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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
May 11, 2020
IS
HE OR ISN'T HE? CASTILLA OUT IN
HERMOSILLO
After a period of time during which
the general public was unsure of his job status in Hermosillo, Vinny
Castilla
was formally fired last week as manager of the Mexican Pacific League
Naranjeros. The former Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman was
officially
shown the door despite leading the Orangmen to a 38-27 overall record,
second-best in the LMP, before being bounced in six games by Mazatlan
in the
first round of the playoffs. It was Castilla's first season at the helm
in
Hermosillo, where he'd played parts of four winters between 2006-07 and
2010-11.
Last Wednesday's announcement by the
Naranjeros front office ended speculation as to whether or not Castilla
was still
employed by the club. The questions arose after Hermosillo sports
manager Juan
Aguirre told Puro Beisbol editor Fernando Ballesteros that
Castilla was
expected to manage the team in the 2020-21 season. This brought a
response from
his namesake nephew, Vinicio Castilla, who said, "How strange. My uncle
was fired a month ago." A Naranjeros fan named David Orantes added to
the
confusion by saying, "I saw a live interview on TUDN (a Hermosillo TV
station) when he said he'd been fired a month ago. I don't understand
what's
happening with the directors."
The Naranjeros responded a day later
by finally issuing a formal (if somewhat convoluted) statement that
Castilla
had indeed been let go, opening with this: "Yesterday afternoon, a
social
media and some sports portals circulated news mentioning firstly that
Vinicio
Castilla was still our manager, and later it was also denied by other
sports
portals and social media accounts associated with sports journalism."
After blaming the Fourth
Estate for conflicting information about their own managerial position,
the
press release went on to say that Castilla had been cut loose. "The
decision to do without his services as Manager was not at all easy,
mainly due
to not having reached the objectives set and having been again
eliminated in
the first series of playoffs," it reads. "The decision was made at
the end of March, during the same dates that the health contingency
situation
arrived in our country and travel restrictions prevented the knowledge
of Vinicio
made this decision personally, as he himself stated last night. On
April 14,
the decision was communicated to him by telephone so that he would know
it
directly from the club."
Ballesteros listed the
Hermosillo skippers fired under Naranjeros owner Enrique Mazon since
Matias
Carrillo was canned in November 2014, nine months after leading the
team to
their last Mex Pac pennant and a Caribbean Series title: Lino Rivera,
Jose Luis
Sandoval, Delino DeShields Senior, Lorenzo Bundy, Bronswell Patrick and
now
Castilla. For those scoring at home, that's six pilots in less than six
years.
Now the search is on for a new hot
seat occupant in Hermosillo, where the club stated, "the situation has
been complex at the moment but once this is achieved, we will give news
to our
fans directly and in all certainty. Unfortunately our intention to
respect the
fans, Vinicio and our next manager did not materialize due to the
publication
of said news" regarding Castilla's termination. Ballesteros speculates
the
new Naranjeros helmsman will be former MLB catcher Geronimo Gil, who
served as
Castilla's bench coach and has managed Ensenada to a Liga Norte
championship.
No press release announcement
of a managerial firing in Mexico would be complete without gratitude
being
expressed to the newly-unemployed, and the Orangemen did not
disappoint:
"We take this opportunity to thank Vinicio for his dedication, his
passion
for baseball and his love for both the Naranjeros and the Hermosillo
fans." Selah.
MAZATLAN
DISPUTE CONCERNS LMP AHEAD OF CARIBBEAN SERIES
Playing dates for the 2021 Caribbean
Series in Mazatlan have been tentatively set and Mexican Pacific League
president Omar Canizales may be breathing a sigh of relief that it will
not
begin earlier during what may be a shortened season due to the Wuhan
virus.
However, the LMP leader is concerned that the ongoing dispute between
the City
of Mazatlan and the Mazatlan Venados (slated to host the Crown Jewel of
Latin
Baseball) may compel the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation,
who
oversees the Serie del Caribe, to move the event elsewhere.
