and Jesus Valdez) are in the LMB's top ten batters as Veracruz has a .309 team batting average.

    Guadalajara's Niko Vasquez tops the batting race with a .475 average as one of five Mexican League players hitting .400 or above. Leandro Castro of Tijuana's nine homers are one ahead of three other batsmen with eight apiece while his 34 RBIs in 26 games is six more than Saltillo's Kennys Vargas in that category. Reigning MVP Alonzo Harris of Oaxaca leads with 13 stolen bases while Tijuana's Isaac Rodriguez is right behind at 12 swipes.

    Five pitchers have reached four wins, including Monclova's Bartolo Colon, Veracruz no-hit hurler Dylan Unsworth and former NPB starter Masaru Nakamura of Guadalajara. Matt Tenuta of Monterrey is only 1-0 after five starts but the former Royals prospect's 0.55 ERA is tops in the circuit. Mexico City's Hector Hernandez is winless in six starts and his 5.51 ERA doesn't impress many, but he's also struck out a league-high 36 batters in 32.2 innings. Jenrry Mejia of Laguna has converted eight saves in ten opportunities to top that table while Monclova's Carlos Bustamante is 7-for-7 in save situations and has a 1.08 ERA.

SPAIN TOURNEY INVOLVING GUASAVE POSTPONED UNTIL 2022

    An international tournament that the Mexican Pacific League's Guasave Algodoneros were going to play in as part of their preseason schedule in September has been postponed until 2022 because of the Wuhan virus pandemic.

    The Barcelona Baseball Cup tournament in Spain was announced four months ago and was to include the Algodoneros along with teams from Italy, The Netherlands, Asia and the Spanish Baseball League. Games would be played at two venues: Estadio Carlos Perez de Rosa (home of the host Barcelona Baseball Club) and at another Barcelona ballpark used for the 1992 Summer Olympics and currently home of the Spanish League's CB Viladecans.

    However, after a meeting among tournament organizers that representatives from Guasave took part in, it was determined that the event will be held off for a year in the hopes that the global pandemic will have diminished by September 2022.

    Algodoneros CEO Luis Fernando Garcia and sports manager Alejandro Ahumada conferred with Jordi Valles, head of the BBC's organizing committee, to see the pros and cons of the measures taken by the Spanish government that would essentially make the Barcelona Baseball Cup a tournament with nobody in the stands and chose to postpone it instead

    “We regret the postponement of this event, since we had the objective of showing the Spanish fans our style of baseball, and also to be able to position the Algodoneros brand in Europe, said Garcia. “The pandemic has forced stricter measures to be taken and Spain is no exception...the event is still on for September 2022, if conditions allow it.”

Barcelona Olympic ballpark

    Ahumada said in a statement, "The security measures in Spain prevented, for the moment, the realization of the BBC, which was an excellent opportunity for our players to have international competition and to show that the Algodoneros brand is synonymous with stability, seriousness and improvement. We did not want this to happen, but health measures require it.”

    Valles said the Barcelona Baseball Cup remains firm for 2022: “It is difficult to do this since the times we are living in do not allow us to carry out the project with tranquility in this month of September.

    “Obviously, we seek the desired success for the public who would see the games out, but we will be prepared and wishing with all our might that the Algodoneros will arrive in Spain next year and can show us their great power in this beautiful sport, which is baseball.”

BEISBOL PURO INVESTIGATES RIELEROS CLUBHOUSE INCIDENT

    The recent incident in which Aguascalientes manager Luis Carlos Rivera punched Rieleros shortstop Richy Pedroza in the clubhouse caused both to be fined and suspended by the Mexican League as tongues across the country wagged about what caused the imbroglio.

    The Beisbol Puro website has investigated the confrontation, in which Railroaders third baseman Michael Wing also reportedly played a part. Wing later posted a tweet criticizing the incident and calling it “a joke” without mentioning details or his alleged role. The following is a lightly-edited Google translation of Beisbol Puro's investigation, detailed in an uncredited Bola Ensalivada column:

    Since the start of the season, or perhaps before, extra baseball problems have arisen within the Rieleros de Aguascalientes. The most notorious until recently had been 1) the poor condition of some food supplied by the Rieleros supplier, and 2) the fact that the team was traveling in a single bus, a situation that the Mexican Baseball League in some way approved because the team is fully vaccinated.

