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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Saturday,
April 20, 2020
LMB
PRESIDENT DENIES 30-GAME OPTION, LIGA MAY PLAY UP TO 84 CONTESTS
The president of the Mexican League
has denied a media report that the loop is considering an option of
playing a
30-game regular season schedule in August before heading into an
eight-team
playoff in September. ESPN Deportes
writer Jose Maria Garrido cited unnamed sources reportedly close to LMB
affairs
that the Liga was considering playing 30 games in as many days
beginning August
1, followed by the usual three-tiered playoffs that would run from
early
September into mid-October.
In an interview with the Septima
Entrada website, LMB president Horacio de la Vega flatly denied
Garrido's
claim. “There are scenarios to be able to have an 84-game season, 64
games and
possibly much shorter scenarios,” de la Vega stated. “Possibly we will
have a
single round. Instead of 102 games, we'd do half the season, which is
51
games.” De la Vega added the 51-game schedule would be a last option
starting
in August, a prospect that would potentially mean playing into November
if the
full playoff format is carried through.
Such a schedule would undoubtedly
create hardships for the winter Mexican Pacific League, whose regular
season
typically gets underway in mid-October. The LMP faced a similar
situation in
2018 when the Mexican League played two separate 57-game seasons with
full
playoffs, the brainchild of former president Javier Salinas. The result
was
disastrous for both leagues, with tepid fan interest in an LMB Fall
campaign
that stretched to within three days of the season openers for the Mex
Pac,
where teams were forced to bring in more imports in the absence of
domestic
players who needed time to rest before playing out west.
Many Mexican players didn't join their LMP
teams until the second half began in November.
De la Vega, who says he has remained
in contact with LMP leader Omar Canizales, may have seen an already
difficult
situation worsen. Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said
last week
that schools and businesses may reopen on May 17 in 979 communities
with no
confirmed cases of the Wuhan virus while another 463 municipalities may
see
restrictions lifted on June 1. However, Dr. Hugo Lopes-Gatell, Mexico's
Wuhan
virus czar, also stated last week that Mexico City may not see similar
restrictions lifted until June 25. The country's current physical
distancing
policy will continue through at least May 30.
With a shorter season now a
certainty, the Mexican League is exploring an abbreviated format during
which
teams only face opponents within their own division while adding more
doubleheaders to the schedule to maximize the number of games played in
a
tighter timeframe. However, de la Vega
cautions, “we are working hard because we all want baseball to return,
but
first we have to be healthy for that to happen.”
JALISCO
OWNERS PITCH MLB FOR MEXICAN SERIES GAMES IN 2021
One of the many casualties to the
2020 baseball season due to the Wuhan virus outbreak was the Mexican
Series in
Mexico City, that would've pitted the Arizona Diamondbacks and San
Diego Padres
in a two-game Major League Baseball regular season series at Estadio
Alfredo
Harp Helu, scheduled for last week. The set is to be rescheduled to be
played
in Phoenix if and when the MLB season begins.
Mexico's capital city will miss out
on its first opportunity to host big league games that count in the
standings,
although numerous exhibition contests have been held there in the past.
The
pandemic also put a halt to off-field efforts to bring the Mexico
Series to
Guadalajara in 2021. “The reality is that before the pandemic, we were
very
advanced in that negotiation,” Jalisco Charros co-owner Salvador
Quirarte says.
“Very advanced. But right now, I don't really know what's going to
happen.”
Quirarte was spearheading talks with
MLB to play one of two planned Mexico Series for 2021 at Estadio
Charros, but
the virus has knocked the entire baseball world off its axis and MLB's
uncertainty moving forward while readjusting its calendar casts future
Mexico
Series plans into doubt for the time being.
“This year it was Mexico City's
turn,” Quirarte notes, “and we were very strong in raising our hands
for 2021,
but this is going to totally change our plans.” Quirarte points to
pending
negotiations between MLB and its players union, whose current
Collective
Bargaining Agreement will expire next year.
