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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
February 15, 2021
LIGA
RATIFIES 66-GAME SEASON; ROJAS NEW MONTERREY MANAGER
The Mexican League recently held an
Assembly of Presidents meeting during which a shortened 66-game season
schedule
was ratified while two new franchises were accepted as the LMB's first
expansion teams in 30 years. There are now 18 teams in two divisions.
Regular season hostilities in the
Liga will commence Thursday, May 20 when the Monterrey Sultanes travel
to
Monclova for a game against the defending champion Acereros, who won
their
first pennant in 2019. A full slate of nine games is scheduled one
night later.
The regular season will be played through Thursday, August 5, followed
by a
12-team postseason with berths determined by won-lost percentages.
There will
be four stages of playoffs (all best-of-seven series), with the Serie
del Rey
to run Monday, September 6 through Tuesday, September 14 if needed.
There will be no All-Star Game this
season. Teams will be allowed to carry seven foreigners on their
respective
active rosters in 2021 with another three on the Reserve List (which
will be
expanded from 38 to 60 per team to allow enough depth to avoid game
cancellations due to the Wuhan virus. Talks are continuing with Major
League
Baseball regarding the transfer of player contracts. The current
agreement
expires in March.
One of the expansion clubs, the
Guadalajara Mariachis, will join the North Division while the Veracruz
Aguilas
will serve as the LMB South's ninth team. The Assembly of Presidents
approved
both franchises even though neither has paid their respective entry
fees. Veracruz has named a player from
their 2012
championship team, Leo Rodriguez III, as manager. The grandson of Salon
de
la Fama member Leo Rodriguez Senior, the younger Rodriguez spent 15
years
(seven in Veracruz) in the LMB as a catcher before retiring after the
2017
season. This will be his first season as a dugout boss. Guadalajara
reportedly
settled upon their first manager as well, but has not yet released his
name due
to a confidentiality agreement.
Monterrey will also open the season
with a new manager, as former Yankees outfielder Roberto Kelly (who led
the
Sultanes to the Fall 2018 title and was named Manager of the Year) has
decided
to sit 2021 out, giving concerns over the pandemic and a desire to work
with
one of his sons, reportedly a prospect for the upcoming June draft.
Kelly's bench coach, Homar Rojas,
will take the reins of the ten-time champions. Rojas debuted as an
18-year-old
catcher for the Sultanes in 1982 to begin a 23-year playing career. The
Nuevo
Leon native previously managed five LMB teams over 13 years and has
been
Manager of the Year twice. He's also won two Mexican Pacific League
pennants
and led Monterrey to a 22-39 record in 2019-20, their first season of
winterball in the Mex Pac.
CHARROS
ACCUSE QUIRARTE OF MISHANDLING 25 MILLION PESOS
The divorce between the Mexican
Pacific League's Jalisco Charros and former team president Salvador
Quirarte
has been anything but amicable, but now things are getting ugly, with
accusations flying from both sides in dueling press conferences in a
dispute
that seems destined to end up in a courtroom.
Quirarte lost his position as
president of the Guadalajara-based team in a front office power
struggle last
November. At the time, Jose Carlos Campos of El Rincon Beisbolbero
(and
a former
LMP media relations director) said Quirarte's dismissal centered on
questions
of his handling of a pro basketball team he also operates, but
statements from
both the Charros and Quirarte are exposing a deeper rift that includes
alleged
financial irregularities involving 25 million pesos (or about US$1.25
million).
Last week, a group of lawyers
representing the Charros board of directors accused Quirarte of making
43 money
transfers totaling six million pesos in loans between 2017 and 2020 to
a
company owned by relatives, Empresa Mexicana de Tabasco, adding
that 3.4
million pesos have not been repaid. Another company owned by Quirarte's
relatives, Controladora de Kioscos, was paid 3.2 million pesos
for
market analysis while another 12 million pesos' worth of Charros
merchandise
was reportedly given to the latter company without record of payment.
Another
3.2 million pesos is said to have been transferred to the Jalisco
Astros pro
basketball team Quirarte managers without board approval.
Quirarte is also accused of “abusing
the trust” of his partners by assigning himself a monthly salary of
100,000
pesos while using a corporate credit for for 5.3 million pesos' worth
of personal
expenses between 2018 and 2020. The attorneys also claimed Quirarte
acted in de
facto fashion as the team's sole general administrator despite the
presence
of partner Armando Navarro, who became a shareholder in exchange for
contributing the “Charros” name of the brand (which he owned the rights
to when
the franchise moved from Guasave to Guadalajara in 2014).
Unsurprisingly, Quirarte has
responded in kind during his own press conferences, saying that
accusations
against him are “futile” and must be proven before a judge. He accuses
Navarro
of not having contributed the “Jalisco Charros” trademark and thus is
“not even
a partner,” and that the origin of the conflict is that Navarro wants
more than
the 11 percent ownership he was granted in exchange for the team's
name.
