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.”

VALDEZ PITCHES LEONES WITHIN GAME OF LMB FLAG

Cesar Valdez pitching for Oakland in 2017

If there was any doubt remaining as to why Cesar Valdez is the odds-on favorite to be named the Mexican League Pitcher of the Year for 2019, the 34-year-old Dominican right-hander should have dispelled them after he pitched a shutout Sunday to lead the Yucatan Leones to a 3-0 win over the visiting Monclova Acereros in Game Five of the Serie del Rey in front of 14,917 fans at Merida's Parque Kukulkan.  The triumph gives Yucatan a 3-games-to-2 lead in the series.

Valdez threw 112 pitches (77 of them strikes) in holding the potent Steelers to four hits and a walk, striking out eight batters to run his playoff record to 4-0 after a 15-2 regular season in which he led the LMB in wins, ERA (2.26) and WHIP (1.06) in 23 starts.  Art Charles' two-out single in the bottom of the first inning off Monclova starter Adam Quintana drove in Jonathan Jones from third with the first run of the game. It would turn out to be the only tally Valdez would need but (just in case) Jorge Flores opened the third with a triple and scored on a Jones single to make it 2-0 and Alex Liddi's solo homer in the bottom of the eighth added one more insurance run for manager Geronimo Gil's squad.  Jones contributed two singles to the Yucatan offense as seven of the other eight Leones batsmen had one hit. Catcher Sebastian Valle had an 0-fer but called a solid game behind the plate for the winners.

Valdez' outstanding Sunday outing was far removed from his work during last Tuesday's Serie del Rey Game One in Monclova.  Although he was awarded a 5-4 win over the Acereros, the 2008 California League All-Star Game MVP and future major leaguer let in four runs over seven innings and gave up home runs to Jose Amador, Eric Young Jr. (a two-run shot) and Noah Perio to account for all Steeler scoring.  Valdez did strike out 13 of the 27 batters he faced.

Monclova evened the series Wednesday with a 9-3 comeback win over Yoanner Negrin, the 2016 LMB Pitcher of the Year.  Negrin was impressive in earlier playoff wins over Oaxaca and Mexico City and had a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the seventh when the Acereros loaded the bases after striking out leadoff batter Bruce Maxwell.  At that point, Gil replaced the Cuban righty with Manny Parra, who gave up a two-run Young single up the middle and an RBI safety to Erick Aybar that gave the home team a 4-3 lead. The Acereros scored five more in the eighth, including a Ricky Rodriguez grand slam off Enrique Burgos, to put the game away.  Amador singled twice and doubled for three of ten Acereros hits as another sellout crowd of 8,500 watched at Estadio Monclova.

Art Charles (r) homered for Leones in Game 4

The title set shifted to Merida for Game Three on Friday, when Monclova took a 2-games-to-1 lead with a 6-3 road win.  Francisco Peguero went 3-for-4 with a double, scoring one run and driving in another as the Acereros collected 13 hits off Leones starter Jose Samayoa and five relievers.  Valle socked a solo homer off Monclova closer Carlos Bustamante in the bottom of the ninth but the contest was all but decided by then. Connor Herber earned his third postseason win by pitching five innings of two-run ball for manager Pat Listach.

Yucatan battled back to tie the series Saturday night with 3-2 victory.  Monclova took an early lead in the top of the first when leadoff hitter Perio doubled off Leones starter Dustin Crenshaw and came in one out later on a Peguero two-bagger.  The Acereros made it 2-0 one entrada later when Perio's two-out single off Crenshaw brought in Amador from second after the latter had doubled to open the inning.  From that point on, Crenshaw went unscathed through the sixth inning and benefitted from a three-run Yucatan fourth keyed by a two-run Charles homer against Monclova opener Geno Encina.  That would mark the last run of the game as Crenshaw, who earned the win, and three relievers held the Acereros scoreless over the last seven innings. A Californian who pitched collegiately at South Alabama and spent four years in indy ball before making his 2015 LMB debut with Laguna, the 6'5" Crenshaw has been one of the Liga's best pitchers since when healthy with a 29-14 record and 3.63 ERA in 61 starts.

