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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
February 26, 2 0 1 8
February 5,
2018
- January 29,
2018 - Culiacan
wins LMP pennant
January 22, 2018 - January 15, 2018 - January 10, 2018 - January 1, 2018 - December 25, 2017- December 18, 2017 - December 11, 2017 - December 4, 2017 - December 1, 2017
Training camp
opens for 15 Liga
teams...then there's Tabasco
As February
heads into its final week of 2018, training camp
is in full swing for all 30 Major League Baseball teams as well as 15
of their
counterparts south of the border in the Mexican League.
Then there are the Tabasco Olmecas.
The
Villahermosa-based team staggered through a moribund
season last year, finishing a Liga-worst 38-69 on the field to come in
26 games
out of first place in the mediocre South Division.
The poor showing was reflected in the box
office at Parque Centenario 27 de Febrero, where only 71,829 souls
passed
through the turnstiles over 50 dates for an average of just 1,437 per
opening. The ballpark itself was plagued
by electrical problems throughout the campaign, with power outages a
common occurrence,
which didn't help attendance at all. The
nadir of the Olmecas season came Sunday, July 2, when only 178 were in
the
stands to witness a 5-0 loss to Monterrey.
It was that kind of year in Tabasco.
Former team
chairman Carlos Jose Dagdug, who resigned from
his club duties after the 2017 schedule was completed, told Tabasco
Hoy last fall that it would take
about 40 million pesos (approximately 2.2 million US dollars) to field
a
competitive team in Villahermosa this year under manager Alfonso
"Houston" Jimenez. The former
MLB shortstop had yet to convene training camp for the squad as of late
last
week, however, as rumors float that cash shortages in the front office
have led
to the delay. Whatever the cause, the
situation mirrors the late starts by newcomers Durango and Leon last
year, with
both teams playing on the road for the first month of the season while
their
own ballpark upgrades were being performed.
One positive bit
of news coming out of Tabasco is that
renovations to Parque Centenario 27 de Febrer, which turns 54 Tuesday,
are
underway and hoped to be mostly completed when the regular season opens
in late
March. LMB president Javier Salinas
toured the facility last week with new team president Juan Luis Dagdug
(Carlos'
brother) as part of a visit to the
troubled franchise, calling the Olmecas one of the "pillars" of the
Mexican League due to their continuous play since starting in 1977. Renovations will include a paint job,
restroom upgrades, remodeled locker rooms maintenance to the grandstand
roof. Hopefully a call to an electrician
is also on the agenda.
Acereros
undergoing makeover for 2018
season
When the
already-strong Monclova Acereros were able to pluck
most of the players from the 2016 Mexican League champion Puebla
Pericos after
Pericos owner Gerardo Benavides purchased the Acereros last winter,
Monclova
was considered a favorite by many to win the LMB flag in 2017. Indeed, the team did well during the regular
season by going 67-41 to finish third in the tough North Division, but
were
swept in four games by Monterrey in the first round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, the roster-ravaged Pericos managed
to pull things together under new manager Tim Johnson and reached the
LMB
Championship Series before falling to Tijuana.
Never the type
of person to sit idly even in the best of
times, Benavides was expected to rearrange the landscape of his
preferred
hometown team. He started with his
manager, Jorge Luis Loredo, who took over the team after the Wally
Backman
experiment failed and steadied the ship before the Acereros'
ignominious
postseason exit. Loredo was not rehired
and will coach for Houston Jimenez in Tabasco this year while former
MLB and
LMB catcher Dan Firova was hired to manage in Monclova.
A six-player
"trade" with Puebla shortly after the
season ended netted shortstop Alberto Carreon, third baseman Issmael
Salas and
catcher Cesar Tapia while the Acereos only gave up catcher DJ Dixon and
pitchers Julio Felix and Romario Gil, but Salas has already been
returned to
Puebla without ever suiting up for the Steelers. Then
shortstop Amadeo Zazueta, who played in
the All-Star Game at Campeche and had a terrific year at the plate with
a .341
batting average, was shipped to Leon without a player coming in return
from the
Bravos.
Finally,
Monclova worked a deal with Tijuana last Friday in
which speedy centerfielder Justin Greene and solid right-handed pitcher
Hector
Galvan were sent to the Toros in exchange for reserve outfielder Chris
Valencia
and righty pitchers Jordan Aboites and Edwin Quirarte, a deal that at
first
glance seems to clearly favor the defending champions.
Another head-scratching transaction was the
importing of former MLB second baseman Jemile Weeks, who hit .303 for
Oakland
in 2011 but has otherwise been a bit of a journeyman, appearing for
four big
league teams between 2011 and 2016. What
Firova will do with Weeks is uncertain, given that he already has
arguably the
best Mexican second sacker in the game on his roster in Manny Rodriguez.
Whether all the
personnel moves result in Monclova winning
the city's first LMB pennant since the Acereros made their debut in
1974
(Benavides' grandfather was owner) remains to be seen, but Firova
himself may
need a scorecard to keep track of who's playing for him on any given
night.
Venados' owner
willing to host 2019
Caribbean Series, if needed
If the Caribbean
Series is going to have to be moved a second
year in a row, another Mexican Pacific League team (at least their
owner) has
let it be known they'd be willing and able to pinch-hit as an emergency
site
for the Crown Jewel of Latin Baseball. This
year, of course, the Jalisco Charros
stepped up to host the event after political and economic turmoil in
Venezuela
led the tournament organizers to move the CS out of Barquisimieto to
Guadalajara, making it two years in a row that Mexico has held the Serie del Caribe (Culiacan was the site
in 2017). Barquisimieto will get another
crack next February if conditions in Venezuela stabilize but if things
don't
work out again, the Mazatlan Venados owner says he's interested in
bringing the
CS to the Pearl of the Pacific for a second time.
Venados owner
Antonio Toledo tells Puro Beisbol's Fernando
Ballesteros that if Venezuela has to drop
out as CS host, "The Dominican Republic would be the second option but
in
case they're not in condition to take over, we could get in." After years of jockeying for an all-new
ballpark north of the city's tourist zone, it was decided instead to
completely
renovate Estadio Teodoro Mariscal, which has been home to the Venados
since its
1962 opening. While various maintenance
and repair projects (including a 2000 seating expansion) have been
performed at
the 15,000-seat ballpark, which sits between the Zona Dorado to the
north and
downtown Mazatlan to the south, this is the first-ever major overhaul
of the
facility. "Our remodeled stadium
should be ready by the beginning of October," Toledo told Ballesteros,
"but if it's not, it's possible we can play a few series on the road to
start the season."
Mazatlan is one
of five LMP cities that typically rotate as
Caribbean Series hosts, along with Mexicali, Hermosillo, Culiacan and
now
Guadalajara. The tourney itself
historically has rotated between Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and the
Dominican Republic over the past four decades, although Miami was the
site for
two ill-fated attempts to bring the CS to the United States in the
early
90's. Mazatlan has hosted the tournament
four times (1978, 1985, 1993 and 2005), with the Venados becoming the
only host
team to win the CS in front of its own fans in 2005.
Barquisimieto is
scheduled to host the Caribbean Series in
2019, followed by San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2020 and Mazatlan in 2021. There has been talk of Havana, Cuba being a
potential site, although the needed infrastructure may not yet be in
place to
handle the influx of fans from other countries, while both Panama and
Colombia
have also been mentioned as COPABE president Jose Manuel Puello seeks
to expand
the event to other nations. However,
Mexico has proven to be the most supportive of the participating
countries
since the turn of the century, so it would not be wise to count out
Mazatlan
two years early...just in case.
