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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday, May 3, 2021
LMB
PRESEASON CAMPS, GAMES UNDERWAY
With the Mexican League's delayed
season openers set for later this month, all 18 teams have opened their
training camps in recent weeks and several preseason games have been
played,
including a pair of contests north of the border in San Antonio, Texas.
The defending champion Monclova
Acereros closed out a two-game series with a 10-0 shutout of the Dos
Laredos
Tecolotes at Nelson Wolff Stadium last Friday. Former Cy Young Award
winner
Bartolo Colon got the start for the Acereros, tossing four innings of
one-hit
ball with three strikeouts. A year after having to work his family's
taco stand
in California to make ends meet, Henry Omana was one of a number of
relievers
to come in from the Tecos' bullpen after starter Richelson Pena (a
Rangers
farmhand for nine summers) allowed three runs over two innings.
Monclova won the first game in San
Antonio last Thursday, 4-3, but had to work a lot harder to do it. Dos
Laredos
took a opening 2-0 lead in the top of the third on a two-run single by
Balbino
Fuenmayor, but the Steelers pulled to within a run in the bottom of the
sixth
via back-to-back doubles by Francisco Espinosa and Danny Espinosa.
After the
Tecos tacked on a run in the top of the seventh to take a 3-1
advantage, the
champions knotted the score thanks to two-baggers from Nah Perio and
Jacob
Barfield. The final run of the night came in the bottom on the eighth
when
Monclova's Niko Pacheco scored from third on a Jorge Gonzalez wild
pitch.
In related news, a joint press
conference between the Tecolotes and City of Laredo officials was held
last
month in which both parties expressed enthusiasm for the upcoming
season with
games being played at both Laredo Ballpark and Parque La Junta in
neighboring
Nuevo Laredo. There had been speculation that the Tecos would play some
home
games in other border cities after tense negotiations with the City of
Laredo
centered on control of concessions, which team owner Jose Antonio
Mansur wanted
year-round instead of only during baseball season, but an agreement has
obviously been arrived upon.
While Colon took the mound for
Monclova last weekend, a number of other former big leaguers are
rounding into
shape for the 2021 schedule. In Guadalajara, Adrian Gonzalez has been
working
out with fellow members of the expansion Mariachis and belted a couple
of
homers during a batting practice session last week. Eyes are on
Gonzalez' back,
where pains greatly contributed to his exit from Major League Baseball
after a
stint with the Mets in 2018. El Titan appeared to be swinging
pain-free
during training camp and at this point, Mariachis manager Benji Gil
still plans
to alternate Gonzalez and Jesse Castillo between first base and
designated
hitter following the apparent retirement of a third veteran, Saul Soto.
Meanwhile, to the east, ex-Dodgers
outfielder Yasiel Puig has been training with the LMB's other
first-year club,
the Veracruz Aguilas. According the the Septima Entrada
website, Aguilas
sports manager Jesus “Chino” Valdez says “the arrival of the Cuban
outfielder
has caused a positive impact within the Aguilas.” Writer Thomas Lopez
says that
during an interview on the Bateo Libre radio progam, Valdez
said he held
a meeting with Aguilas players before Puig's signing with Veracruz was
announced and that the players “perfectly understood the level of
character we
were receiving. The harmony is very beautiful, a true 'teamwork' and we
have
not started to play yet.” Valdez rejected speculation that Puig was
receiving
perks like a personal chauffeur or security at his in-town residence.
Finally, a longtime Tigres star is
in camp with the Quintana Roo team in a new role with the Mexican
League club.
After briefly appearing in the Indians' system in 1991, Robles went on
to spend
21 seasons as a power-hitting shortstop in the LMB (including a 14-year
stint
with the Tigres in Mexico City, Puebla and Cancun between 1994 and
2007) before
retiring as a player in 2012. Now Robles is in his first season as the
Tigres hitting
coach under manager Adan Munoz, a teammate between 2004 and 2007. “What
you
learned during 20 seasons, you have to do it now with your players,
with the
boys,” Robles said. “Support them in whatever they can take care of and
given
them advice for game time.” The 50-year-old played on seven division
champions
and four pennant winners with the heritage franchise.
SARAPEROS
SIGN 14-YEAR-OLD INFIELDER FROM MERIDA
Most professional teams in any sport
will sign a young, unproven player with an eye to the future, but the
Saltillo
Saraperos may have outdone themselves with their latest contract. The
Mexican
League club recently announced an agreement with a 14-year-old native
of
Yucatan, middle infielder Jorge Cervantes.
Saraperos sports director Roberto
Magdaleno led a virtual press conference last week to announce the
signing that
was also attended by Cervantes, parents Jorge Cervantes Ramos and Fely
Lara
Garcia, sister Monserrat Cervantes and paternal grandfather Francisco
Cervantes. “I want to thank Jorge's parents on behalf of the board of
directors
for the opportunity they give us to have their son with us, and even
more to
come from so far away.
“We hope to God that with the
passage of time, he can make a relevant career with us. A special
thanks to
Luis Borges for his support and follow-up. Luis is a person who spent a
long
time in Saltillo keeping a very special affection for the team and the
city, a
professional as an athlete and a great person who was able to
coordinate with
(scouting director) Leo Figueroa to complete this important signing.”