The Serie del Rey now shifts back to Monclova for Tuesday night's Game Six.  All five games have been sellouts and another full house is expected at Estadio Monclova as the Acereros strive for the city's first Mexican League pennant since entering the league in 1974.  Negrin is expected to start for Yucatan while Jaime Lugo will take the mound for Monclova.

LOS MOCHIS, GUASAVE BALLPARKS READYING FOR LMP SEASON

Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada in Los Mochis

Two of the Mexican Pacific League's ten ballparks are undergoing upgrades in preparation for the upcoming 2019-20 season.  

State approval of renovations at Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada in Los Mochis was signed by Sinaloa governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel on October 7, 2017 with hope that the two-stage project would be completed by October 2018 after an initial investment of 50 million pesos for work that winter and 260 million pesos projected as the overall price. Sinaloa Public Works secretary Osvaldo Lopez Angulo envisioned a total remodel of the central portion of the stadium, which now has three seating levels (lower and upper box seats topped by luxury and press boxes), and other safety- and comfort-related amenities.  Instead, the facelift will be unveiled a year late with a pricetag of 400 million pesos, or about 20 million US dollars, not an unusual turn of events when it comes to ballparks, new or renovated. 

Estadio Emilio Ibarra Almada was first opened in 1947 when Los Mochis was admitted to the old Pacific Coast League, precursor to the modern LMP.  Initially known as Estadio Mochis, the facility seated 3,000 and had no lights. It has since undergone a number of renovations, the first coming in 1963 when seating was doubled to 6,000 and a lighting system was installed.  A second renovation took place in 1972, as seating was nearly doubled again to a capacity of 11,000 while being renamed after Ibarra, who brought pro baseball to Los Mochis in 1947 and helped inaugurate the ballpark that winter.  Ten years later, Hurricane Paul damaged the facility so badly that the Caneros were forced to play the first half of the 1982-83 LMP schedule on the road before playing home games without lights during the second half. The updated, modern facility is expected to be ready to host 12,000 spectators when the Caneros play their first home game on Saturday, October 12 against Guasave.

Speaking of Guasave, work at Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon has been hurrying along in advance of the revived Algodoneros' home opener against Los Mochis on October 13, one day after the two teams welcome the season at the Caneros' new digs.  Where renovations in Los Mochis have had almost two years to reach completion, Guasave has had less than a year to bring their stadium up to modern standards because the city was only granted re-entry to the Mex Pac last winter after the previous version of the Algodoneros were sold and moved to Guadalajara in 2014.

Guasave's Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon

Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon is a much newer plant than its counterpart in Los Mochis, opening in 1970 with seating for up to 8,000 spectators.  However, the ballpark was not upgraded over the years and by the time it was 44 years old in 2014, it was showing its age and falling into disrepair as the undercapitalized team owners couldn't afford to make needed changes and the state government wasn't willing to pick up the tab.  Attendance had long been declining in Guasave and the team was eventually sold to a group led by Armando Navarro and Salvador Quirarte and moved inland to Guadalajara, where the renamed Jalisco Charros have become of of Mexican baseball's more recent success stories, hosting several international tournaments and winning last winter's LMP pennant.  After a five-year absence, the Mex Pac returned to Guasave when Mexico president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador fulfilled a campaign promise to bring baseball back to the Sinaloa agricultural center.

Mexico City Diablos Rojos owner Alfredo Harp Helu, who bankrolled a new ballpark of his own in the nation's capital, is paying for renovations at Estadio Francisco Carranza Limon, which will be expanded to 10,000 seats.  While there was speculation that Harp might own an LMP along with his Mexican League franchise, he said he had no such interest and another LMB owner, Arturo Aramburo (who owns the Durango Generales but is said to be looking to sell that franchise), officially bought the team over summer.  

The ballpark used by the new Algodoneros was in enough disrepair that the facility might not have been ready to host games next month.  LMP president Omar Canizales, who toured the stadium with Governor Ordaz last week, was quoted in Puro Beisbol as saying, "I am pleasantly surprised.  I had come a couple months ago and I was really a little worried, and when I realize what has happened in the last six weeks, I see a very important breakthrough.  