    But on Saturday, June 12, a bomb exploded in the Aguascalientes dressing room when the manager, Luis Carlos Rivera, hit dual nationality shortstop Richy Pedroza with a right hand. It is correct that the blood “reached the river” in a reprehensible way but after gathering information with several of the witnesses, we can tell you:

-Richy Pedroza has been a player who has not followed the internal rules. His bad attitude and strong personality have caused division within the team.

-The Rieleros coaching staff caught Pedroza (who was not line up that day) smoking marijuana in the clubhouse when this game against the Monclova Acereros took place, which evidently caused great annoyance.

-At the end of the match, in which the Rieleros fell 6-2 to Monclova for their fourth defeat in a row, Rivera tried to reprimand Michael Wing (another dual-national player) for his attitude when he was sent off in the sixth inning after throwing a ball to the stands as a claim to the counting of the home umpire after the marking of a pitch that he considered a ball in his turn at bat minutes ago.

-The Rieleros' manager asked Wing to show more discipline and that if he did not like the way things were carried out in the team, he asked for his dismissal. Otherwise he demanded dedication and total discipline. Wing has four ejections in 17 games played.

-While Rivera reprimanded Wing, Pedroza made fun of the helmsman and added a “fuck you,” which made the Rieleros manager explode and the unfortunate blow came.

-Pedroza demanded punishment for Rivera, while the LMB responded immediately with a penalty of $14,170 pesos and a one-game suspension for both manager and player.

Aguascalientes SS Richy Pedroza

-In its press release, the LMB points out that Pedroza's sanction was for “violating the team regulations,” which (although they did not disclose it) refers to the player's consumption of marijuana in the Estadio Monclova clubhouse.

-After the facts, Pedroza denied such an assertion but the LMB asked him to submit to an anti-doping test to be exonerated, a proposal that the player rejected while assuring that he preferred to leave the Rieleros and Mexican baseball. Said refusal, according to the regulations of the summer circuit, is taken as if he had tested positive in the prohibited substances test. Therefore, to return to play in the LMB, he'll have to pass an anti-doping test.

    For now, both Pedroza and Wing have been separated from the team and while Pedroza already promised to take his things to never return, Wing could be traded to another team in case of not aligning with the Rieleros and LMB rules.

    The season is just in its first third of life and both for Rieleros and all their members, it will be time to tighten the screws to improve the atmosphere in the clubhouse, which is an essential part of a good sporting result.

MARIACHIS ADD 2-TIME MVP CASTILLO TO ROSTER

Jesse Castillo batting for Guasave

    The brand-new Guadalajara Mariachis are looking to make a splash in their inaugural Mexican League season. However, while adding prominent players to their roster, they've created a logjam for themselves at one position. According to Roberto Espinosa of Beisbol Puro, the Mariachis have picked up veteran first baseman Jesse Castillo after already signing longtime LMBer Saul Soto and former major league All-Star Adrian Gonzalez, who also play the initial hassock.

    While the threesome would have the potential to belt a combined 75+ homers in a full season for the Jalisco squad (if each was healthy and played every day), even if they split time between first base and designated hitter, someone would be sitting because the 42-year-old Soto hasn't caught a game since 2016, the 38-year-old Castillo has played three games at third base since 2015 and Gonzalez (who turns 39 next month) last played the outfield in 2012. It might make the most sense to rotate the three between first and DH over the upcoming 66-game season, meaning each would play 44 times, but it remains to be seen whether any would be willing to sit every third day.

    Castillo comes with some risk after missing all of the 2019 LMB season due to a blown knee suffered when he was rounding first base while batting for Monclova during the Fall 2018 North Division championship series. The Mexicali-born slugger did play winterball in Venezuela during the 2019-20 campaign and with Guasave last season in the Mexican Pacific

League before being named the LMP Finals MVP and belting a homer and driving in five runs for Culiacan as a reinforcement in the Caribbean Series, so it does appear that his bat is back in shape. Castillo was training to play for Leon last spring before the Wuhan Virus-caused pandemic led to the Liga's 2020 season being canceled.

