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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
March 15, 2021
ADRIAN
GONZALEZ TO PLAY FOR GUADALAJARA IN 2021?
Former MLB All-Star first baseman
Adrian Gonzalez is reportedly interested in playing for the expansion
Guadalajara Mariachis this summer after not appearing in a game since
2018.
Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros cites sources as saying that
“El
Titan” has reached a verbal agreement to suit up for the Mexican League
team
and is training for the upcoming season with hopes of appearing for
Mexico in
the Tokyo Olympics.
Gonzales, who was born in San Diego
to Mexican parents and grew up on both sides of the border, was the
first
overall pick of the 2001 MLB draft by the Marlins out of Eastlake High
School
in suburban Chula Vista and went on to play 15 seasons in the big
leagues. He
played in five All-Star Games (representing three teams in both
leagues), won
four Gold Gloves at the initial hassock and reached the playoffs five
times
after his 2004 debut with the Rangers.
However, after four strong seasons
with the Dodgers between 2013 and 2016, Gonzalez' 2017 campaign was cut
short
by back problems and he landed with the Mets as a free agent in 2018,
when he
hit .237 with six homers in 54 games before being released on June 11
of that
year. He hasn't played in a game since. Gonzalez' career MLB totals
include a
.287 batting average with 2,050 hits, 317 homers and 1,202 RBIs.
Although he is not a Mexican by
birth certificate, Gonzalez (who turns 39 on May 8) has represented the
county
in every World Baseball Classic since its 2006 inception while playing
in a
number of Caribbean Series with the Mexican Pacific League champions.
Although
Gonzalez has never played in the Mexican League, he played winterball
for
Mazatlan alongside brother Edgar in the LMP for several seasons.
His past flirtation with returning
to the Mex Pac as a member of the Jalisco Charros and his preference
for the
Mariachis as an LMB landing spot are both logical, given that wife
Betsy is a
Guadalajara native. Earlier news stories stating that Gonzalez was a
partner in
the LMB's other expansion team, the Veracruz Aguilas, have been denied,
since
playing for the Mariachis would create an obvious conflict of interest.
Guadalajara team president Rafael
Tejeda has said he'd be happy to have the ex-MLB star on his roster.
The club
has not yet named a manager for the upcoming season, although Charros
skipper
Benji Gil's name has been floated in several media outlets, and
Gonzalez has
been mentioned as a possible player-manager. The LMB office frowns on
such
arrangements, however, and forced respected veteran Saul Soto to step
down as
manager in Aguascalientes to concentrate on his playing duties in
recent years.
Even if/when Gonzalez suits up for
the Mariachis this year, his pathway to a berth on Mexico's Olympic
roster will
be a harder one to follow. Verdes Grande manager Juan Castro, who
coached under
Dave Roberts in Los Angeles when Gonzalez was a Dodgers player, has
publicly
stated that he already has several good options for first basemen
(arguably
Mexico's deepest position), including the likes of Efren Navarro, Matt
Clark,
Japhet Amador and Jesse Castillo. Castro stressed that Gonzalez'
two-plus years
away from the diamond and the LMB's late start may make it tougher for
him to
regain his timing at the plate in time for the Olympics, which begin in
late
July, two months after the Liga season opens.
On the other hand, Mexican president
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a baseball lover who handpicked Edgar
Gonzalez to
oversee the PROBEIS organization, directly intervened to keep four
Mexican
League teams from shutting down in 2019, forced the Mexican Pacific
League to
expand into Guasave and Monterrey that year and was behind the LMB's
addition
of both Veracruz and Guadalajara this season. As long as AMLO occupies
the
national palace in Mexico City, baseball and politics south of the
border will
never be far apart.
FOUR
LMB TEAMS TO PLAY “BATTLE OF LEGENDS” IN PUEBLA
In a virtual press conference from
Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú in Mexico City, the Mexican League's Puebla Pericos, Veracruz Aguilas, Oaxaca Guerreros
and Mexico City Diablos Rojos announced a "Battle of Legends"
preseason tournament scheduled take place from May 11-16 at Estadio
Hermanos
Serdán in Puebla. The event will consist of six doubleheaders among the
LMB
South rivals, although there will be no championship game. All contests
will be
broadcast live on social media for all four teams.
The Battle of Legends will be
carried out following sanitary measures prescribed by authorities in
accordance
with Mexico's “traffic light” system of dealing with the ongoing
pandemic. The
Mexico Daily News website on Saturday showed Puebla as one of eight
states with
“Orange Light” status, which means that limited activities with small
or no public
gatherings allowed. Conversely, Sonora joined Campeche and Chiapas as
the three
states with Green Light designations.
Representatives of all four teams
commented during the press conference. Pericos Sports VP Alfonso López
said,
“We're very proud of the work we've done. Hosting this tournament means
that
we've been doing things well in sports and administrative matters and
we'll
continue with the commitment to offer the fans the show they deserve.”
Veracruz Sports Director Jesús
“Chino” Valdez (who holds a similar role with the LMP's Mazatlan
Venados)
stated that “Without a doubt it will be a great test and very important
for
what we are doing in Veracruz...we hope to meet expectations and
experience a
competitive, joyful tournament and celebrate the return of the Mexican
League.”
