Thousands of articles!
B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
July 20, 2020
PROBEIS
IS NOT BEING GIVEN PROMISED MONEY
Writer Beatriz Pereyra of Mexico
City's Proceso magazine recently produced a special report detailing
the
travails undergone with a federal program designed to develop Mexican
baseball
at the grassroots level, particularly in prospect development. The
largest
problem appears to be funding. A translated version of Pereyra's report
follows:
Everything indicates that for the
second time, the program for the Promotion and Development of Baseball
in
Mexico (Probeis), whose funds are managed by the Secretary of Public
Education
(SEP), will not be fully implemented. Édgar González, director of that
office,
assures that the pandemic paralyzed everything and although he strives
to forge
alliances, prepare plans and enable sports centers to apply the 290
million
pesos (US$12.8 million) assigned for this fiscal year, the authorities
tell him
that "when it is the right time, they will speak to me. There is
nothing
left but to wait."
The Covid-19 pandemic has
paralyzed Probeis, which to date has not spent even one of the 290
million
pesos assigned for 2020, so for the second consecutive year it will
have a
shortage of resources.
President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador also did not authorize the creation of a trust so that public
money can
be exercised by this means and not through the SEP Senior Office.
“This year we have not
exercised anything,” González says. “The SEP has made it difficult to
get the
money out and now, with the coronavirus, it is more complicated. No
bids have
been made. I wanted to get ahead in the administrative area so that
once we
return to work we will use the money. They have not wanted to do them
(the
bidding rules) and that causes me a lot of problems because when the
confinement ends, I will have three months to operate.
“There is no way I will spend
290 million pesos in that time. Then they will tell me that the only
way is
through direct adjudication. I do not want to make direct awards, but
it is the
only thing that will be possible,” regrets González.
The difficulties to operate
the program began since the director of the National Commission for
Physical
Culture and Sport (CONADE), Ana Gabriela Guevara, refused to distribute
Probeis
resources in 2019.
For this year, when he was
willing, the president did not want the money to reach this dependency
that the
SEP pointed out because he detected acts of corruption that in just the
first
half of 2019 left a loss of 50.8 million pesos (US$2.2 million).
For months, González tried to
persuade López Obrador of the need to create a public trust to
streamline the
Probeis operation. Even the Legal Department of the Presidency designed
the
document –of which Proceso has a copy– which also considered
the
marching and boxing commissions, sports that operate with programs
outside of
CONADE.
However, López Obrador did not
authorize it. During his campaign, he promoted the eradication of
public
trusts, considering them opaque and nests of corruption. With the
presidential
decree to extinguish those that do not have an organic structure and,
later,
with the reform initiative that Morena promoted in the Chamber of
Deputies to
eliminate 44 others, it became clear to González that Probeis will not
operate
with this scheme.
“He (López Obrador) does not
know that with a trust, it is the easiest way to operate, but he put
the trusts
in the balance and if he was going to remove them all, he would not
even create
one for Probeis. I am waiting for him to tell me what I have to do.
'The
pandemic has been the priority' is what they told me when I asked for a
meeting.
“He told me that when the time
is right, he will speak to me to tell me how I am going to operate.
There is
nothing left but to wait. I understand the president because there have
been
much mismanagement of trusts, but we are left with no concrete way to
operate.
We have to ask Hector Garza (SEP head) for favors,” says González
resignedly.
Probeis'
troubles
To build four baseball schools
during 2019, Probeis signed agreements with Campeche, Jalisco, Quintana
Roo and
Guanajuato. They also did it with Hermosillo, where the federal
government
bought Estadio Héctor Espino for 511.7 million pesos (US$22.5 million)
with
resources from the Banobras National Infrastructure Fund public trust.
The
renovations in this property began this year, but were interrupted by
the
quarantine.
González has not only found
that the bidding processes take up to four months before the bidding
rules are
available on the CompraNet portal, but once the SEP sends the money to
the
states, Probeis does not have the personnel to review and follow up on
the
work.
“When the money reaches the
state,” González explains, “it is theirs and they do with it what they
want.
You have to be aware and it is difficult to follow up. The only way to
do it is
with the SEP, with agreements and tenders. Thus everything is limited.
What you
want to do is one thing, what you can is another. I get it: They want
people to
not take advantage of the budget but at the same time, the goals cannot
be
achieved.”
Other states such as Yucatan
and Tabasco received federal resources of 11 million pesos each
(US$485,000),
but they returned the money to the Treasury of the Federation because
it
arrived almost at the end of last year, when it was already impossible
to carry
out the work.
Around 100 people work at
Probeis, of which only six are hired by the SEP. One of them is
González, who
as a public servant since January 2020 had earned a net salary of
88,550 pesos
(US$3,900) over five-plus months. The rest of the employees charge by
the job
and fees. In March, when confinement began due to the pandemic, they
had not
even received the payment corresponding to the first quarter of the
year.
Immediate
plans
Eighteen months after Probeis
started, González boasted the four aforementioned schools, whose first
phase of
construction has already concluded. They lack details such as paint,
finishes
and sports equipment.
The official hopes to get them
started this year. The works that had been stopped by the pandemic
resumed just
last month. He hopes that soon the children and young people will be
able to
train in the afternoons after doing their homework on the premises, an
essential requirement to practice baseball in the Probeis program.