    Prior to his injury, Castillo may have been the most feared hitter in the Mexican League between 2015 and 2018. Over that timespan, the 6'1” lefty swinger never batted below .324 while leading the LMB with an aggregate 557 hits, 315 RBIs and 322 runs scored. He was second with 108 doubles and 293 walks while belting 66 homers to rank sixth in the loop en route to winning consecutive MVP trophies in 2017 and Spring 2018. In other words, he has legitimate bonafides. But so do El Jefe (Soto) and El Titan (Gonzalez).

    With the start of the Mexican League's shortened schedule less than six weeks away, Guadalajara manager Benji Gil will have to determine what kind of balancing act he'll have to use in the regular season over the next two months. If he goes with the three-man, two-position rotation mentioned above, the trio would at worst be fairly well-rested heading into the playoffs in early August.

ACEREROS, TECOS TO PLAY TWO EXHIBITIONS IN SAN ANTONIO

Danny Espinosa at Acereros camp

    Two Mexican League teams will be playing a pair of exhibition games in San Antonio later this month when the defending LMB champion Monclova Acereros take on the Dos Laredos Tecolotes. The games will take place Thursday, April 29 and Friday, April 30 at Nelson Wolff Stadium, home of the Class AA San Antonio Missions, a San Diego Padres affiliate.

    The Acereros will have a major league look on their roster, starting with their manager. The American League's 1992 Rookie of the Year, Pat Listach, took the reins of the team during the 2019 season and led them to the city's first Mexican League pennant 45 years after Monclova's debut season. One of Listach's coaches is former Phillies second baseman Juan Samuel, a three-time National League All-Star. Then there's the Monclova playing roster.

    Former Cubs World Series shortstop Addison Russell signed with the Steelers last month and another big name is reportedly on the way for 2021. Russell will be joined by outfielder Rajai Davis (who played for Cleveland against Russell's Cubs in the 2006 Fall Classic), first baseman Chris Carter (2016 National League home run champion), Erick Aybar (former American League All-Star) and Bartolo Colon, the AL's 2005 Cy Young Award winner. The Acereros have also picked up former Nationals infielder Danny Espinosa, who is slated to play at shortstop while Russell moves over to third base in initials plans for the upcoming season.

    The Tecolotes will not have nearly the same star power as Monclova brings over the Texas border. The biggest name on the Dos Laredos roster may well be their manager, former pitching star Pablo Ortega. A 44-year-old Nuevo Laredo native, Ortega retired in 2019 after 19 seasons in the Liga, finishing with a 156-101 career record and a 4.41 ERA along with 1,119 strikeouts over 2,072 innings pitched. He reached double figures in wins seven times (five times between 2008 and 2012), pitched in six All-Star Games and was the LMB Comeback Player of the Year in 2011. Ortega served as interim manager last winter in Mazatlan, where he led the Venados to a winning record and a Mexican Pacific League playoff berth after replacing Juan Jose Pacho, but will not be back for the 2021-22 season.

Dos Laredos 1B Balbino Fuenmayor

    Ortega's charges will include a pair of former MLBers from Brazil. Outfielder Paulo Orlando was a member of Kansas City's 2015 American League pennant-winning team as a rookie while fellow Andre Rienzo pitched for the White Sox and Marlins between 2013 and 2015. Both spent time in the Mex Pac with the Obregon Yaquis last winter.

    Some familiar names in Mexican baseball dot the Tecos roster. The border team recently dealt for veteran Oaxaca centerfielder Alan Sanchez, a 2017 All-Star and .305 batter since his 2010 Liga debut. Orlando and Sanchez will be joined in the outfield by Roberto Lopez, who was the 2017 Serie del Rey MVP after leading Tijuana to the pennant that year. First baseman Balbino Fuenmayor, who hit .334 with 31 homers for Dos Laredos in 2019, is back in Mexico after finishing the winterball season in his native Venezuela. One notable member of the Owls' roster is pitcher Luke Heimlich, the Pitcher of the Year in 2018 at Oregon State, who went 8-7 with a 4.58 ERA over 21 starts with the team in his 2019 pro debut.

    Game times in San Antonio for the series will be 7:05PM both night. Ticket prices for the exhibition games will range from $10 to $30 each.