"They will be ready to sing 'Play ball' on October 13." 

MEDIUM: 30% OF 2019 LMB PLAYERS WERE MEXICAN-AMERICANS

Tijuana outfielder Beau Amaral

It's been two years since the Mexican League expanded its definition of what constitutes a "Mexican" player.  The issue is one reason the LMB underwent an offseason schism that threatened either a split into two separate leagues or cancellation of the 2017 season altogether.  An uneasy truce was eventually brokered and the new policy, in which a player with Mexican heritage who can qualify for a passport is considered "domestic" and does not count against foreign player limits per team, has played out for two years.  While it can be argued that making players with peripheral family connections to Mexico eligible has raised the overall level of play in the Liga, homegrown Mexican players are now having a harder time finding work in their own country.

A September 18 story by Joseph Bien-Kahn for the Medium website delves deeply into the topic.  According to Bien-Kahn, "If you had a Mexican ancestor and could qualify for a Mexican passport, you were Mexican in the eyes of the league."  Tijuana Toros press officer Armando Esquivel estimates that 30 percent of the Mexican League's 400 players (25 players per team) are Mexican-Americans, many of whom bring Major League Baseball experience south of the border.  One such player, Tijuana outfielder Beau Amaral, is a son of former major league infielder Rich and spent seven seasons in the Reds minor league system and part of 2018 with the Mariners' AA Arkansas affiliate before joining the Toros this year.  A Californian who played collegiately at UCLA, Amaral had a great-grandmother who was born in Mexico and thus is not considered a foreigner in the eyes of the LMB.

Indeed, Tijuana has come to specialize in finding players with tenuous literal relations to Mexico who still oxymoronically qualify as domestic imports, with Director of International Operations Arturo Marcano heading the effort.  "That's one of my areas of work: to look for pochos," Marcano told Bien-Kahn, "It's kind of like detective work."  Marcano is a hard-working man, as only six Toros players this season were born in Mexico, including just one pitcher.  He says, "It's not like we have a network of spies looking for pochos everywhere.  What we're doing is scouting players for the team."

Tijuana won their first LMB pennant in 2017 after embracing the philosophy and earning the enmity of Monterrey owner Jose "Pepe" Maiz, who played on Mexico's 1957 Little League World Series champions as a 12-year-old.  Maiz called the team who defeated his Sultanes in the LMB North Championship Series the Pocho Toros, a term that stuck among opposing fans and players who saw the influx of foreign-born players after eligibility rules were relaxed as taking away jobs from homegrown talent.  Although the Mexico City Diablos Rojos played the 2017 season without a single foreign player in protest and missed the playoffs. Other teams noticed that Tijuana won a pennant with 22 foreign-born players (including 16 Mexican-Americans) while Monterrey was eliminated in the semis and Mexico City took the postseason off altogether, and the Toros' philosophy was eventually adopted by organizations across the Liga.

Manny Barreda pitched 2017 no-hitter for Toros

The term pocho technically applies to foreign-born ethnic Mexicans (similar to the longer standing term chicano), but it can also be a derogatory one used toward ethnic Mexicans perceived to have "lost their way" culturally.  While players like Watkins won't hear it directed towards them, Mexican-Americans like pitcher Manny Barreda are frequently targeted.  Born and raised in Arizona, Barreda came to Tijuana in late 2015 after eight years in the Yankees system and one in the Brewers organization.  Except for an excellent seven-start stint with the Braves' AAA Gwinnett affiliate in 2017 (3-1 record with a 1.83 ERA), he's played for the Toros every summer since.  Barreda memorably tossed a 138-pitch no-hitter for Los Mochis of the Mexican Pacific League on November 28, 2016 and then repeated the feat for Tijuana on July 16, 2017, requiring 135 pitches for that 14-strikeout performance.

Although he and wife Karla have become more comfortable living in Mexico, Barreda's first full year in the LMB resulted in several hostile emails and a sense of isolation in a country where he had much stronger cultural roots than many players with far more tertiary ties.  Players of Mexican descent born and raised north of the border often find themselves in a cultural void on both sides of the border. Barreda explains to Bien-Kahn, "In the U.S., you're considered 'Mexican.' And when you come to Mexico, you're an American. You're a pocho. People like us, we don't have a place."  Minnesota Twins reliever Sergio Romo, who still pitches winterball for the Mexican Pacific League's Jalisco Charros, has voiced similar frustrations in the past.