Despite the bump in the road, the
Charros team president says efforts will eventually continue to bring
big
league baseball to Mexico's second-largest city (and home to the
country's
largest population of American expats).
During a recent press conference introducing newly-acquired
third
baseman Christian Villanueva, Quirarte told the assembled media, “Be
sure that
we will continue working and fighting to bring important international
events
to Guadalajara, to the home of the Jalisco Charros.”
Given past proactive efforts of both
Quirarte and co-owner Armando Navarro, those are not idle words. Since
a group
of investors led by the twosome purchased the original Guasave
Algodoneros in
2014 and moving the Mexican Pacific League team to Guadalajara (where
the
newly-christened Charros purchased and reconfigured a stadium built to
host the
2011 Pan American Games), the city has hosted group play for the 2017
World
Baseball Classic, the 2018 Caribbean Series and Premier12 tournament
first
round games last November. It would be no surprise if Quirarte and
Navarro had
also placed a bid for the WBSC Under-23 Baseball World Cup scheduled
later this
year, although that tournament was eventually awarded to two other LMP
cities,
Obregon and Los Mochis.
LIGA,
MEX PAC BOTH ADD RULE CHANGES TO SPEED UP GAMES THIS YEAR
As baseball games have progressively
gotten longer over the years, fans have exponentially increased the
volume of
their complaints regarding the time required to watch nine innings
(although
conce$$ionaire$ have remained $trangely $ilent). Both
the Mexican and Mexican Pacific leagues
are responding by instituting rule changes for their respective
upcoming
seasons to hopefully speed things up a bit.
The Mexican League announced in
February that the 2020 season will see pitchers required to throw to at
least
three batters before they can be replaced on the mound, an attempt to
end game
stoppages by revolving-door relievers who face only one batsman before
they're
replaced by one of their bullpen mates. Exceptions will be granted if
the
umpire crew chief determines that a pitcher was injured prior to
throwing to
his third batter.
Mound visits will be limited this
season as well, with managers and coaches limited to six such trips
from the
dugout per nine innings that do not result in a pitcher being replaced
on the
hill. In the event a game goes into extra innings, teams will be
allowed one
mound visit per inning without a pitcher being replaced. Visits that DO
result
in a hurler being pulled will not count against their team's allowed
total.
Finally, batboys for LMB teams will
be allowed on the field in foul territory during play, theoretically to
expedite the collection of bats dropped near home plate by hitters who
leave
the batter's box down the first-base line after hitting the ball.
Likewise, the Mex Pac is instituting
rule changes meant to shave minutes off their games during the 2020-21
season. One that's similar to LMB
changes is a limit to the number of mound visits by managers and
coaches,
although the number of allowable trips has not been set.
Intentional walks will no longer
require four wide pitches in the LMP, but rather a signal from a team's
manager
that awards a batter first base without facing a ball.
A pitch clock will be used for the
first time in 2020-21, although the time allowed between pitches had
not been
determined when the rule changes were approved by the LMP Assembly of
Presidents earlier this year. Pitch
clocks with 20-second countdowns have been used affiliated minor
leagues in
North America for a few years now, although it's unknown whether a ball
has
ever been awarded to a batter because time had expired between pitches.
During
Pacific Coast League games in Tacoma, for instance, it has become
routine for
the pitch clock to be turned off from the press box whenever it counts
down to
the five-second mark, thus making enforcement all but impossible even
if it's
desired.
The one change that may get the most resistance from people in the stands at LMP games is the “sudden-death” rule, in which a baserunner will be placed on second base at the beginning of each half-inning once a game goes into the 12th inning. It's a rule that has been used in amateur baseball and softball, mostly at youth league levels, and in some international competitions, but this will be the first time a professional league in Mexico tries it during the regular season (although the Mex Pac office says it will be discarded during the postseason).