SIXTEEN MEXICANS ON MLB OPENING DAY ROSTERS

Oliver Perez in 19th MLB season

    The Mexican contingent that opened the 2021 Major League Baseball season this month consisted of 16 players. While Oliver Pérez is adding a 19th MLB season to his resume, eight other players of Mexican descent had their first experience on a big league Opening Day roster, including brothers Luis and Ramón Urías.

    The Urías brothers are not the first Mexican-born pair of siblings to open the season on a Major League Baseball roster. Adrián and Édgar González, Mexicans born in California, did it playing for the San Diego Padres in 2009. In the case of Oliver Pérez, he will continue to set the record for most seasons by a Mexican in MLB, In 2020, he passed Fernando Valenzuela, Aurelio Rodríguez and Juan Gabriel Castro, who participated in 17 calendars in The Show.

    Eight of the 16 players who opened the season in the Major Leagues experienced an Opening Day at that level for the first time: José Urquidy (Houston), Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis), Alejandro Kirk (Toronto), Luis Urías (Milwaukee), Ramón Urías (Baltimore), Víctor González (Dodgers), Río Ruiz (Baltimore) and Felipe “Tres” Barrera (Washington). Last year, Urquidy and Gallegos were scheduled to start the campaign with their teams but the pandemic prevented that from happening.

    The number of 16 Mexicans opening the 2021 MLB season is the most since the same number was recorded in 2017, but still far behind the record of 24 Mexican nationals on Opening Day rosters in the 2003 campaign.

MEXICAN NATIONALS ON 2021 OPENING DAY ROSTERS:

Baltimore infielder Ramon Urias

Felipe “Tres” Barrera (Washington Nationals)
Luis Cessa (New York Yankees)
Phillip Evans (Pittsburgh Pirates)
Giovanny Gallegos (St. Louis Cardinals)
Victor Gonzalez (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Alejandro Kirk (Toronto Blue Jays)
Oliver Pérez (Cleveland Indians)
Daniel Ponce de León (San Luis Cardinals)
Sergio Romo (Oakland Athletics)
Rio Ruiz (Baltimore Orioles)
Joakim Soria (Arizona Diamondbacks)
Julio Urías (Los Angeles Dodgers)
Luis Urías (Milwaukee Brewers)
Ramón Urías (Baltimore Orioles)
José Urquidy (Houston Astros)
Alex Verdugo (Boston Red Sox)

LMB ANNOUNCES RULES CHANGES FOR 2021 SEASON

New rules for LMB umps to learn in 2021

    The Mexican League has announced that some rule changes will be implemented during the upcoming 2021 season, which will begin on May 20 and will consist of 66 regular season games for each club prior to commencing a four-tiered, 12-team playoff in August.

    One of the rule changes will be regarding the intentional walk, which will again require four pitches to the plate. According to an LMB press release detailing the rule changes, this is due to the fact that an evaluation was carried out as to whether the elimination of the four pitches reduced the duration of the games. The study determined that there was no relevant impact. Because of this, leaders of Mexico's senior circuit determined that since a traditional intentional walk involves four pitches in which the ball is alive and in play, there are many possibilities of plays that can arise from each one. Thus, it will be returned to the obligation to pitch the batter.

    Each club will be entitled to six visits to the mound without changing pitchers during a nine-inning game. Regarding any extra innings that are played, teams will be entitled to an extra visit to the mound each frame without changing pitchers.

    In another measure meant to help speed up the games for the 2021 season, pitchers will be required to face a minimum of three consecutive batters, including a batter in the midst of a plate appearance (or any pinch-hitter). The three-batter minimum will apply until said batters are put out or reach base, or until the team's offensive opportunity runs out. An exception will be granted if the starting pitcher or reliever suffers an injury that (in the judgment of the main umpire) makes them unable to continue in the game.

    Last Friday, sports managers and managers around the loop began four seminars on updating the game rules. LMB chief umpire Luis Alberto Ramírez will teach these courses in which they will also address rules regarding the infield fly, balk, obligation of pitchers to face three consecutive batters and visits of managers, coaches or player to the pitcher's mound.

    One unrelated element of the press release from the LMB head office in Mexico City was that the text referred to “16 clubs” instead the 18 teams playing this season. A typo, perhaps, but a further look at the Mexican League's website shows only 16 teams in the directory, with neither expansion Guadalajara nor Veracruz mentioned even though the two franchises were announced by Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at a press conference in the National Palace in the capital city nearly four months ago. 

