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Monday,
February 14, 2022
PEREYRA: MEXICAN LEAGUE A HAVEN FOR
ABUSERS
While Major League Baseball
is relentless and vetoes violent players, Proceso writer Beatriz Pereyra has
written an extensive column that says the Mexican Baseball League opens its
doors to them regardless of the complaints they have faced. So far there are
eight baseball players who have been kicked off major league teams and their
subsidiaries for sexual assault and family violence, mainly, and who have been
hired by Mexican ninths.
In an interview with Pereyra,
LMB president Horacio de la Vega acknowledges that they currently lack
protocols to deal with the issue, but advances measures to uproot violent
behavior. The following is a recent Proceso column by Pereyra, given the Google
Translate treatment.
The Mexican Baseball League has become a refuge for players
and managers expelled from Major League Baseball for having engaged in sexual
harassment and abuse of women, as well as as domestic violence perpetrated
against their partners and children.
From 2018 to date there are at least eight documented cases:
Yasiel Puig (Veracruz), Addison Russell and Mickey Callaway (Monclova), Danry
Vásquez (Campeche and Aguascalientes), Luke Heimlich (Dos Laredos), Roberto
Osuna (Mexico City), Sergio Mitre (Tijuana and Saltillo) and Omar Vizquel
(Tijuana).
Of those, only Vasquez, Russell and Callaway have admitted
guilt. The rest deny having committed the abuses and there is no evidence that
they have been in rehabilitation. There is also no sign that the clubs they
come from or joined have clear policies on how to deal with these people,
beyond simply firing them or hiring them to give them a second chance.
In February 2021, five women who spoke on condition of
anonymity reported to sports information website The Athletic that they were sexually harassed by Mickey Callaway
when he served as pitching coach with the Cleveland Indians (2013-2017),
manager of the Mets (2018-2019) and pitching coach for the Los Angeles Angels
(2020).
According to the accusations, Callaway sent emails, text
messages and on social networks in which he even asked them to send him nude
photos. He also used to make comments to them about their appearance, making
them uncomfortable, and on one occasion he “brought his genitals close to the
face of a female reporter” when she was interviewing him.
Following a three-month investigation, MLB Commissioner Rob
Manfred's Office announced that it has placed Callaway on its list of
ineligible managers, meaning no team can sign him. “Having reviewed the
evidence, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Callaway violated MLB policy.
Harassment has no place in Major League Baseball and we are committed to
providing an appropriate work environment for everyone involved in our
game," Manfred said.
Callaway accepted the sanction and limited himself to issuing
a statement: “I apologize to the women who shared with the investigators any
interaction that made them feel uncomfortable. I never intended to make anyone
feel this way and I didn't understand that these interactions could do that or
violate MLB policies. I take responsibility for the consequences,” he said.
But Mickey Callaway has nothing to worry about. In Mexico he
already has a job. In 2022 he will be the manager of the Monclova Acereros. It
is not the first time that this club hired a man who has no place in the Major
Leagues.
For the 2021 LMB campaign, one of Monclova’s most striking
signings was that of Addison Russell, a former Chicago Cubs infielder who was
suspended 40 games for violating the MLB's domestic violence policy.
In October 2018, Manfred announced the punishment when
Russell was on administrative leave – he couldn't play, but was paid – while
allegations of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife were investigated.
"My office has completed its investigation into allegations
that Addison Russell violated MLB's domestic violence, sexual assault and child
abuse policy." The player accepted the punishment and decided not to
appeal the suspension.
Domestic violence allegations against Russell were posted by
a third party on social media in 2017, but the player's then-wife refused to
speak to MLB. In September 2018, the victim confirmed that she did suffer
physical and emotional abuse during her two-year marriage.
Not only did the Monclova Acereros resort to hiring former major
league players who, unable to get a contract in the United States, saw in
Mexican baseball the opportunity to continue playing.
The Campeche Piratas did it with Danry Vásquez, who in August
2016 attacked his partner on the ballpark steps of the Corpus Christi Hooks, a
Class AA minor league affiliate of the Houston Astros.
When the images were made public in March 2018, they were
used as evidence to open a case against him. After he was arrested, Vasquez was
released on bail and reached a plea deal. The case was later dismissed, the
player paid a fine and promised not to attack a person with whom he was in a
romantic relationship again.
Vasquez apologized in court to fans because his behavior
"was unprofessional." By then, he was under contract to a team in
Pennsylvania, the Lancaster Barnstormers who fired him as soon as the video was
made public.
“As soon as the nature of the incident became apparent, the
Barnstormers decided to sever the link. There’s no other option but to end the
relationship. Neither I, nor the Barnstormers as an organization, can condone
or be associated with this behavior," Lancaster manager Ross Peeples said.
The video shows how Vásquez slaps his girlfriend, knocks her
down with the blow, drags her down the stairs. In a break he hits her in the
face again, she falls from her and picks her up violently. The images were
captured by the stadium's security cameras.
After having played in 2018 with Campeche, the player has
been on the roster of the Aguascalientes Rieleros in the 2019 and 2021
campaigns.
From Heimlich to Mitre
The first LMB team to start signing players with a history of
violence against women was the Dos Laredos Tecolotes. In March 2019 they
announced the hiring of Luke Heimlich, a pitcher who shone at Oregon State
University and was considered one of the best prospects in college baseball in
the United States.
Despite his talent, he was not drafted by an MLB team when it
became known that in 2012 he pleaded guilty to sexually abusing his
six-year-old niece when he was 15 years old. In statements to the press,
Heimlich has denied that he committed the abuse and that if he pleaded guilty,
it was because of the poor advice he received.
