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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
August 17, 2020
MEX
PAC RELEASES 2020-21 SCHEDULE
The Mexican Pacific League office
has released its regular season schedule for the upcoming winterball
season.
The calendar has all ten teams playing 68 games spread over two halves,
beginning in mid-October and running through the end of December, with
Mondays
used as a travel day (as has been the case for years).
One unusual feature is that the
traditional two-game, home-and-away inaugural sets between rival teams
are
being discarded for 2020-21. While those series typically result in
packed
ballparks across the circuit, the possibility that no fans will be
allowed in
the stands due to the panicdemic has compelled the LMP to take no
chances.
Instead, the regular season will open
with five four-game series commencing Thursday, October 15: Mexicali at
Obregon, Hermosillo at Navojoa, Mazatlan at Los Mochis, Guasave at
Culiacan and
Jalisco at Monterrey.
It appears that the Monterrey
Sultanes may have backtracked on their plans to play home games in
Mazatlan
this season, although the team website wasn't even displaying a Mex Pac
schedule or ticket information as this story was being written on
Sunday
afternoon. Sultanes sports manager Jesus Valdez Jr. was quoted in
SeptimaEntrada.com
as saying he was confident that the team will get the okay from Nuevo
Leon
state government officials to play in Monterrey with people in the
stands. The
Sultanes will train in Mazatlan prior to the season opener.
The first half will consist of 35 games
and run through Sunday, November 22. The second half will open Tuesday,
November 24, with 33-game schedules being played through Wednesday,
December
30. A full eight-team, three-stage postseason will be staged in January
to
determine a champion that will represent the LMP and Mexico at the
Caribbean
Series in Mazatlan, scheduled to run from late January into early
February.
Who else will participate in the Serie
del Caribe is another matter due to health, economic and political
concerns
in other nations. Cuba was already uninvited earlier this year due
their
pullout from the 2020 tournament just prior to it being held in San
Juan,
Puerto Rico. Colombia joined 2019 champion Panama to make it a six-team
field
with champions from traditional CS countries Mexico (represented by LMP
title-winner Culiacan), Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the Dominican
Republic.
ISMAEL
VALDEZ SELECTED TO LATIN BASEBALL HALL OF FAME
Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher
Ismael “Rocket” Valdez was named last month as a 2020 inductee to the
Latin
American Baseball Hall of Fame in La Romana, Dominican Republic. Valdez
will
join Panamanian Mariano Rivera as the newest members of the pantheon,
which was
opened in 2010. Induction ceremonies have been delayed due to the
panicdemic.
A native of Ciudad Victoria,
Tamaulipas, Ismael Valdes (who changed his surname to Valdez later in
his
career) was signed at age 17 in 1991 by the Dodgers out of the Pasteje
Academy
in Mexico City, a forerunner to the current Mexican Baseball Academy
near Monterrey.
Valdes was assigned to the Dodgers' Gulf Coast League Rookie Team in
Florida
that summer and went 2-2 with a 2.33 ERA in ten starts.
Three years later, after stops in AA
San Antonio and AAA Albuquerque, Valdes made his big league debut at 20
in Los
Angeles on June 15, 1994, tossing two innings of scoreless relief in a
4-2 loss
to Cincinnati in front of over 51,000 onlookers at Dodger Stadium. His
first
win came July 5 in relief as the Dodgers pulled out a 2-1 victory in
ten
innings at home as the 6'3” right-hander pitched mostly out of the
bullpen in
21 outings, finishing 3-1 with a 3.18 ERA. It was a nice debut for
Valdes but
gave no indication of what was to come.
Los Angeles manager Tommy Lasorda
moved Valdes into the starting rotation early in 1995 and was rewarded
when
Valdes turned in a 13-11 record and 3.05 ERA (fourth-best in the
National
League) that included six complete games, two of them shutouts. He
started a
League Divisional Series against Atlanta and got a no-decision after
pitching
seven innings of in a 5-4 loss to the Reds, allowing a two-run homer by
Reggie
Sanders in the fourth.
Still, it was a good year for
Valdes, who finished seventh in Rookie of the Year balloting, and began
a
string of five seasons in LA in which he won 58 games and turned in a
sub-4.00
ERA each year before he was sent the the Chicago Cubs as part of a
five-player
trade in December 1999. After an ineffective stint with the Cubs (2-4,
5.37 in
12 starts), Valdes was sent BACK to the Dodgers for two minor leaguers
and cash
in July 2000, struggled his way to three more losses in eight starts
and was
declared a free agent after the season.
Valdes signed a contract with the
Anaheim Angels for the 2001 season but became a bit of a baseball
vagabond for
the rest of his career, changing teams five times before tossing his
final MLB
pitch for the Florida Marlins in 2005. He had limited success along the
way,
going 14-9 in 2004 (after changing his surname to Valdez before the
season),
but ending that year with a 5.19 ERA and being traded by San Diego to
the
Marlins in midseason. Valdez' final big league appearance was on
October 1,
2005 when he threw five relief innings against Atlanta, allowing three
runs on
five hits in a 6-4 win over the Braves in Miami. He then retired from
baseball
just weeks after his 32nd birthday. In 12 Major League seasons, Valdez
had a
204-205 record and a 4.09 ERA, striking out 1,173 batters over 1,827
innings.