Perhaps the biggest losers with the new regulations are the Mexican-born players who would have played in the LMB in the years prior to 2017.  Previously, Mexican League teams could only carry four foreign-born players, including Mexican-Americans, so only 64 total imports were on the 16 active team rosters.  If Marcano's estimate is accurate, that number is now 120 and could be higher. Not being able to play in their national circuit has hurt these players economically because the average pay in the both the Liga and Mex Pac for homegrown players is said to generally be in the $3,000-$5,000 per month range, a lot of money in a nation where the International Monetary Fund estimated the per capita income in 2017 to be equal to 9,377 US dollars per year. Minor league baseball is not a lucrative undertaking north of the border but in Mexico, many players extend their careers as long as possible because few jobs at home pay the kind of money they can earn in the LMB and LMP.

The notion of limiting the number of foreign-born players may be an unfamiliar one outside Major League and Minor League Baseball (where such practices are illegal), but it is a common practice in almost every other country in the world as a means to allow domestic talent a chance to play.  With the apparent impending ouster of president Javier Salinas and return to power of the so-called Old Guard owners who opposed relaxing player eligibility rules, a return to the old standards may well be discussed during the offseason.

SULTANES WIN LIGA FALL PENNANT; LMP SEASON OPENS

Sultanes 3B Agustin Murillo hoists the LMB title trophy

Ramiro Pena's walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning drove in Chris Roberson with the final run of the Fall 2018 season as Monterrey defeated Oaxaca, 3-2, last Tuesday in Game Six of the Mexican League's Serie del Rey.  The win clinched the Sultanes' eighth LMB pennant and Monterrey's tenth Liga flag overall since the northern city entered the circuit in 1939 (the former Industriales team won titles in 1943 and 1947).

Oaxaca took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when Alejandro Gonzalez' two-out single to right off Monterrey starter Anthony Vasquez brought in Game Five hero Samar Leyva from second to give the underdog Guerreros the early advantage.  Sultanes rightfielder Sebastian Elizalde's throw to the plate allowed Gonzalez to scamper to second base while Alan Sanchez moved 90 feet to third, but Vasquez got Erick Rodriguez to ground out to Pena at shortstop, ending the threat.

Monterrey came back two innings later with a run to even the score at 1-1.  Agustin Murillo, who had a splendid series, opened the bottom of the fourth by lining a double to left off Oaxaca starter Ruddy Acosta.  Murillo was able to go from first to third during a Felix Perez groundout to Guerreros first sacker Henry Urrutia, then plated the Sultanes' first score on a Roberson single.  The Oakland native was able to advance to third on a Ramon Rios single, but died 90 feet from paydirt when Elizalde lofted a fly ball to Gonzalez in right to end the entrada.

The two teams remained deadlocked until the top of the eighth.  Gonzalez led off by singling to left against Monterrey reliever Ozzie Mendez, moved to second on a Rodriguez sacrifice and took third on Jay Austin's groundout to Rios at second before Vasquez uncorked a wild pitch to Julian Ornelas, allowing Gonzalez to streak in with the Guerreros' go-ahead run.  The Sultanes came back in the bottom of the eighth to knot the game back up at 2-2 when Murillo's sacrifice fly to Ornelas in left brought in pinch-runner Marco Guzman (son of longtime LMB catcher and manager Marco Antonio Guzman) from third.  Monterrey closer Wirfin Obispo then came in to retire the Oaxacans without a score in top of the ninth, setting up the Sultanes' pennant-winning heroics.

