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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
February 7, 2022
MEXICO KO’D IN SEMIS, FINISH 3-3 AT
CARIBBEAN SERIES
After dropping their first two games
at the Caribbean Series, Mexico bounced back with consecutive shutout wins over
Colombia, Puerto Rico and Panama to qualify for the semifinals. However the
magic ended last Wednesday in Santo Domingo as the host Dominican Republic
eliminated the Mexicans, 2-1,at Estadio Quisqueya Juan Marichal to advance to
Thursday’s title game against surprising Colombia, who’d lost all their games
in two prior Serie del Caribe appearances before going 3-2 in this year’s first
round and crushing Venezuela, 8-1, in the first semi game.
Following their 1-0 victory over Colombia last Sunday for
their first win of the 2022 Serie del Caribe, last Monday featured a 5-0
triumph over Puerto Rico that evened Mexico’s first-round record at 2-2 while
eliminating the Boricuans from final four contention. Nick Struck whitewashed
the Puerto Ricans over 5.2 innings, allowing five hits and three walks while
striking out two. Struck and four relievers got all the support they’d need
when Esteban Quiroz belted a two-run homer off Oscar de la Cruz in the first
inning after Jose Cardona led off the game with a single. Mexico scored twice
more in the third when Victor Mendoza doubled Cardona home and then came in on
a Japhet Amador single. Felix Perez scored the final run of the game in the
sixth when he touched home plate on an Agustin Murillo single.
Mexico then set a Caribbean Series record with their third
straight shutout last Tuesday when they blanked Panama, 1-0, punching their
ticket to the knockout stage in the process. This time it was longtime veteran
righty Javier Solano who got the start (and win) with six solid frames,
allowing just two hits and two walks as Mexico ran their consecutive scoreless
innings total to 29, another Serie del
Caribe record. After Jose Cardona hit a two-out single and stole second in
the bottom of the fifth, Quiroz stroked a single to left off reliever Luis
Ramos that saw the speedy Cardona motor in with what would be the winning run.
Roberto Osuna struck out Rodrigo Orozco to end the game and earn the save, his
second of the tournament.
Mexico then faced the host Dominicans in the Final Four
Wednesday night. Although Brennan Bernardino had a good outing, scattering
seven hits and allowing one run in 5.2 innings, the game belonged to Dominican
starter Tyler Alexander. The Detroit Tigers swingman carried a perfect game
into the ninth inning and threw 71 strikes among 88 pitches before being pulled
after allowing a leadoff double to Isaac Rodriguez. Last year’s LMP batting champion
eventually scored on a Cardona groundout but reliever Juan Minaya retired
Quiroz on a 4-3 grounder to end the game. DR rightfielder Moises Sierra singled
in Henry Urrutia in the bottom of the second inning for the first run of the
game (breaking Mexico’s record string of scoreless at 30) and a Sierra
sacrifice fly in the eighth brought Robinson Cano from third to make it a 2-0
contest. Urrutia and Cano combined for five hits, four of them doubles.
The Dominicans then fell in the Serie del Caribe title game, a
surprising 4-1 loss to Colombia, a country which had failed to win a single
game in their two previous appearances at the tournament. Perhaps in
anticipation of a Dominican championship, journalists named six players from
the host country as part of a 12-man Dream Team before the final game while
including just two Colombians. One Mexico player, leftfielder Felix Perez, was
named to the team. Perez hit .263 with one homer and one RBI over six games.
CARIBBEAN SERIES FIRST ROUND STANDINGS:Dominican Republic 4-1, Colombia 3-2,
Venezuela 3-2, MEXICO 3-2, Puerto Rico 1-4, Panama 1-4.
SEMIFINALS: Colombia 8, Venezuela 1;
Dominican Republic 2, MEXICO 1.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Colombia 4,
Dominican Republic 1
FOUR MEXICAN LEAGUE TEAMS NAME
MANAGERS
With the 2022 Caribbean Series in
the history books, attention south of the border has shifted to the Mexican
League’s upcoming season, which will get underway on April 22 this year. The
later start means later openings of spring training for the LMB’s 18 teams but
most have been busy signing players and, in the case of four franchises, naming
new managers. Quintana Roo, Guadalajara, Veracruz and Monclova have all
announced new skippers since the first of the year.
In Cancun, the Quintana Roo Tigres
are bringing in Luis Antonio “Tony” Rodriguez as dugout boss, replacing Oscar
Robles (who took over when Adan Munoz was fired early during the 2021 campaign
despite a winning record. A 51-year-old native of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez was
signed by the Red Sox as an infielder in 1991 and played 27 games for Boston in
1996, batting .239 with one homer. He ended up playing seven years in the Bosox
system and one as a Mariners minor leaguer before spending eight years with
Nashua and Bridgeport in the independent Atlantic League, plus short stints in
Taiwan and Puerto Rico.
After retiring as a player in 2005,
Rodriguez has been an assistant GM with Puerto Rico’s Santurce Cangrejeros as
well as a third base coach in Nicaragua for the Chinandega Tigres over the past
three winters. Remarks made during his introductory press conference suggest
that fans in Cancun might see their share of smallball this summer. “I am a
person who likes to play the game as it should be,” he said. “I was a baseball
player and I played the basic game: touch, sacrifice, move the runners, move
the base and that is what will be seen in the team this year.” Rodriguez, who
has never managed a professional team, will wear number 13 this season.
Meanwhile, the Guadalajara Mariachis
have hired a familiar face to replace Benji Gil, who resigned as manager to
take a coaching job with the Los Angeles Angels. Sergio Gastelum, a former
All-Star second baseman over a 22-year playing career who has had success as a
manager, will take over the second-year team. Gastelum was a .316 batter and
won multiple pennants as a player over 1,675 games before retiring. His first
job as a manager was with Oaxaca in 2018, when he took the chronic underdog
Guerreros to the Serie del Rey in the Fall season before losing to Monterrey.