Fewer trips to mound for Geronimo Gil

    The virtual gathering included no personnel from the Liga office, including LMB president Horacio de la Vega, which suggests that de la Vega was not on board with an expansion that may have been Lopez Obrador's idea. The Mexican League Board of Presidents did approve both new teams in late January, a month after the press conference.

    Both new LMB teams WERE included in the master 2021 season schedule, although the name “Jalisco” is used instead of “Guadalajara.” While the change may have made it easier to include the Mariachis within the space allotted in the schedule, the team's name has been at least a minor issue with the mayor of Zapopan, Pedro Lemus, who said in December that in order for the Mariachis to play at Estadio Charros (owned and operated in the suburban municipality by Jalisco's Mexican Pacific League franchise), they would be required to change their name from “Guadalajara” to “Jalisco” to reflect the state's identity.

    Although Veracruz appears to be moving along towards their May opener, from the naming of manager Leo Rodriguez and the signing of players to renovations on Estadio Beto Avila, things are moving at a slower pace in Guadalajara. A deal on the use of the ballpark has still not been signed less than two months away from the start of the season while the Mariachis are the only team in the league to not have a field manager in place.

MEX PAC MANAGERS: NAVARRETE TO STAY, ORTEGA OUT

Juan Navarrete back in Hermosillo

    Both Hermosillo and Mazatlan front offices have made decisions regarding their respective managers for the 2021-22 Mexican Pacific League season. The Naranjeros will open play next winter with Salon de la Fama member Juan Navarrete at the helm for the start of his second campaign, but the Venados have announced that they will be replacing interim skipper Pablo Ortega.

    Given the impatience for a pennant from ownership in Hermosillo, it may have been somewhat surprising that Navarrete will be back after a season that was somewhat similar to the one his predecessor, Vinny Castilla, turned in for 2019-20 before he was shown the door with thanks for closing it behind him after crossing the threshold. The former Rockies slugger, who was enshrined in Monterrey last winter, led the Orangemen to a 38-27 record (third-best in the LMP) before falling to Mazatlan in the first round of the playoffs in his only season as dugout boss.

    Navarrete was hired last spring after some postseason confusion regarding Castilla's job status and took Hermosillo to a 33-23 regular season mark (slightly better than the previous year and second overall in the Mex Pac) before the Naranjeros reached the championship series, where they lost in seven games to Culiacan for the LMP pennant, a playoff performance that may have been the deciding factor in the former second baseman's return for another season. However, the longtime Oakland A's minor league instructor has been around long enough to know that anything less than a pennant may not be enough to save his job under demanding team president/GM Enrique Mazon.

 

Pablo Ortega let go by Venados

   In Ortega's case, he took over in Mazatlan last November with the team showing an 8-14 first-half record under Juan Jose Pacho, who was on his third tour of duty as Venados manager after previously leading the team to four pennants and two Caribbean Series titles. Ortega, a longtime star pitcher in both Mexican Leagues for 20 seasons after four years in the Tampa Bay system, was able to coax a 20-16 record out of the Deer the rest of the regular season to secure a playoff berth, but fell in six games to Hermosillo in the first round.

    A press release from the Venados front office announcing that the 44-year-old Ortega would not be back in 2021-22 said that a new manager would be named “later,” and thanked the former right-hander for his work as interim skipper.

    Ortega, who had been Pacho's pitching coach prior to his ascension to Mazatlan's field boss, will have little time to lick any wounds over his dismissal. The Nuevo Laredo native is slated for a second year as new manager for his hometown Tecolotes. Ortega had been hired for that post prior to last season and led the team during training camp before the ongoing pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 Mexican League season. This year's late-starting camp will open next month.

VET SLUGGER SOTO SIGNS WITH MARIACHIS FOR 2021

Saul Soto goes deep for Rieleros

    When a veteran athlete sports the nickname “El Jefe” (“The Boss”), it's logical to assume that he's gained respect as a team leader over the course of his playing career. That would certainly be the case with longtime Mexican baseball slugger Saul Soto, who'll bring his nickname with him to the expansion Guadalajara Mariachis for the 2021 Mexican League season after playing for Aguascalientes since 2015.

