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B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
Monday,
May 4, 2020
VERACRUZ
TO RETURN TO MEXICAN LEAGUE IN 2021?
Although nearly all the attention in
the Mexican League's Mexico City office has been focused on when (or
if) their
2020 season will get underway due to the indefinite delay because of
the Wuhan
virus, a group of businessmen in Veracruz are looking ahead to 2021 as
their
target for bringing the port city back into the LMB fold.
The El Fildeo website reports
that Liga president Horacio de la Vega says that investors have
approached him
about the possibility of Veracruz returning to the circuit for the
first time
since the 2017 season, after which Rojos del Aguila owner Jose Antonio
Mansur
moved the franchise to the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas
and
Laredo, Texas, renaming them the Dos Laredos Tecolotes. The Tecos are
the only
team in professional baseball shared between two countries.
“Veracruz is a large city,” de la
Vega told El Fildeo. “We have had contact with businessmen
there. The
Aguilas have a great baseball tradition, not only in the city of
Veracruz but
from many other parts of the state.” He also said the effort comes from
“businessmen and possibly the government who want to reactivate a team
with the
tradition that Veracruz has had.”
Media reports indicate that the
person most interested in bringing the Mexican League back to Veracruz
is
Regina Vazquez, who (along with sister Fabiola) owns the Acayucan Tobis
of the
Veracruz Winter League, which the two sisters led in 2018-19 before it
went
silent last season due to lack of funds for meeting payroll, among
other
expenses. The Vazquez sisters reportedly asked Mexican president Andres
Manuel
Lopez Obrador for federal pesos last winter so they could operate the
LIV, but
the request was not granted. They are
daughters of a prominent Veracruz politician and have both been active
in local
and state politics as well.
However, de la Vega insists his main
concern is determining the future of the current Mexican League season. “The first thing is to play the 2020 season.
Within this transitional time in many things, we can explore different
possibilities for Veracruz, but it's not something the Liga will
provoke.”
Veracruz has been represented by
several teams over the 95-year history of the Mexican League, winning a
total
of six pennants between them. Baseball strongman Jorge Paquel owned his
hometown Veracruz Azules prior to becoming the LMB president in 1946,
by which
time he had integrated modern pro baseball by signing various Negro
League
stars. Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Monte
Irvin, Roy Campanella, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Dandridge, Leon Day, Willie
Wells
and Martin Dihigo all suited up for the Azules at one time or other.
Gibson,
Irvin, Campanella, Dandridge and Dihigo are also members of the Salon
de la
Fama in Monterrey. The Azules won three championships between 1940
and
1944. The city's most recent LMB pennant came in 2012 under manager
Pedro Mere,
now the dugout boss in Tabasco.
Although baseball has a long history
in Veracruz, which is also considered the best state in the country for
producing players outside the western states of Sinaloa and Sonora,
support in
the stands has been tepid even in the best of times as Veracruz
reflects
Florida as a player-rich, fan-poor state. A revived Rojos del Aguila
team would
be the sixth club to use that name since the early 1950's.
Veracruz' last LMB team finished 13th in the
attendance derby with 2,661 turnstile clicks per game over 57 home
opening for
a total of 151,671. Mexican League teams have played at the 7,762-seat
Estadio
Universitario Beto Avila since 1992.
Where a new Veracruz team would come
from would be a topic of conjecture, as several LMB teams have
struggled
financially in their present homes for years. Although the Campeche
Piratas
drew only 1,762 per home game in 2019, their ownership appears
committed to
remaining in the Walled City in the foreseeable future. A more likely
target
for a purchase and franchise shift may be the Aguascalientes Rieleros,
for whom
2,001 fans per game turned out to watch the perpetually-underfunded
Railroaders
perform at Parque Alberto Romo Chavez in 2019.
MAZATLAN
PULLS OFF TWO TRADES TO BRING IN IF PAREDES, C SOSA
Although the imbroglio with
the City of Mazatlan regarding their eviction from Estadio Teodoro
Mariscal has
not been settled, the Mazatlan Venados have not stopped working to
build their
roster for the upcoming 2020-21 Mexican Pacific League season. The team swung a pair of trades last week
that netted them a highly-touted infielder and a veteran catcher.
The Venados first traded veteran
relief pitcher Adrian C. Ramirez to Monterrey for catcher Humberto Sosa. Although he'll only turn 32 this month,
Ramirez will be entering his 15th season of professional baseball this
summer
when the Mexican League season gets underway. The Veracruz native was a
starter
early in his career before converting to middle relief in 2010. He's
had some
good seasons in both circuits but only pitched in eight games for
Mazatlan last
winter, with no record and a 9.00 ERA to show for seven innings.
Like Ramirez, Sosa saw little work
for the Sultanes last winter, batting .042 with one RBI in 12 games.
The
34-year-old Veracruzano spent four years in the Reds' system before
making his
LMB debut with Minatitlan in 2010. Although he was a three-year starter
for
Veracruz between 2012 and 2014 and a member of the city's last LMB
championship
team in 2012, Sosa has primarily been a backup catcher most of his
career in
both leagues. In five LMP seasons, he's batted .212 with five homers in
112
games.
With Sosa giving them an extra
catcher on their roster, Mazatlan then shipped backstop Sebastian Valle
to
Obregon for the rights to infielder Isaac Paredes in a swap of
higher-profile
players. A 29-year-old Los Mochis product, Valle spent eight years in
the
Phillies system and showed some promise but had injury problems along
the way.