Roberson started things off by doubling an 0-1 Samuel Zazueta pitch to right, then skipped over to third when Rios laid down a bunt in front of home plate that Zazueta could only throw to Urrutia at first for the out.  Monterrey manager Roberto Kelly brought in Yadir Drake as a pinch-hitter for Elizalde, but Zazueta intentionally walked the 2017 LMB batting champion to put Sultanes runners at the corners.  That was a temporary situation, as pinch-runner Leo German (in for Drake) stole second whil Zazueta was working on the next batter, Arturo Rodriguez.  At that point, Rodriguez was intentionally walked to load the bases with Julio Borbon coming up.  Zazueta struck out Borbon swinging on four pitches for the second out, but Pena grounded the first pitch he saw up the middle to score Roberson from third, ending the game and season to the delight of an Estadio Monterrey sellout crowd of 21,909.

Obispo was awarded his second win of the Serie del Rey for his one inning of work, but Vasquez (who allowed five Oaxaca runs on seven hits in 2.2 innings in Game Two) gave the winners eight solid frames of pitching, letting in two runs and scattering five hits while walking one.  Zazueta absorbed the loss after allowing the winning run on three hits and two walks, also in one frame.  The 21-year-old Obregon product pitched in every game of the finals for manager Sergio Gastelum's Guerreros and generally did well before wilting in Game Six.  Guerreros starter Acosta acquitted himself well, giving up one run and scattering four hits in 5.1 innings before being replaced by Mendez.

Murillo was named the Serie del Rey MVP after helping the Sultanes win their first pennant since 2007.  While the Tijuana-born third baseman's finals numbers of a .308 batting average with two homers and five RBIs are hardly off-the-charts, Guty's two-run game-tying homer in the bottom of the ninth in Game Two was a shocking blow the Guerreros never really recovered from while his Game Three performance (3-for-4, HR, 2B, 2 RBIs) was key in giving the Sultanes a series lead they never relinquished.


MEXICAN PACIFIC LEAGUE OPENS 2018-19 CAMPAIGN

Mexicali P Javier Solano was dominant Friday

When Culiacan pitcher James Russell threw a pitch to Navojoa centerfielder Alonzo Harris at 8:10 last Friday night it marked the opening of the Mexican Pacific League's 2018-19 regular season.  Let the record show it was a ball, as Russell fell behind in the count 3-0 before eventually getting Harris to pop out to Tomateros third baseman Ronnier Mustelier in foul territory for the first OUT of the season.

Navojoa went on to beat defending champion Culiacan, 8-2, as a crowd of 19,210 jammed Estadio Tomateros.  The Mayos knocked Russell, who spent seven years in the majors for the Cubs and Phillies between 2010 and 2016, for six runs on seven hits over 4.1 innings.  The 32-year-old served up a two-run homer to Fernando Flores in the second and a solo blast to Harris (an ex-Mets farmhand) in the third as the Mayos outhit the Tomateros by a 13-7 margin, with four Navojoa players collecting two hits each

In Friday's other opener, Mexicali shut out Hermosillo, 3-0, as former MexPac pitching champion Javier Solano blanked the Naranjeros over six innings, giving up two hits, striking out 12 and walking none.  It was a vintage performance for Solano, who turned in a 10-6 record in the LMB last summer for Monterrey and Quintana Roo but had an ERA of 5.31 ERA over the two seasons.

Two more openers were played Saturday.  Visiting Mazatlan overcame a two-run sixth inning deficit to pull past Jalisco, 5-4.  The game lasted until a minute before midnight as a combined 15 pitchers took the mound for both teams.  Former Cubs prospect Anthony Giansanti went 3-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs for manager Joe Alvarez' Venados and newcomer Quincy Latimore, who was dealt to the Deer by Navojoa in the offseason, also had three hits and scored twice.

Obregon got strong outings from starter Nate Reed (5 IP, 1 R, 2 H) and four relievers to earn a 4-1 road win at Los Mochis Saturday.  The Yaquis got a three-hit night from John Nogowski but it was a two-run single by number 9 batter Juan Carlos Gamboa that keyed a four-run Obregon fourth inning to in essence put the game away for the visitors.