    The 6'4” 235-pound native of Los Mochis would carry a commanding presence regardless of his on-field bonafides, but the 42-year-old Soto has a playing resume that matches him in physical size. Since debuting in 1998 as a catcher with Reynosa, Soto has played 22 seasons in the LMB. In 1,938 career games (mostly with Mexico City, Monclova and Aguascalientes), the right-handed batter has hit .306, topping the .300 mark 13 times, including a six-season run between 2014 and 2018. He's contributed 422 doubles, 288 homers and 1,177 RBIs while scoring 1,084 runs on 2,075 hits.

    Although the Rieleros' last season in 2019 was otherwise forgettable as usual, Soto reached personal milestones of 2,000 hits, 400 doubles and 1,000 runs scored. While his batting average dipped below .300 for the first time since 2013, he socked 22 homers and added 24 doubles among his 117 hits while only missing four games, driving in 85 runs en route to a .268 average and playing in his eleventh LMB All-Star Game since 2006.

    During his time in Aguascalientes, Soto became the last Mexican League player-manager after replacing Marco Antonio Romero on July 8, 2016 (the eleventh LMB manager fired at that point) with the Railroaders showing a 38-41 record at the time. Although Soto didn't fare badly at the helm, turning in a 15-17 record the rest of the way while batting an even .300 with ten homers for the year, then-Liga president Plinio Escalante made him return to a player-only role after the season.

Soto on basepath for Los Mochis

   Soto is coming off his 21st winterball season in the Mexican Pacific League, all with his hometown Los Mochis Caneros. He had a tough year with the last-place club, batting .153 with two homers and 11 RBIs, but has a fair career .244 average in the pitching-strong league with 146 homers and 512 RBIs over 1,132 games. Soto has not caught a game since 2016 and is now primarily a designated hitter and backup first baseman.

    Although former MLB All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez has been touted by some as a future player-manager in Guadalajara while Jalisco Charros skipper Benji Gil is said to be a front-runner for the job, it would not be shocking if the Mariachis front office makes an attempt to convince the LMB and president Horacio de la Vega to allow Saul Soto to take the reins of the first-year team this summer. After all, there's a reason he's called “The Boss.”

GUASAVE PLAYER HITS 3 HOMERS IN SINGLE GAME

Guasave outfielder Leo German

    After a self-imposed shutdown of eleven days due to increasing cases of the Wuhan virus among players and coaches, the Mexican Pacific League swung back into action last Tuesday night with four games. A fifth scheduled contest, in which Los Mochis was to play in Guasave, was moved to Monday, November 23 in Los Mochis due to logistical issues, according to an Algodoneros press release.

    The extra day off didn't do anything to throw off Guasave outfielder Leo German's timing. The 5'9” veteran had never hit more than three home runs in a season (summer or winter) until he launched 10 longballs for Dos Laredos in a 2019 Mexican League campaign that saw numbers inflated by a very lively Franklin ball that was discarded after one year. Even so, it was the 27-year-old German who became the 39th player in Mex Pac history to hit three homers in a nine-inning game, two of them “panoramic” blasts, according to Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros, in Guasave's 5-3 win over the Caneros.

    A three-run homer by Felix Perez keyed a four-run top of the seventh inning that lifted Obregon into a 9-8 comeback win at Mexicali Saturday night, completing a Yaquis doubleheader sweep of the Aguilas that helped keep the visitors in first place, although Sunday's closing game was forfeited to Mexicali, 9-0, by the LMP office after three Yaquis tested positive for the Wuhan virus. The forfeit drops Obregon's record to 19-7, two games ahead of Hermosillo in second at 15-7.

 Monterrey first baseman Dustin Peterson had a night to remember in Thursday's 11-4 win in Navojoa. During a ten-run outburst in the top of the seventh in which 13 Sultanes went to the plate, Peterson socked a solo homer off Marco Carrillo and a two-run roundtripper off Francisco Moreno to become only the third batter in LMP history to hit two homers in the same frame. The first was Hermosillo's Altar Greene against Navojoa in 1979 while Roberto Saucedo of Mazatlan did the double in 2001, also against the Mayos. Older brother D.J. Peterson, playing the initial hassock for Navojoa, had earlier launched a longball in the bottom of the third inning as the Petersons set a league record with three homers while playing for opposite teams.