In an interview for the Hitazo
baseball website, the president of the Tecolotes, José Antonio Mansur, declared
that his intention was to give the player a second chance. “The LMB has all his
criminal records, in addition to a letter from MLB indicating that he is not
suspended; so it is a matter of seeing if we are going to crucify a man for
life or give him a second chance, as it should be.
“It would be a good example of how someone who is already
free, who has already paid for his mistake, can rejoin. After discussing it
with my family, I think he deserves it. We shouldn't close the doors to a
23-year-old boy for his own good and to show that the LMB is open to
reincorporating people,” said Mansur.
In May 2018, 23-year-old pitcher Roberto Osuna was arrested
by Toronto police while playing for the Blue Jays. The arrest was due to a
complaint from his partner, who accused him of having beaten her. After serving
a 75-game suspension, Osuna was traded to the Houston Astros.
The case remained in limbo when the complainant stated that
she would not appear in court to testify. The parties signed a peace bond and
the charges were dropped. In August of that year, Osuna gave an interview to USA Today in which he assured that the
fans have judged him without really knowing what happened. He did not talk
about the details of the case, but anticipated that the truth would be known
soon, which never happened.
In April 2021, the Veracruz Águilas announced that former
major leaguer Yasiel Puig would wear their uniform. After spending time with
the Dodgers, and a brief stint in Cincinnati and Cleveland, the player did not
get a contract for the 2020 season.
Puig arrived in Mexico with the shadow of the accusation of a
woman who denounced him for having sexually violated her during a basketball
game, accusations that he has denied and for which he considers that the doors
to return to the MLB have been closed.
An investigation by the Washington
Post revealed last December that since 2017 two other women had signed
confidentiality agreements with Puig: they received money in exchange for not
making public that they were sexually assaulted and beaten by the player.
Puig denied all three accusations and clarified that having
paid does not imply that he is responsible for what he is accused of. The Cuban
will not return to Mexican baseball in 2022, as he signed a contract with a
South Korean league team.
In October 2020, when there was no LMB season as a result of
the pandemic, Blanca García, wife of Omar Vizquel, announced that the former
major league player, an 11-time Gold Glove winner, was physically and
psychologically abusing her. The Venezuelan was then serving as manager of the
Tijuana Toros.
In the multiple complaints she made in different media and on
her social network accounts, García also aired an incident that Vizquel had
when he was manager of a team in the Minor Leagues: “It made me very disgusted and
very indignant and that was the point of breakup that I couldn't take anymore,
because the abuse wasn't just me. That was a big part of what led me to make
the decision to divorce.”
In August 2021, two weeks after the Toros removed Vizquel as
manager,the complaint was made public that one of the bat boys of the
Birmingham Barons, the double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, filed for
sexual conduct aggressive. The young man, who suffers from autism, recounted
how Vizquel exposed himself naked to him, forced him to rub his back and
deliberately showed him his member.
In a statement, the club reported: "After first becoming
aware of an alleged incident in late August 2019, Chicago conducted an internal
investigation that resulted in termination of employment with Vizquel."
On December 27, Vizquel announced that the divorce process
with his wife had already concluded and that the judge dismissed the charges of
gender violence. Regarding the bat boy's lawsuit, he said that, since the case
is still open, he cannot comment, but he denied the facts and announced that
"it will also be clarified."
Sergio Mitre, 41, is currently being tried for the femicide
of Inés, one year and 10 months old, the daughter of his ex-partner Liliana,
who points out that he had beaten the girl until she died (NOTE: Mitre has been
found guilty and faces up to 60 years in prison). However, the player carries a
history of violence from the United States, where he has attacked ex-partners,
minors and animals.
In Mexico since September 2019, a video has been made public
where the player is seen running naked from a hotel room in Saltillo chasing a
woman, also without clothes, whom he dragged back to the room in front of
security personnel.
As a result of what happened that night, Sergio Mitre was
arrested, spent four days in jail, was prosecuted for domestic violence and the
case ended in a conditional suspension. The process consists of the aggressor
acknowledging his responsibility and agreeing to comply with a series of
reparations and protection measures for the victim.
The Saltillo Saraperos, who initially condemned the violent
acts and suspended the player indefinitely, rehired him for 2020. At the
beginning of that year he met Liliana and Inés, and while the LMB was inactive
– as a result of the pandemic – the girl's murder happened.
Code of ethics
The president of the LMB, Horacio de la Vega, tells Proceso that while Mitre's trial is
over, the league has permanently suspended him.
“In the case of players or managers who’ve had this type of
unacceptable behavior and who are currently active in the league,” said de la
Vega, “it is for such individuals to take responsibility for their actions and
reinsert themselves into professional sports in an impeccable way, with
exemplary behavior in all aspects of his life, in particular his behavior
towards women, and that his activity in professional sports serves as a second
chance to make up for his faults.”
The president acknowledges that the LMB lacks a policy to act
in this type of case, but that "it is respectful of the autonomy of its
clubs and the hiring of personnel."
However, he anticipates that for the 2022 season a Code of
Ethics will come into force, "an unprecedented effort in the almost 100
years of existence of the league" which will include precautionary
measures and the uprooting of violent behavior against women. He also said that
the LMB will develop permanent campaigns for the prevention of gender violence
and will teach courses to suppress "incorrectly normalized behavior in our
society."
The central task, he adds, "will be prevention,
awareness and education to have players with social awareness, gender and
values that promote inclusion and equality. We will be very respectful of
authority, and if there are players who are legally impeded to participate in
our circuit, what is available will be followed.
“The position of the LMB is that any offender be prosecuted,
in accordance with all applicable laws in Mexico, as well as with the legal
systems of other countries. In the event that the authorities require the
support of the LMB, it will be granted.
"Similarly, at the time there are accusations of any
kind against personnel of any of the clubs, the league will proceed accordingly
with exhaustive investigations."