A native of Merida like the young
signee, Borges spent the final four seasons of his 17-year LMB career
as an
infielder in Saltilo after 11 summers with the Yucatan Leones. He's
worked as a
baseball instructor in recent years for Pittsburgh and in Merida, he
had the
opportunity to train and observe players and has known the Cervantes
family for
a long time. “I've known Luis from a very young age,” Borges said.
“He's always
had skill but above all, the attitude to play baseball. It was a
process to
know at which point could he get to do it professionally.”
“Luis has excellent hitting to
develop and great projections to be a good player, even for the United
States.
He is very young, having just turned 14 years old, and we must continue
working
with him, but he'll go as far as he wants.”
The 14-year-old shortstop and second
baseman, who's studied the past year at Blas Pascal High School (where
his
favorite subject is science), said at the press conference, “I'm very
excited
to be able to belong to this great organization. I was training with
Luis
Borges in Yucatan for about eight months and was confident that I could
be
signed. We trained very hard several days a week to achieve this dream.”
Cervantes had a chance to work out
with the Saraperos for three days in training camp and said he settled
down in
short time. “At first I didn't think about it much,” the teen remarked.
“I was
nervous batting. I felt a little tense when I saw great players like
Kennys
Vargas and Manny Rodríguez himself but on the second day, I was letting
go and
I was calmer.”
His favorite Major League player at
the moment is Fernando Tatis Jr., but also appreciates Randy Arozarena
“a lot
for his hitting. In my country I have had the opportunity to train with
him
(Arozarena is a Merida resident during the offseason). He's an icon for
everything he achieved in the World Series.”
Cervantes concluded by saying, “I
want to raise the surname Cervantes high. I have to take advantage the
confidence that the entire Saraperos board of directors have given me
and the
support I received from Luis Borges so that they would notice me. This
is the
beginning of a career and I want it to be worth it.”
BRAVERMAN:
MEXICANS GET “DIFFERENT TREATMENT” IN LMB
One of Mexico's most prominent
baseball columnists is David Braverman. His “Out 27” column is one of
the most
widely-read across the country and his name was floated as a potential
replacement for Javier Salinas as president of the Mexican League
before the
Assembly of Presidents selected Horacio de la Vega as the 26th
man
to hold that title in November 2019.
Braverman recently wrote a column
decrying what he considers poor treatment of Mexican-born ballplayers
within
the Mexican League, particularly in roster spots a salaries. The
following is
an edited Google translation of that column:
With the LMB mini-season just around
the corner and the 18 teams preparing for it, a theme is once again
becoming
more acute that should not be put aside because it is a recurring one.
I am
referring to the growing inequality that appears on the rosters of some
organizations around the hiring of Mexican players born in Mexico,
Mexicans
born in the United States and foreigners.
Taking the preseason roster
presented by the Acereros de Monclova as an example, we can see that of
44
players, only 8 of them are born in Mexico; that is, only 18% of the
total of
their squad. The remaining 82% is made up of Mexican baseball players
born
across the border (dual nationality) along with Dominican, Venezuelan
and
American foreigners.
The issue is not only on the list of
players and goes further. This team will be managed by foreigner Pat
Listach
and among 10 members of its coaching staff, only three were born in
Mexico:
Martín Arzate, Matías Carrillo and Francisco Villegas. Needless to say,
Spanish
is practically unspoken in their dugout, something very similar to what
has
happened in other dressing rooms such as Tijuana or Dos Laredos.
You may be wondering how all of this
affects the Mexican-born player. I tell you, the country's baseball
player
collects his salary in pesos as a native person with a business
activity, is
issued a receipt for salary and therefore pays taxes. In the case of
foreigners, every player receives their salary in dollars, as agreed
from the
beginning of the season. The Mexican-American plays as a “Mexican,” bienvenidos,
but is paid like an American (in dollars) and I leave there the doubt
of how
they work in terms of taxes. They are Mexicans like you and me, that is
how the
Constitution establishes it, but just as they have rights, they must
comply
with obligations and there is the doubt. Now that if it is about making
a
player “Mexican,” they tell me that in Castaños, Coahuila, there is the
solution.
Given all this, it is clear that a
good number of players born in Mexico are being displaced. Many of them
have
not played since August 2019 and have had to dedicate themselves to
other
trades for more than a year. Let's not forget that the LMB teams, in
addition
to their seasonal rosters, have reserve lists in which many players are
simply
"stand by" without receiving a salary.
The Mexican baseball player born in
Mexico has to get on his feet and once and for all react and pull in
the same direction:
stars and rookies, with high or low salaries. They should have formed a
union a
long time ago, an association that looks out for their interests not by
fighting with owners but to give themselves their place both in
contractual and
salary issues, insisting not to create
conflicts but to build profits. Today the players, in addition to
salary
issues, have no one to defend them or in matters such as fights with
umpires,
expulsions, fines, etc.
Gentlemen, you are the raw material of baseball, no one else. Take action.