    It was a tough week for the Mayos, who are 9-16 and a half-game ahead of 8-16 basement-dwelling Los Mochis. Navojoa lost 20-year-old Padres outfield prospect Tirso Ornelas for the season with a serious arm injury. Ornelas, one of four players sent by Obregon in exchange for first baseman Victor Mendoza early this month, was batting .286 with a double and two runs scored in five games for his new team.

New Venados manager Pablo Ortega

    Although the trade looked like a potential bonanza for Navojoa at the time, it's not working out that way. Besides Ornelas' injury, then-league ERA leader Octavio Acosta was unenthusiatic about the move and was shelled in his first start against Monterrey for five runs on six hits in 1.2 innings. Likewise, reliever Moreno (already pitching for his third team this winter) has been hit hard in two outings and, like Acosta, has a 27.00 ERA for the Mayos while second baseman Moises Gutierrez is batting just .214 after for games with Navojoa. If there's any consolation for the Mayos, Mendoza is rehabbing a leg injury and has yet to play for the Yaquis.

    It was also a tough week for veteran manager Juan Jose Pacho, who was fired by Mazatlan Thursday after the Venados ended a three-game series in Culiacan with an 8-14 record. Even a 9-7 victory over the Tomateros in the finale wasn't enough to save Pacho, who led Mazatlan to three LMP pennants and a pair of Caribbean Series wins in two previous terms at the helm of the team, from being the second manager canned this season (Mexicali parted ways with Pedro Mere after an 0-8 start and has since gone 11-6 under Bronswell Patrick).

    Pacho has been replaced by pitching coach Pablo Ortega, a longtime star hurler in both Mexican leagues (including a 76-71 record and 3.27 ERA over 18 LMP seasons, 15 with Mazatlan) who had been named manager of Dos Laredos for 2020 but never managed a game for the Tecolotes after the Mexican League canceled the season. He won his managerial debut at home Friday night as the Deer topped Los Mochis, 7-4, and followed that up with a 6-5 Saturday win as Isaac Paredes scored from second in the bottom of the ninth when a Carlos Munoz grounder that Caneros second baseman Esteban Quiroz had to dive to stop drew an errant Quiroz throw to the plate that brought in Paredes with the winning run.

MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE STANDINGS (as of 11/22/20)
Obregon 19-6, Hermosillo 15-7, Culiacan 14-12, Monterrey 12-10, Guasave 11-12, Jalisco 11-14, Mexicali 11-14, Mazatlan 10-14, Navojoa 10-16, Los Mochis 8-16.

JALISCO TO JOIN VERACRUZ AS LMB EXPANSION TEAMS?

Salvador Quirarte of Guadalajara

    The Mexican League's announcement that an acceptable proposal from Veracruz for an expansion team has been received (and that the port city will likely be given a franchise in the near future) created speculation as to who would be the second new club. It now appears that the Jalisco Charros may become the 18th LMB team, joining the Monterrey Sultanes in operating ballclubs in both the LMB and Mexican Pacific League.

    Guadalajara is Mexico's second-largest city and while previous attempts by operators of Mexican League teams have ended in failure, baseball's profile in a metropolis where soccer is king has risen considerably over the past several years, beginning with the purchase and shifting of the Mexican Pacific League's team in Guasave in 2014 couple with the renamed Jalisco Charros buying Guadalajara's existing Estadio Panamericano ballpark (built for the 2011 Pan-American Games) and renovating it. Since then, the Charros have become one of the best-drawing clubs in the Mex Pac during their six years of existence and won their first LMP championship and Caribbean Series berth last winter.

    On a broader scale, Charros co-owners Armando Navarro and Salvador Quirarte have been very proactive in bringing outside baseball events into renamed Estadio Charros, which can now seat up to 16,000 spectators, including the World Baseball Classic, Premier12 and Caribbean Series. Now it looks as though Guadalajara is poised to host professional baseball on a year-round basis.

    However, it appears that they may be be doing it without Quirarte in the fold. Jose Carlos Campos, a former LMP media relations director who now oversee the El Rincon Beisbolero website, says that Quirarte is coming up short in an internal struggle within the front office and “was forced by the members to leave the office (and club) for reasons of lack of clarity regarding the basketball club that he also managed.”