Valdez came out of retirement in
2013 when, at 39 years of age, he pitched eight games (including two
starts)
for the Mexican League's Quintana Roo Tigres. It was not the swan song
he may
have hoped for, going 1-1 with a 10.91 ERA before retiring for good in
June,
but his signing did draw the Cancun team some extra nationwide
attention and he
did contribute a win for manager Matias Carrillo's pennant-winning club.
He now becomes the twelfth Mexican
named to the Latin American Baseball Hall of Fame. Hector Espino and
Beto Avila
were among the first inductees in 2010 and have been followed by Mel
Almada,
Chile Gomez, Angel Castro, Felipe Montemayor, Vinny Castilla, Nomar
Garciaparra, Aurelio Lopez, Ted Higuera and Fernando Valenzuela.
Garciaparra is
actually California-born but his father Ramon is a Mexico native; Nomar
is
“Ramon” spelled backwards.
LIQUIDITY:
THE GENERAL PROBLEM OF THE LMP
Writer Tito Escobar of
ElJonronero.com recently wrote a column outlining the problems the
Mexican
Pacific League will face as they move forward in anticipation of
playing a
2020-21 season. According to Escobar, the main problem will be the
ability of
Mex Pac teams to pay the bills in the face of the current panicdemic.
Here is a
Google translation (slightly edited) of his column:
We already know all the effects that
the devastating pandemic has brought worldwide. Mexico is one of the
countries
hardest hit by infections and deaths, but the drive and the desire to
move
ahead with order while following the instructions of the federal health
authorities have encouraged the reactivation of the economy in
different
business areas. The decision was made to carry out the 2020-21 campaign
of the
Mexican Pacific League but, like all entrepreneurs, today they are
experiencing
a complicated situation on the issue of liquidity.
This
reporter has talked with owners, brands, sponsors, advertising agencies
and
with all those involved in the mechanics of advertising and getting
sponsorships, brand managers and advertising sellers. They have found
as a
barrier in their work: the obvious problem of lack of liquidity.
Even
so, the Mexican Pacific League remains firm, but at the moment things
are
complicated collectively and with almost all clubs. We know who the
clubs are
that have the most economic power due to their locations, but they are
all
important and the efforts are aimed at them: Having advertisers, the
best
players and, therefore, having liquidity to face the campaign.
As
an example and unofficially, the negotiations with the players have
flowed, but
if there are cases where we will soon find out about players who (given
the
decision not to accept the reduction that exists as a league agreement
to lower
the payroll to 50%) have rejected the offers and will not play. There
is
everything, those who demand discreetly and those who publish private
conversations
such as the Cuban Félix Pérez of the Monterrey Sultans.
Each
one handles their situation differently and faces the pandemic in a
different
way. Most understand that the easy thing was for the owners to say NO
to play
and voila'…they leave the player to his own devices. But that's not the
case.
The player is going to play with everyone sacrificing something in the
face of
the difficult situation because having a job in these times is a
blessing.
And
as many owners have mentioned to El Jonronero, with a player
who does
not want to play there is no problem: he stays at home, next year
things are
better in every way and contract negotiations begin on a regular basis.
But, of
course, there are no loans to other clubs for this year in the case of
players
who wish not to sign with their club for not wanting to accept the
mandatory
reduction in salary.
On
the topic of brands, El Jonronero received unofficial
information that
two of the main advertisers at the LMP level have said no for this
campaign: One
prestigious brand of fried foods and a major sportsbook that has been
enthusiastically supporting winter baseball year after year. But
obviously, the
economic damage caused by the effects of the pandemic leads them to
step aside
this year. Sponsoring brands are obviously also experiencing economic
problems
in this chain of problems unleashed by the global pandemic.
The
beer brands have individual contracts with the LMP clubs and are
normally one
of the strongest sponsorships, but today they are in serious economic
difficulty to be able to participate according to contracts. There are
cases in
which they want to be absent this season, as there are those who can
only
contribute 25% of what was agreed to and thus help in some way. Each
city and
each beer brand is different. The soft drink brands that distribute
bottled
soft drinks, tea, and natural water are waiting mainly for what is the
number
of people who will be authorized by the federal health authorities to
enter
each ballpark of LMP. They go through that as a sales projection
exercise and
it is logical in their business.
And
so hundreds of examples, like the dealers who are seeing if they bet on
selling
their products like other years, are waiting. The sale of seats is a
very
complicated topic among fans. Buying tickets or not is what fans have
in mind
in all the cities and to a certain extent, it is understood. The work
of each
club in this sense is titanic when it comes to the bet they have made
that the
Mexican Pacific League season is going to be played.
All the actors in the different areas should cooperate to boost the Mexican baseball economy and try to normalize as soon as possible this great game that we all enjoy in Mexico.