Thus, it also expects that the
projects of the T1-level schools (equipped with dormitories), whose
works are
scheduled for Mexico City and Monterrey, will start this year. In the
second
case, he is already in talks with the Governor of Nuevo León to
contribute 60
million pesos (US$2.6 million). Probeis will put another 35 million
pesos
(US$1.5 million). This will be the largest academy in the country, with
a
capacity for 200 players.
“Let's see what can be rescued
from that.” says González. “The plan is also to start the construction
of
another small school in Mexicali, finish the one in Hermosillo and
start the
other four that I told you about, with 11-15 million pesos
(US$485,000-660,000)
invested in each one.
“I met with the mayor of
Azcapotzalco, Vidal Llerenas, and there is a place in a sports hall
that has a
giant space for a school. He is ready and willing to help us with the
terrain.
There is another option in Gustavo A. Madero. We are waiting for
Claudia
Sheinbaum to tell us in which of the two,” he says.
In addition, Probeis plans to
build other schools in Playa del Carmen, Puerto Vallarta and in La Paz
or Los
Cabos; that is, in tourist complexes where tournaments and events such
as
showcases can be held so more scouts can come to see the prospects.
In order not to spend building
schools in Oaxaca and Mazatlán, where the owners of the Mexico City
Diablos
Rojos and Oaxaca Guerreros (Alfredo Harp Helu) and the Yucatan Leones
(the
Arellano brothers) have their academies, González asked them to allow
him put
Probeis players to train there in exchange for a monthly payment.
“I already had talks with them
and we are working on it,” González explains. “We pay for the boys we
have,
they carry out the project, we lower costs for them and we do not spend
on
buildings. That is also planned for this year. The best thing would be
for them
to say that they want it and that they support me.”
To carry out the Prospect
League in Guadalajara in 2019, Probeis asked the 16 clubs of the
Mexican League
to lend to their best players. From there, he considers that he has
already
built a bridge with them to work together.
So far, in its talent
screening program, Probeis has evaluated 6,600 children. With the
information
gathered, González is creating a database in which the strengths and
weaknesses
of Mexican children and youth can be consulted.
The results show that
although, for example, arm strength is at a high level, in other
skills, such
as running speed, they are below average. Also, physical preparation is
poor.
That, he says, could explain why Mexico exports so many pitchers and
not
position players to the Major Leagues.
The idea is to store the data
of the leads in an application in which the progress in their
performance will
be updated. That information will be available for scouts to follow up
on.
González adds that he will create a collegiate league in the country so
that
players can obtain scholarships at universities in Mexico and the
United
States.
Conversation
González is told that the
detection of talents to be sold as prospects to the major league clubs
is in
direct competition with the LMB teams, which could generate conflicts.
The director of Probeis
clarifies that in the Mexican League, they do not see it that way, that
both
parties are aware that it costs a lot to develop players and that the
money
obtained from the sale does not justify the investment.
“The theme is to develop
together. I am in talks with MLB and the LMB so that every child who
plays
baseball in Mexico from now on also attends high school and that the
teams pay
them,” he adds.
Because he is the son of David
González, owner of the González Academy in Tijuana, where they develop
players
to sell them to the MLB, and brother of major league player Adrián
González,
Édgar is said to have a conflict of interest. In the academy, his
father does
the same as the director of Probeis.
Q: You say that there are no
more frictions with the LMB, but I suppose that you are no stranger to
the
comments that Probeis will take prospects from the LMB teams. That has
generated annoyances.
A: “I don't want to fight with
them. I want them to do their best because that way, there will be more
children playing baseball. I already presented a project on how to help
them
generate money. It is not that Probeis will give them money, but that
the
government supports them to generate it.
“I told them (the team owners)
that if there are 300 prospects, they keep the best 150 and the others
are
mine, so they train some and I train others. I want the players to have
opportunities. What matters to me is that those who sign are trained
well and
given school.”
Q. What would you say about
the comments indicating that you'll take advantage of Probeis to sign
prospects
that you will actually send to the González Academy so that your father
can
sell them to MLB?
A. “I've heard it. I'm not worried
because
that's not happening. I don't even get into the academy. As I have
said, the
academy is losing money. Let them show me how many and whom I scouted
with
Probeis and took them to the González Academy.”
Q. It is also pointed out that
you intend to do business with the signing of baseball players for
Major
Leagues by charging a commission for providing the service of
representation of
players. Are you going to make money from that?
A. “Not at all. You try, yes,
but I don't. This money is public to continue operating, even if the
government
changes. I don't think it's wrong for Probeis to get 30% of the signing
bonus,
as the LMB teams do. The player needs that because they don't even know
how
much they are worth and so they don't get fooled.”
Other projects that were
pending prior to the Covid-19 pandemic are the physical preparation and
food
consultancies that Probeis will offer to players who are already signed
with
MLB teams to develop faster in the Minor Leagues.
They also could not send the
36 Mexican coaches who were selected in the 12 clinics that were held
to train
with MLB teams.
“The level of the coaching is
very low,” Gonzáles says. “They have no technical knowledge of how the
body
works, how it should be trained. There are no schools where coaches are
taught;
they do what they can with what they know.
“They do not have enough sports equipment and there is no money for those to dedicate themselves professionally to that. That is very important. Mexico is far behind in this regard.”