Jorge y Bernardo Pasquel

    Campos speculates that the two new LMB teams would not be the product of expansion to 18 teams, but rather a “recomposition” involving two current Liga members, adding that “growing in numbers in times of severe crisis is not exactly a good idea.” There had been rumors that the Aguascalientes Rieleros would be sold and moved to Veracruz in 2021, but the LMB office quashed them.

    A familiar name is apparently heading the effort to bring a Mexican League team back to Veracruz. According to Jose Antonio Otero of El Fildeo, local businessman Bernardo Pasquel is son of former Veracruz Azules co-owner Bernardo Senior and nephew of former LMB president Jorge Pasquel, whose strong will and deep pockets turned the circuit into a threat to Major League Baseball's hegemony over the game in the 1940's. After bringing a number of top Negro League players to Mexico, the elder Pasquel turned his attention and resources to MLB players. 

    Stan Musial and Ted Williams both turned down his offers, but he was able to get Vern Stephens, Max Lanier, Sal Maglie and Danny Gardella to agree to play south of the border, resulting in baseball commissioner Happy Chandler slapping a lifetime ban on players who stayed in Mexico (it was later reduced to a five-year ban after Gardella's antitrust lawsuit was allowed by a federal appeals court to move forward). The Pasquels eventually left the game in 1952 and Jorge died in a plane crash three years later.

AMEZCUA, MAZON ELECTED TO CARIBBEAN SERIES HALL OF FAME

Former Culiacan catcher Adan Amezcua

    Longtime Culiacan catcher Adan Amezcua and Hermosillo Naranjeros team president Enrique Mazon have been selected as new members of the Caribbean Series Hall of Fame. The two are scheduled to be be inducted during a ceremony held at the 2021 Serie del Caribe in Mazatlan.

    Amezcua, who played 21 consecutive seasons with the Tomateros in the Mexican Pacific League, was named the Most Valuable Player in the 2002 CS in Caracas after batting .455 with three homers as Culiacan became the first team in Mexico to win two championships in that event. The man nicknamed “El General” had already been a champion with the Tomateros in Santo Domingo in 1996 and later obtained a third in Mazatlan 2005 as a reinforcement for the Venados in their first Caribbean Series crown, earning kudos for his work with a pitching staff that included Francisco Campos, Pablo Ortega and Jorge Campillo.

    Now 46, the 6'3” 200-pounder had an LMP career batting average of .267 with 68 homers and 299 RBIs in 794 games when he retired in 2014. After spending time playing in the Astros, Orioles and Padres systems between 1993 and 2002, Amezcua played the final 13 summers of his pro career in the Mexican League and played on pennant winners with Monterrey in 2007 and Quintana Roo in 2013 and 2015. He had unofficial LMB career totals of 60 homers and 409 RBIs to augment a .293 average in 872 contests.

Hermosillo president Enrique Mazon

    Amezcua, who is an analyst on a podcast for Puro Beisbol, will have a special motivation because the tribute will be in his hometown of Mazatlan. He'll be adding another achievement to his brilliant career after the Tomateros retired his number 31 in December 2017.

    Mazon has been with the Hermosillo organization since 1987 and a fundamental piece in the Naranjeros' past success as part of eight of the sixteen titles that the Hermosillo team has won in the Mex Pac: 1989-1990, 1991-1992, 1993-1994, 1994-1995, 2000-2001, 2006-2007, 2009-2010 and 2013-2014. Under Mazon, the Orangemen also were champions in the 2014 Caribbean Series in Margarita, Venezuela while organizing the Caribbean classic's 1987, 1992, 1997 and 2013 in Hermosillo.

    Mazon also helped oversee the construction of Estadio Sonora, a 16,000-seat ballpark that opened in February 2013 to replace Estadio Hector Espino (the Naranjeros' longtime home) and is considered by many to be the nicest baseball facility in Mexico. Hermosillo annually ranks among the LMP's attendance leaders with well over 10,000 seats filled nighty. Last winter, the team finished second in the loop with an average of 14,324 per opening in the regular season. This winter, he's celebrating 33 years as the Naranjeros team president.