Quirarte added that it is Navarro, not him, who is responsible for any
financial mismanagement of the team: “I did not sign the checks. That
responsibility was held by Armando Navarro.”
In relation to allegations against
him, Quirarte said that Navarro gave approval to all transactions on
the
corporate credit card, that board members' travel and food expenses to
the same
events Quirarte attended were similarly charged to the card and that
all
partners are in debt to the team for a combined 30 million pesos (but
only
Quirarte's debt was publicly disclosed). Quirarte stated that since the
team is
owned privately and not by the government, it is not a crime to do
business
with family members, adding that all partners have done the same (with
members
of Navarro's family on the team payroll). And on it goes.
The dispute casts a long shadow over
what has been one of the great success stories of Mexican baseball.
Together or
separately, Quirarte and Navarro helped move a moribund Guasave team to
Guadalajara, where baseball had failed in prior attempts, and then
built one of
the strongest franchises in the country. After purchasing and
renovating the
stadium used for baseball and track & field during the 2011 Pan
American
Game, the Charros have since hosted the Caribbean Series as well as
group stage
games for both the World Baseball Classic and Premier12 tournaments
while being
among the LMP's annual attendance leaders while averaging crowds of
10,000-plus
per game.
PUELLO:
POLITICAL SOLUTIONS NEEDED FOR CUBA RETURN TO CS
After a six-year run as a
conditional participant in the Caribbean Series following their 2014
return,
Cuba has missed the past two tournaments. The leader of the Caribbean
Professional Baseball Confederation is now saying that absence may
extend
further if the island nation fails to “solve its political affairs.”
CBPC commissioner Juan Francisco
Puello spoke with ESPN Deportes as the Serie del Caribe in Mazatlan
drew to a
close earlier this month and addressed conditions in Cuba, one of the
original
four participating nations when the CS began in 1949 before withdrawing
after
the 1960 event, precipitating a nine-year hiatus before it was resumed
in 1970.
“The thing about Cuba is a matter that has to do with politics,” Puello
said.
“When that country solves its political affairs, then we will see Cuba
again.
In the meantime the issue will stay quiet.”
Later in the same interview, Puello
opined, “The thing about Cuba is something different. It is a subject
which I
don't touch on anymore because it is an uncomfortable subject. Anyone
who knows
me knows that I don't like politics or politicians. I'm about sports.”
Puello did not address any specific
solutions that would bring Cuba back to an event it has won eight
times, seven
before late dictator Fidel Castro (a noted baseball fan) pulled the
country out
of the tournament in 1960 after winning it for the fifth consecutive
year. When
the Caribbean Series returned in 1970, both Cuba and Panama had been
replaced
by the Dominican Republic and Mexico, who joined holdovers Venezuela
and Puerto
Rico in the four-team field until Cuba was added back in 2014, winning
the
event one year later.
Times have changed since then, when
Puello visited Havana in 2015 and speculated that the tournament might
return
in 2020 to Havana (where it was played three times during the 1950's).
Things
turned sour last winter when Cuba pulled out of the Caribbean Series in
San
Juan, Puerto Rico on short notice, attributing visa difficulties for
its players
and coaching staff. A year after Panama was recruited to host on an
emergency
basis when problems in Venezuela prevented that nation from serving as
the
event's site, Colombia was brought in to fill out the six-team field.
As with
Cuba, both Panama (another original member of 1949) and Colombia have
played in
the Series on a conditional basis. In the aftermath of the 2020
Caribbean
Series, Puello announced Cuba's suspension for this year.
Reactions to Puello's statements
were not long in coming. The Cuban Baseball Federation released a
statement
that, “We absolutely reject recent statements by Juan Francisco Puello.
No
political problem affects the development of Cuban baseball or
attendance at
the Caribbean Series.” An initial tweet from the federation reads, “It
was the
CBPC that unjustifiable excluded the country from that fight.” A second
tweet
came minutes later: “Juan Francisco Puello has exceeded his authority
on
political issues in Cuba. We will denounce his words and actions before
the
WBSC (World Baseball Softball Confederation) and the member leagues of
the
Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation.”
The president of the Cuban Olympic
Committee also chimed in. The Qba Deportes website reports that
Riberto
Leon Richards Aguilar tweeted, “The Cuban Olympic Committee considers
it
intolerable that the president of the CBPC, Juan Francisco Puello,
accuses Cuba
of political problems that prevent its presence in the Caribbean Series
of
baseball.”
Puello's positions concerning baseball and politics have been a mixed bag. Cuba's communist government headed by Raul Castro since succeeding his brother Fidel in 2011 was in place when the Dominican CBPC commissioner visited Havana in 2015 and has not changed the past six years. Nicaragua, a communist nation under Daniel Ortega whose national league has lobbied for years to take part in the Caribbean Series, was passed over again this winter despite playing a full season with playoffs while Panama was able to send an all-star team without a single game taking place. Meanwhile, Venezuela (a nation roiling in social and economic turmoil for years under Nicolas Maduro) has never had its full CS membership questioned.