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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
June 22, 2020
CHITO RODRIGUEZ URGES LMB TO CANCEL SEASON
A widely-respected Salon de la Fama member
with over four
decades of Mexican League front office experience is calling on the LMB
to
cancel the 2020 season due to ongoing uncertainty regarding the Wuhan
virus
outbreak in Mexico.
Cuauhtémoc
“Chito” Rodríguez was inducted last year in
Monterrey after an executive career during which his Dos Laredos
Tecolotes
reached the playoffs 15 times (winning two pennants) before taking over
as
president of the flagship Tigres franchise in 1994 and overseeing six
title-winning teams in Mexico City, Puebla and Quintana Roo before his
2018
retirement after Fernando Valenzuela purchased the team from Carlos
Peralta. He
was recognized as "King of Baseball" at the Baseball Winter Meetings
in 2011.
When asked by writer Angel
Villegas last week about the upcoming Mexican League season, Rodriguez
was
quoted as saying, "cancel it," in Puro Beisbol. "I
don't think baseball being played in the
LMB is possible this year. The country is immersed in the virus and we
don't
know when it will be solved."
Rodriguez
elaborated that the Liga's plan to play games with people in the
stands is
impractical: “The
situation in the country and in the world
is very complex regarding the virus. I would not recommend playing
with
the public in the stands in the Mexican League. It will not be
controllable until you have a vaccine to counteract this evil.
Therefore,
it is not practical for anyone to be in a sport that people go to the
stadiums
and I do not only mean baseball but also others such as soccer,
basketball and
American football."
He echoed
LMB president Horacio de la Vegas by saying that teams can't afford to
play
behind closed doors either. “Doing it without an audience in the
stadiums
as the United States plans, if it takes shape, is very different,"
Rodriguez explains. "MLB has very strong television
income. In
this case, they'll try to get their season off for television rights
and
sponsors are not interested in whether or not there are people. It's a
situation very different from that in Mexico."
Rodriguez
suggests that calling off the season gives the Mexican League an
opportunity to
create peace with the winter Mexican Pacific League, who would not have
to
shorten their season to accomodate a Mexican League schedule stretching
into
November. "It is time for the two leagues to make amends," he
says. "I would go with the LMB Board of Directors and would do the
same with the Winter Council and tell them, 'Look, we must make peace.
We did
not do it for many years because there are difficulties between us
so
there was no approach. We've criticized each other, but now it's time
to lean
on each other.'
“It's a complicated situation so it
would be best if the Mexican League told the winter league that they
can start
as usual in October, finish it and play their Caribbean Series.
Everyone in
peace."
DE
LA VEGA: LMB WILL NOT PLAY GAMES IN EMPTY BALLPARKS
Although the 2020 Mexican League
season is tentatively scheduled to open August 7, it's with the full
knowledge
that the Wuhan virus pandemic makes everything a fluid situation and
that the
season may not be played at all. One thing that isn't going to change,
according to LMB president Horacio de la Vega, is that the Liga will
NOT play
games in front of occupied stands in 2020.
"We are not going to play
behind closed doors. That is our determination. The only possibility is
to do
it with the capacity allowed," de la Vega said.
According to the Hitazo website, de la Vega
explained
that he expects to start the season on August 7 to end on November 10
with a
48-game campaign for each team in the regular season, but that will
depend on
how the pandemic plays out over the next few weeks.
Unlike leagues elsewhere, the
Mexican League is not in the financial position to play without people
in the
stands because the LMB does not have deals with sponsors similar to
those found
in the United States, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan while the majority
of its
16 teams are dependent on revenue from ticket, merchandise and
concession sales
to meet payroll and cover their other expenses. Games behind closed
doors would
almost certainly lead to franchises folding, perhaps even during the
season.
As a case in point, the Korea
Baseball Organization (where Hermosillo-born Roberto Ramos has become a
star in
his first season in Asia) has played in front of empty stands since
opening
their season on May 5. Although the KBO is in better financial shape
than the
LMB and has had their games beamed to a North American TV audience on
ESPN,
SportBusiness.com reports that some teams are reportedly beginning to
struggle
without ballpark revenues and corporate team owners may be forced to
take out
bank loans to meet front office and team payrolls. One KBO club
official said,
"We've been paying our players and employees in full but if we keep
playing without fans in July, a lot of teams will run into extremely
serious
trouble.