After another winning season in Oaxaca in 2019, team owner
Alfredo Harp Helu hired him to manage the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (who Harp
also owns). That’s when things got weird. Gastelum led the Diablos in their
2020 training camp until the Mexican League canceled the season in reaction to
the Wuhan virus. Then the Diablos did some shuffling that resulted in Miguel
Ojeda being bumped from the front office to manager and Gastelum being bumped
from the ranks of the employed without ever managing a regular season game in
Mexico City. He did manage in Monterrey in 2021 after Homar Rojas was fired 15
games into the season. The Sultanes had a 26-25 record and made the playoffs
but Gastelum was sent packing after Roberto Kelly (who’d managed the Fall 2018
champs) agreed to return to Monterrey. Gastelum also managed Obregon in the
Mexican Pacific League and won Manager of the Year twice, but was let go after
the Yaquis lost their opening round playoff series last month.
Another second-year Liga team, the
Veracruz Aguilas, have picked Emmanuel Valdez as their new helmsman, replacing
Leo Rodriguez III. A 43-year-old Tijuana native nicknamed “El Peque” (“The
Little One”), the 6’3” 230-pound Valdez spent 19 LMB seasons as a catcher-first
baseman for five teams. He was a steady hitter in the .280 range who hit 224
homers, including a career-high 25 longballs for Saltillo in 2013. Valdez also
played eight winters in the Mexican Pacific League between 2005 and 2013,
batting .241 with 43 homers in 302 regular season games for Mexicali and
Culiacan.
Like Rodriguez in Quintana Roo,
Valdez has never managed a team but he brings impressive credentials as a
former player to Jalisco. He was a regular on LMB pennant-winning teams for
both the Tigres and Campeche and was a silver medalist for Mexico at the
Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico. Valdez was part of a
select group of Mexicans certified by MLB to train coaches around the world,
he’s been an instructor in the national ProBeis program and most recently served
as a catching coach with Guasave in the MexPac.
Finally,
Mickey Callaway has been elevated to manager of the Monclova Acereros’ Mexican
League squad after leading the Steelers to the Mexican WInter League
championship last year. Callaway was a 1996 Tampa Bay draft pick out of the
University of Mississippi and made his MLB debut with the Rays three years
later. He eventually spent all or part of five seasons pitching in the Majors,
three years in South Korea and one year in Taiwan, where he was a member of the
2009 Taiwan Series champion Uni-President Lions.
After
retiring following the Taiwan Series, Callaway became a pitching coach in the
Indians system and served manager Terry Francona in that role for Cleveland
between 2013 and 2017, including the Tribe’s American League title season of
2016. Callaway then managed the New York Mets in 2018-19 (leading them to a
163-161 record over two years) and was hired to be the Los Angeles Angels
pitching coach for 2020 before an investigation into sexual harassment
allegations led to his suspension by MLB through the upcoming seasons and his
firing by the Angels.
MITRE
FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING 1-YEAR-OLD GIRL
(Warning: This is not a story for the
faint of heart)
Sergio Mitre, who pitched in parts
of eight major league seasons and won a World Series ring with the 2009 New
York Yankees, likely will spend the rest of his life in prison after being
found guilty of the murder of his ex-girlfriend’s infant daughter.
Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post reports that Mitre was
convicted in Saltillo (where he last pitched for the Mexican League Saraperos
in 2019) and sentenced to 50 years in prison for the July 2020 sexual assault
and killing. An autopsy showed the 22-month-old, who is identified only as Ines
by authorities, had been sexually assaulted before her death, according to the
report, as the result of hypovolemic shock, in which severe blood loss prevents
the heart from pumping enough blood through the body.
Prosecutors said Mitre punched Ines in her lower back after
an argument between him and the girl’s mother. The girl’s mother rushed her to
Saltillo Children’s Hospital after she began vomiting and fainting, and she was
later declared dead.
Mitre was born in Los Angeles and raised in Tijuana. He was
drafted in 2001 out of San Diego City College and debuted with the Cubs in
2003. He had stints with the Marlins, Brewers and Yankees, with whom he pitched
from July through September of their title-winning 2009 club. The now
40-year-old posted a 6.79 ERA in 51 ⅔ innings that season and was left off the
postseason roster.
Mitre last pitched in MLB with the Yankees in 2011 after
compiling a career 13-30 record with a 5.21 ERA over 143 games, 64 of them
starts, between 2003 and 2011. He then pitched for teams south of the border,
including stints with Leon, Tijuana, Dos Laredos and Saltillo in the Mexican
League (going 17-8 with a 5.10 ERA in three seasons) as well as Mexicali in the
Mexican Pacific League, where he went 9-10 and 3.38 over three winters.
The 6’3” right-hander, who had a 12-5 record in 2019 for the
Tecos and Saraperos, was on the Saltillo roster during the suspended 2020 LMB
campaign at the time charges were filed and he was taken to jail. Mitre had been
arrested the previous season on domestic violence charges at a Quality Inn in
Saltillo and while he was suspended “indefinitely,” the team quietly reinstated
him prior to the 2020 season and even included him in promotions for the
campaign, which was eventually canceled.
Mitre, who earned an estimated $5.2 million as a Major League
pitcher according to Spotrac, was ordered by the Saltillo court to pay $66,429
in restitution damages related to the sexual assault and murder case. He is far
from the first recent Mexican League player or manager to have run afoul of the
law on domestic violence or sexual assualt charges, as we will learn next week
in a translated column by Beatriz Pereyra for Mexico City’s Proceso magazine.