Canizales recently announced
that the Caribbean Series has been scheduled to run between Sunday,
January 31
and Saturday, February 6 next winter. "Right now, we're fortunate that
the
Super Bowl is scheduled for Sunday, February 7," Canizales told Septima
Entrada. "That means we won't have any conflicts since that's a
week
where there are no NFL games because it's the Media Week there." The
NFL's
championship game will be held in Tampa, Florida.
During last February's
Caribbean Series in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Mex Pac's presentation
to COPABE
did not include specific dates because there has been talk of moving
the
tournament back to the last week in January, allowing players some
extra rest
time before Major League Baseball training camps begin opening a week
into
February while creating more space between the CS and the Super Bowl,
which
consumes the lion's share of attention among sports media outlets.
However, Canizales expressed
worries about the present imbroglio between Mazatlan's political
leaders and
the city's LMP baseball club, which led to the Venados' office staff
being
evicted from Estadio Teodoro Mariscal a month ago. The many-layered
dispute
between city and team has not been resolved, an impasse Canizales frets
may
cause COPABE to step in and relocate the Serie del Caribe to
another LMP
city or out of Mexico altogether because the Venados would not have
control
over the venue.
"I confess that I'm a
little concerned that COPABE has the authority to decide to change
countries or
if it requires some other things from us, "Canizales explained to Septima
Entrada. "I am concerned about Mazatlan but, hey, let's wait.
Rather
than speculate, we will wait."
The Caribbean Series was
awarded last winter to Mazatlan, where the LMP and Venados were
planning to
showcase the Pacific coast city's renovated 16,000-seat ballpark, which
was
reopened October 13, 2018 after over 400 million pesos (US$18 million)
in
renovations increased its seating capacity by 2,000 while adding modern
amenities throughout the facility.
Instead, the City has seized
control of the stadium, Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo has
apparently lost
the concessions contract his family has held since 1980 (years before
they
bought the team in the 1990's) and an injunction the franchise sought
to regain
control of the ballpark was rejected by a local judge. While there are
expectations that the City and Venados will resolve their dispute in
time for
the upcoming season, it's not a sure thing.
Canizales concluded, "I
want to clarify the situation as soon as possible to give certainty to
COPABE
and not run the risk that they'll want to make a change in relation to
the
venue or the country." While the former may be a possibility, the
latter
is highly unlikely given how Mexican cities are now drawing the highest
attendance of all the Caribbean Series' host nations.
DORMANT
LEAGUE HOPES TO RESTART, BECOME LMB AFFILIATE
Leaders of a longtime Class AA
league based in one of Mexico's baseball hotbed states but dormant for
the past
six seasons are hoping to fire the circuit back up in the summer of
2021, with
its member teams serving as Mexican League farm clubs.
Puro Beisbol reports that in
January, LMB president Horacio de la Vega met with representatives of
the
eight-team Sonora Professional Baseball League (LBPS), who had planned
to begin
play on April 12 this year before the Wuhan virus led to the cessation
of all
professional baseball south of the border and elsewhere, save for
Taiwan and
South Korea. Now the Liga Sonora is looking at playing a 2021 schedule.
The LBPS hopes to create an
affiliation agreement with the Liga, who had a similar arrangement with
the
Northern Mexico League in which each LNM team received a 40,000 peso
stipend
and had players supplied by LMB teams before the latter severed the
agreement
after the 2018 campaign. The Liga Norte struggled through a 2019 season
in
which its five teams cobbled together informal agreements with LMB
teams as the
San Luis Algodoneros won the pennant.
The eight clubs who'd planned on
suiting up this year were the Agua Prieta Vaqueros, Caborca Rojos,
Cananea
Mineros, Magdalena Membrilleros, Nogales Internacionales, San Luis de
Rio
Colorado Datileros, Sonoyta Misioneros and Puerto Penasco Tiburones.
Caborca and San Luis fielded teams
in the Liga Norte last summer, leading to questions whether both have
officially withdrawn from the LNM, which had planned to expand this
year before
their own season was halted by the Wuhan virus. A story on their
website from
last November states that the Rojos and Algodoneros had both confirmed
their
participation in 2020. Now, however, LNM president Jorge Rivera Marquez
is
saying that his league may play a winter schedule instead while seeking
affiliation agreements with Mexican Pacific League teams. More on that
next
week.