He also bounced between Pirates, Yankees and Mariners farm teams before
making
his Mexican League debut with Yucatan in 2017. He's no stranger to the
LMP,
however, having spent 12 winters in the loop and batting .236 with 62
homers
and is considered a solid defender.
Paredes, a 21-year-old from
Hermosillo, is currently on Detroit's 40-man roster after hitting .282
with 13
homers in the Eastern League for the Tigers AA Erie affiliate. He was
hitless
in six plate appearance for the big club during during training and
expected to
open the season with Detroit's longtime AAA affiliate Toledo of the
International League. Primarily a shortstop but also a capable third
baseman,
Paredes has spent the past three winters with the Yaquis, batting .283
with
seven homers in 105 games. He'll likely play second base for the
Venados for
manager Juan Jose Pacho.
The Venados staff was escorted out
of Estadio Teodoro Mariscal in early April after the City claimed
breach of
contract by the team, specifically that the Venados denied the City
ballpark
access for Carnival or politically-related events while neither
adequately
supporting local basketball or boxing, maintaining the playing field
nor
delivering ballgame tickets to the elderly. According to Isac Chavez of
El
Sol de Mazatlan, the team filed an injunction against the City to
allow
them a return to the ballpark, but the injunction was denied. The City
is also
seeking the return of the facility's concessions business, the domain
of
Venados owner Jose Antonio Toledo and his family for 40 years.
MLB
P OLIVER PEREZ DELIEVERS 500 MEALS TO POOR IN CULIACAN
Veteran major league pitcher Oliver
Perez recently purchased 500 meals for people in the most marginalized
neighborhoods of his hometown, Culiacan, Sinaloa. The
Cleveland Indians reliever then literally
went one step further by delivering the meals himself. Perez also sent several boxes of pizzas to medical
personnel working the so-called “front lines” in response to the spread
of the
Wuhan virus in the city of 785,800 residents.
According to Puro Beisbol
editor Francisco Ballesteros, Perez first bought the packaged meals and
then
traveled by car to various neighborhoods in Culiacan to personally
deliver each
of them to people who came up and requested one. He
also made other contributions to the
Iglesia del Carmen church in town. Ballesteros says this is not the
first time
the 38-year-old left-hander has made similar efforts.
Other current or former MLB players from
Mexico like Joakim Soria, Jose Urquidy, Jorge Cantu and Jaime Garcia
have shown
support for people affected by the Wuhan virus, which had been
contracted by
over 22,000 Mexicans as of last weekend, resulting in more than 2,000
deaths.
Perez is preparing for his 22nd
season of professional baseball in a career that began after signing a
free
agent contract with the San Diego Padres in 1999. Then
17, Perez broke in that summer with the
Padres' Arizona League team and posted a 1-2 record with three saves
and a 5.08
ERA as a closer for the Rookie level team. He remained in San Diego's
system
(plus a short stint with Yucatan in the Mexican League in 2000) until
he made
his MLB debut at age 20 on June 16, 2002 when he made a home start
against
Seattle in an interleague contest. He had his rocky moments, allowing
four hit
and four walks in five innings, throwing a wild pitch and dishing up a
two-run
homer to Dan Wilson, but Perez also struck out seven Mariners and
allowed just
two runs to earn the 5-3 victory. He remained in San Diego for the rest
of the
season.
The 6'3” 225-pounder has certainly
been well-traveled ever since, wearing the uniform of no fewer than
eight teams
over that time. He's had success as a
starter, going 12-10 with a 2.98 ERA for Pittsburgh in 2004 and winning
25
games over two seasons (2007-08) for the New York Mets, leading the
National
League with 34 starts in the latter campaign.
He signed a three-year, $36 million contact with the Mets after
the 2008
campaign.
From that point, things went south
for Perez, who was placed on the disabled list twice with tendinitis in
his
right leg in 2009 and refused minor league rehab assignments two times.
When he
did pitch for the Mets in 2009 and 2010, he only won three of 21 starts
and
allowed 85 earned runs in 110.1 innings. He was released following the
2010
season even though he had one year and $12 million remaining in his
contract.
After spending the 2011 season with
the Nationals' AA Harrisburg affiliate and going 3-5 with a 3.09 ERA in
15
starts, Perez returned to MLB with Seattle as a reliever in June 2012
after
spending two months with AAA Tacoma. He spent two with the Mariners and
did
well as a setup man, posting a 3.16 ERA with four wins and two saves
out of the
bullpen in 93 trips from the bullpen. Perez moved to Arizona for the
2014
season and has also pitched for Houston, Washington and Cleveland. Last
year he
made 67 appearances for the Indians, going 2-4 and earning a save while
posting
a 3.98 ERA for manager Terry Francona, striking out 48 batsmen and
walking 12
in 40.2 innings.
Following the shutdown of major league training camps and the delay of the regular season, Perez returned home to train with an eye on becoming the first Mexican to perform in 18 MLB seasons. He'll go into the 2020 campaign with a 72-91 career record and 4.38 ERA in 670 outings (including197 starts). Perez has also pitched in six winterball seasons with the Culiacan Tomateros, with an overall 7-8 record and 3.54 ERA in 74 appearances, and took part in the 2014 and 2017 Caribbean Series (winning one game in each).