The leader of Mexico's summer
baseball circuit accepted that after the Wuhan virus, it will be
necessary to
change uses and customs of the game, such as spitting on the ground
(something
usual between pitches) or eating sunflower seeds.
"It will radically change
the behavior of the players," de la Vega stated. "There is a protocol
that will imply changes, not only for the players, but also for the
fans."
BANUELOS
CUT BY MARINERS, SIGNS WITH TEAM IN TAIWAN
If nothing else, Manny Banuelos'
passport has been getting a good workout this year.
The 29-year-old lefty will be
playing in his fourth country since January after the 5'10" Laguna
native
signed a one-year contract with the Fubon Guardians of Taiwan's Chinese
Professional Baseball League last week. Banuelos will report this week
to the
team in New Taipei City, where the Guardians roster includes fellow
moundsmen
Henry Sosa, Mike Loree, Bryan Woodall and Ryan Bollinger.
Banuelos was once a highly-regarded
prospect after signing a free-agent contract with the New York Yankees
in 2008
at age 17. He rose as high as AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in seven years
as a
farmhand in pinstripes, but never appeared in the majors until after he
was
traded to Atlanta following the 2014 season. He made an impressive MLB
debut
for the Braves on July 2 against Washington at home, shutting out the
Nats over
5.2 innings and striking out seven batters in a no-decision 2-1 win.
Banuelos
followed that outing with another good start five nights later in
Milwaukee by
holding the Brewers to one run in 5.1 frames and was credited with a
4-3 victory.
Although he mostly pitched creditably the rest of the season, he lost
his final
four decisions, including an 8-4 shelling at Washington on September 6
in which
he allowed six runs over two innings in his final outing. That was
enough to
raise his overall ERA from 3.33 to 5.13 to augment a 1-4 record.
After that, Banuelos was returned to
the minors and bounced from the Braves to the Dodgers and White Sox
organizations before returning to MLB in 2019 with Chicago, going 3-4
with a
6.93 ERA in 16 appearances, including eight starts. He had a great
April for
the Chisox, finishing the month with a 2-0 record and 2.70 ERA in six
appearances (including four shutout innings on April 22 at Baltimore in
a 12-2
laugher), but he allowed 27 earned runs in 20.1 entradas in May
to lose
four of five decisions and pitched sparingly for manager Rick Renteria
after
that. A Mexican-American, Renteria led the Mexican League in batting
with a
.442 average for Jalisco in 1991.
Banuelos spent last winter pitching
in the Mexican Pacific League for Culiacan, going 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA
in four
starts. He began the year helping the Tomateros win the LMP title in
the
January playoffs, traveled with the team to Puerto Rico in February for
the
Caribbean Series (where Culiacan reached the semifinals, then went to
Arizona
for MLB spring training after signing a free-agent contract with the
Seattle
Mariners.
Banuelos made one Cactus League
appearance with the M's, allowing two runs in as many innings on two
hits, two
wild pitches and a hit bastman. He appeared ticketed to AAA Tacoma when
the
Wuhan virus halted camps across MLB, but was among about 50 minor
leaguers
purged from the Seattle organization on June 2 in order to save the
organization $400 a week per player.
Now, Banuelos will resume his career
on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. He'll join a Fubon team that
has made
nine playoff appearances and won three pennants since their 1993 debut
as the
Jungo Bears, but currently sits third in the four-team CPBL with a
17-23 record
after absorbing a 13-4 loss Sunday to the Uni-President Lions, whose
roster
features former MLB pitchers Ryan Feieraband and Josh Roenicke.
While Taiwan is not where he expected to be when the year began, Manny Banuelos will have one decided advantage over the 750 major leaguers and thousands of remaining minor leaguers he left behind when he departed from North America last week: He'll be playing baseball.