Four more openers in the MexPac's traditional two-game, home-and-away series were played Sunday.  Mexicali went to 2-0 on the season with an 8-3 win at Hermosillo as Ricardo Serrano highlighted a four-run Aguilas second by slamming a three-run homer off Scott Copeland.  Mazatlan is likewise 2-0 after blanking Jalisco, 1-0, on a one-hitter spun by Venados starter Jose Hernandez and five relievers.  Visiting Culiacan topped the Navojoa Mayos, 2-1, as International League MVP and Triple Crown winner Joey Meneses singled in Dylan Moore with the tiebreaking run in the top of the ninth.  A Ramon Urias RBI single in the top of the eleventh brought in the go-ahead score as Los Mochis went on to an 8-6 triumph in Obregon.

In all, 120,705 fans attended the eight openers, an average of 15,088 per game as all contests sold out.  Ballpark renovations have not been completed in either Mazatlan or Los Mochis, but both projects are expected to be completed in time for the January playoffs.  In the offseason, the LMP expanded the limit of foreign players from eight to 14 per team in response to the Mexican League's expanded schedule.  While roster churn is an accepted fact of life in the circuit, the first half is expected to be more active than usual as domestic players who've been performing in the LMB playoffs will become available over the next few weeks.


 PITCHER ORTEGA RETIRES, WILL COACH IN OBREGON

Tigres P Pablo Ortega after his 2011 no-hitter

Pablo Ortega earned a living as a pitcher for nearly two decades by baffling opposing batsmen in both the Mexican and Mexican Pacific Leagues until he finally found someone he couldn't beat forever: Padre Tiempo (or Father Time).

Ortega, who turns 42 on November 7, has announced his retirement as a player after a forgettable Fall 2018 season with the Quintana Roo Tigres in which he went 1-5 with a 9.55 ERA in ten starts.  He'd had a respectable Spring campaign with the Tigres, going 3-2 with a 3.18 ERA in eight outings, including a May 10 complete game 5-0 shutout over Leon in Cancun, scattering five singles and throwing 63 strikes in the 93-pitch performance.  However, the wheels gradually fell off Ortega's wagon in the second season, one that saw the Tigres miss the postseason for the first time in years.  His final outing was an August 29 start against defending champion Yucatan in Merida, where he lasted 3.1 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits before QR manager Raul Sanchez replaced him with Luis Ivan Rodriguez, who'd just turned 22 and hadn't even been born when El Maestro began his career.

The Nuevo Laredo native made his Mexican League debut in 1995 with his hometown Dos Laredos Tecolotes as an 18-year-old.  Ortega didn't set the Liga on fire over his five appearances (two starts) that year, going 0-1 with a 5.93 ERA, but he showed enough to earn a contract with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who had not yet fielded a team at the Major League level.  The 6'2" righthander spent four years in the Rays system and turned in a 30-38 record, pitching once for AAA Durham in 1999 before returning south of the border the following year.

That was when his legacy as a Mexican baseball pitcher began as he was 11-3 for the Mexico City Tigres and was the championship series MVP for the 2000 LMB pennant winners, the first of six Liga titles Ortega would win (all for the Tigres).  Although he would spend all or part of 2002 and 2003 with the Puebla Pericos, Ortega would become a mainstay in the Tigres rotation during his career.  He reached double figures in wins nine times and was selected to at least six All-Star Games.  He was named the LMB Pitcher of the Year in 2003 and Comeback Player of the Year in 2011, a year in which he was 10-3 (including a no-hitter against Veracruz) for the Tigres after going 2-6 with an 8.24 ERA the previous summer.  For his Mexican League career, Ortega was 164-107 and he turned in a 4.34 ERA, a respectable figure for a hitter's league like the LMB.  He had 1,174 strikeouts in 2,191 innings pitched.

El Maestro didn't limit his skills to the Liga.  He spent 17 winters pitching in the Mexican Pacific League, pitching for three title teams, and also appeared in the Caribbean Series (winning the 2005 CS with Mazatlan) and was on the Mexican National Team for several international tournaments, including the World Baseball Classic, Olympic Games qualifiers, Pan American Games, Central American and Caribbean Games and Americas Cup competitions.

While Ortega was in training camp with the MexPac's Obregon Yaquis when he announced his retirement, he won't be stepping away from the game.  He'll stay on with the Yaquis this winter as a bullpen coach under new manager Oscar Robles, who faced Ortega as a batter several times over the years as a player in Mexico City Oaxaca and Tijuana.