Mexico City GM Jorge Del Valle said,
“The objective is to see these four great teams of our baseball heading
towards
the 2021 season. We are immensely grateful to all participants for
making this
a reality. You can be sure that the Diablos are going to take ourselves
very
seriously in this tournament.”
And
former second baseman Jaime Brena, Sports Manager of Oaxaca,
said that,
“We are very happy about participating in this tournament. It'll give
us the
opportunity to know which players we'll have in the regular season so
we will
take it as seriously as possible. We will bring a roster made up of 50
players.”
2021
BATTLE OF LEGENDS SCHEDULE
Tuesday,
May
11: Oaxaca vs. Puebla, Veracruz vs. Mexico City
Wednesday,
May 12: Mexico City vs. Veracruz, Puebla vs. Oaxaca
Thursday,
May
13: Oaxaca vs. Puebla, Veracruz vs. Mexico City
Friday,
May
14: Oaxaca vs. Veracruz, Mexico City vs. Puebla
Saturday,
May
15: Puebla vs. Mexico City, Veracruz vs. Oaxaca
Sunday,
May
16: Mexico City vs. Puebla, Oaxaca vs. Veracruz
GAME
TIMES: First game 10:00AM, Second game 2:00PM
SEPTIMA
ENTRADA REPORT: A YEAR OF BASEBALL DURING PANDEMIC
Ever since Mexico's first known
positive case of the Wuhan virus was announced on February 27, 2020,
the nation
has been deeply affected by the subsequent pandemic, as have most of
the
world's countries. Baseball has been no exception, as Septima Entrada
writer
Irving Furlong details in this translated report noting the one-year
mark of
the virus:
Mexican
Baseball League (LMB)
The number of infections began to
grow at the beginning of March, the same days that the teams of the
Mexican
League were starting the preseason, with some others beginning with
their
preparation games for the 2020 campaign.
On March 14, the LMB office
communicated its decision to postpone the start of the 2020 season to
early
May. As time passed and when conditions did not improve, league
management
decided to suspend the start of the campaign again until further
notice. After
several weeks of uncertainty, the Mexican League canceled its 2020
season on
June 1.
Now, the sights of the Mexican
League are set on holding the 2021 season, with or without fans, and
scheduled
to start on May 20 with a schedule of 66 games per team.
Mexican
Pacific
League (LMP)
Just a week after the summer league
announced the cancellation of its season, the Mexican Pacific League
confirmed
its launch for the 2020-21 season, an edition that would be carried out
"under the best possible conditions." Days before starting the
regular season, the president of the circuit, Omar Canizales, announced
a
strategic alliance for five years with the gasoline company ARCO, thus
transforming the name of the circuit to Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico.
Three cities in Sonora and Mexicali
received the green light to open stadiums with limited attendance, yet
the
decision was reversed after the first weekend. Sinaloa was the only
state that
remained with its four stadiums open, and thus began the LMP's journey
to
determine a champion for the 2020-21 season.
After just two weeks, different
teams began experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks inside their locker rooms.
Before
conditions got even more complicated, the LMP decided to suspend the
season for
11 days. The recess allowed all the organizations to finish the season
with the
coronation of the Culiacan Tomateros as the two-time champions of the
league.
2021
Caribbean Series in Mazatlan
The winter leagues made every effort
to start their tournaments and crown their respective champions except
for
Panama, which decided to put together a squad with players from the
rosters of
the participating teams. After fighting several adversities, the
Caribbean
Series 2021 could be held in Mazatlán, a tournament in which the
Dominican
Republic won the championship for the second consecutive season, making
the
Cibaenas Águilas the first undefeated championship team with a 7-0
record.
Suspension
of the 2020 Olympic Games
After a historic qualification to
the Tokyo Olympics in November 2019 by achieving third place after
beating the
United States for the second time during the Premier12, a tournament
that
brings together the twelve best baseball teams in the world, the
appointment of
the Mexican Baseball Team with the Olympic dream had to be postponed
with the
suspension of the tournament.
A few months after Tokyo rescheduled
the largest multi-sport event of the planet for 2021, the Mexican squad
was
surrounded by uncertainty as its general manager and manager both
decried of
lack of resources to put together the roster to send the national team
to
the Olympics for the first time.
Despite that, Adrián González, the
best Mexican hitter in MLB history, has said that he will seek a place
on some
LMB team while looking to get in shape to represent Mexico in the
Olympics.
Juan Castro, manager of the Mexican team, responded to the message by
warning
that four months before the trip to Japan, it is difficult to consider
a player
who has been out of professional activity for two years.
WBSC
World
Cups in Mexico
The World Baseball and Softball
Confederation (WBSC) was scheduled to hold five baseball world
championships in
Mexico during 2020, with the Women's Baseball World Cup and the U23
Baseball
World Cup being the most important events of the world calendar.
In the first, Mexico's women's team
had qualified for the first time in history while in the men's
tournament,
Mexico is the defending champion after winning the title in
Barranquilla,
Colombia in 2018, the country's first world championship in the WBSC.
Regarding the Baseball5 world
championships, the WBSC did not even announce the dates on which they
would be
played. The U15 World Cup and the Women's World Cup were postponed to
March
2021, but the two tournaments to be played in Tijuana were postponed
indefinitely and the Confederation is still reviewing a final decision
on
rescheduling.
The U23 World Cup, also delayed for a year, is expected to be held in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, and Ciudad Obregón, Sonora as announced in November 2021.