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Bruce
Baskin /
Jackie
Robinson Moments
B a s e b a l l
M e x i c o
April
3, 2 0 1 7
After a fitful and
acrimonious winter, the Mexican League was
able to finally get down to some baseball over the weekend as the 2017
regualr
season was opened. The Tijuana Toros and
Yucatan Leones each swept their home series to give themselves very
early leads
in the Northern and Southern divisions, respectively.
The Toros took three from
the Union Laguna Vaqueros,
including a 16-5 opening night win Friday in front of 17,988 fans at a
packed
Estadio Gasmart. Ex-big leaguers Alex
Liddi and Jorge Cantu each belted early two-run homers off Vaqueros
starter
Dustin Crenshaw, who was bombed for six runs and eight hits in three
innings as
Tijuana was ahead 15-2 after four frames.
Alex Sanabia allowed one earned run and struck out eight over
five
innings for the win. Another former
MLBer, Horacio Ramirez, tossed six innings of two-hit ball in the
Toros' 5-0
shutout over Laguna on Saturday while Liddi homered for the third night
in a
row to augment Miguel Pena's five scoreless frames in Sunday's 6-1 win
over the
Vaqueros to complete the sweep.
Likewise, Yucatan met with
little resistance in their broom
job over Quintana Roo, outscoring the Tigres by a 29-6 margin in their
weekend
set at Merida's Parque Kukulcan. The
Leones put an exclamation point on both the sweep and their intention
to
fulfill lofty preseason predictions among many observers by stomping
the
Tigres, 13-1, Sunday as 10,392 fans braved the 102-degree heat to
attend the
game. Jordany Valdespin knocked in four
runs with a triple and single while Leo Heras and Diego Madero combined
for six
hits and five runs scored for Yucatan, who chased Quintana Roo starter
Julian
Arballo in the fourth inning. Juan
Delgadillo, a 34-year-old righty who missed the 2016 season, got the
win after
pitching five entradas of three-hit, one-run ball.
The Leones player and coaches were joined by
owners Erick and Jose Juan Arellano last Wednesday in an official mass
officiated by Father Lorenzo Mex Jimenez, a not-unusual occurrence in a
country
that is over 90 percent Catholic.
One Opening Night surprise
came from the Durango Generales,
whose participation this season was in doubt up until last week, when
the LMB
Assembly of Presidents drew a collective breath and approved the
troubled
franchise for 2017 despite a number of problems well-chronicled here. The Generales, who will spend at least the
first two weeks of the season on the road, began their schedule with a
2-1 win
at Aguascalientes on Friday as Yadir Drake drove in the first run and
scored
the second tally in the fourth inning to give Durango starter Mario
Gonzalez
and six relievers all the support they needed.
Brazilian Tiago da Silva capped the five-hitter by tossing ten
pitches
for a scoreless ninth to earn the save, striking out pinch-hitter Jose
Vargas
swinging to end the contest. The
Generales dropped the final two games of the series, but that first win
for
manager Joe Alvarez' hastily-assembled troops was a huge one for them.
A total of 202,283 people
attended 18 games over the weekend
for an average audience of 11,238 per opening.
Monterrey saw the largest crowd on opening night, with 29,734
overflowing the stands at Estadio Monterrey Friday.
However, while Monterrey, Tijuana and Yucatan
averaged more than 15,000 per game among them, the news wasn't as rosy
elsewhere. Mexico City, Oaxaca, Campeche
and Aguascalientes each drew fewer than 5,000 per game over the
inaugural
weekend. Defending champion Puebla,
whose roster was gutted when owner Gerardo Benavides transferred most
of the
team's star players to his other team in Monclova, saw 5,132 turnstile
clicks
per opening in their series with LMB debutantes Leon.
While it's far too early for definitive
statements, it looks like another year of Haves and Have Nots at the
gate in
the LMB in 2017.
LATER THIS WEEK IN BBM:
Salon de la Fama member Ruben Amaro dies at 81; Mexico City
ballpark
expected to be completed this summer, but Diablos will wait until 2018
to open
it.
www.BaseballMexico.blogspot.com
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