Baseball Mexico
by Bruce Baskin
August 24, 2009 - Mexican League (ML)
TIGRES, SARAPEROS TO MEET FOR LIGA TITLE
The Saltillo Saraperos and Quintana Roo Tigres are opening the Mexican League Championship Series this weekend with two games in Saltillo.
Saltillo enters the LMB Finals with a seven-game playoff winning streak after losing two of their first three games against the Reynosa Broncos in the Northern Zone semifinals. The Saraperos won the final three games of their opening round series before sweeping away the surprising Laguna Vaqueros in four games in the North final.
Among Saraperos batters, Refugio Cervantes has come up with some big games. Cervantes went 3-for-3 with a game-winning homer in Saltillo's 5-4 win over Reynosa on August 6. He also doubled, scored two runs and drove in two more in that contest. Then, during the LMB North finals, Cervantes was 2-for-3 with a homer and three RBIs in the Saraperos' 9-0 shutout of Laguna on August 12, and followed that two nights later by breaking a 4-all tie with an eighth-inning homer as Saltillo slipped past the Vaqueros, 5-4, in Game 3.
Pitching-wise, it would be hard to top the job starter Jose Mercedes has done for Saltillo in the postseason. Mercedes won two games in the opening round against Reynosa, including the series clincher on August 8, tossing 14 shutout innings in the process. He then came back to win the fourth game of the Saraperos' sweep of Laguna on August 15, letting in one run in seven innings of a 9-1 rout in Torreon.
Quintana Roo has had a tougher time in the Mexican League South, being stretched to seven games before finally eliminating Campeche, 4 games to 3, in the first round before needing five games to dispatch Puebla in the LMB South finals.
While Saltillo has gotten it done with pitching in the postseason, posting a 2.57 ERA during their seven-game winning streak, the Tigres have bludgeoned their opponents at the plate. After scoring 50 runs in their seven-game set with Campeche, Quintana Roo racked up 52 more tallies in five games against Puebla to enter the finals averaging 8.5 runs over 12 playoff games. Derrick White has had a pair of two-homer games, while Albino Contreras and Ricardo Vasquez have hit grand slams.
Quintana Roo is not just about piling up runs, however. Francisco Cordova won two games in the LMB South finals by letting in just two Pericos runs in 12.2 innings on the mound, while veteran Pablo Ortega is one of Mexico's craftiest pitchers.
SInce the Mexican League's 16 teams only played games within their respective eight-team divisions, this will be the first time Saltillo and Quintana Roo have met in 2009. The Tigres have won nine Liga pennants in 14 championship series since 1955, while Saltillo's one pennant in seven finals appearances came in 1980.
GUAYMAS TAKES ON AGUA PRIETA FOR NORTE FLAG
The Guaymas Ostioneros are playing the Agua Prieta Vaqueros in the Class A Northern League championship series in Sonora.
Guaymas swept the San Luis Algodoneros in four straight games to win their Norte semifinal series, thereby punching a ticket to the league finals. For their part, Agua Prieta reached the title set by topping the Magdalena Membrilleras in five games.
The Vaqueros won last Tuesday night's title set opener, 3-1, in Agua Prieta behind catcher Manuel Del Campo's three-run homer in the fourth inning. Starter Leo Figueroa won his third playoff game for Agua Prieta, tossing six innings of one-run ball while scattering nine hits. Rafael Flores turned in his fourth complete game of the postseason for Guaymas.
MEXICO REACHES SEMIFINALS IN WORLD U-16 TOURNEY
Mexico's Under-16 National Team fell to the United States, 9-5, Saturday in the semifinals of the IBAF AA World Youth Tournament in Taiwan. The USA led 5-0 before Mexico scored two runs in the sixth on Fernando Perez' sacrifice fly and a Manuel Paez single. The Americans made it 7-2 in the bottom of the sixth before Mexico scored their final three runs in the seventh on a passed ball, a single by pinch-hitter Alexander Delgado and a sacrifice fly by Javier Ruiz.
Mexico defeated Japan, 5-4, Friday to qualify for the semifinals. Mexico trailed Japan, 4-3, in the top of the eighth inning until a bases-loaded double by Ruiz plated Juan Leal and Carlos Islava with the tying and go-ahead runs, respectively.
Mexico lost their first game of Pool B play August 15 to South Korea, 5-4, despite a two-run triple in the fourth by Paez. The Verde Grande came back in a big way one day later with a 20-3 pounding of Hong Kong as Adolfo Lopez collected four hits whole Yousamot Cota drove in four runs with a triple and double. The hit parade continued Monday in Mexico's 13-2 drubbing of the Czech Republic, with Ruiz recording two triples to support starter Carlos Rodriguez' six-inning stint for the win. Mexico was thumped by the USA, 16-6, Wednesday, but clinched a quarterfinals berth Friday with an 8-6 win over the Dutch as Paez and Lopez each had three hits.
Mexico is scheduled to play Venezuela for third place in the tourney on Sunday.
PELLOW, PEREZ SIGN WITH INDY TEAMS
A pair of big league veterans who played in the Mexican League this summer have signed contracts to finish 2009 with independent teams in Canada and the USA. 36-year-old Kit Pellow, who hit .290 with 12 homers and 51 RBIs for Saltillo and Monterrey, is heading to Calgary of the Golden Baseball League. Pellow played for Kansas City and Colorado in the majors. And in 2008 became the seventh player in Mexican League history to win the Triple Crown for Saltillo, hitting .385 with 34 homers and 107 RBIs.
The 34-year-old Perez is heading to the New Jersey Jackals of the Can-Am League after hitting .323 for Veracruz with eight homers and 37 RBIs in 77 games. Perez played for the 2000 National League champion New York Mets and the 2005 World Series champion Chicago White Sox. Perez was the Class AAA All-Star Game MVP in 2007 playing for Detroit's International League affiliate Toledo.
HISTORIA MEXICANA 4: Texas, Porfirio Diaz and a final revolution
After declaring independence from Spain in 1821 without resistance from the Spanish (who had their own troubles at home), Mexico underwent a period of instability that lasted much of the 19th Century as 30 presidents ruled over its first 50 years as a nation. The dominant figure in early Mexican politics was Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, who parlayed shifting alliances between the church, army and landowners to become president no less than 11 times.
Mexico's original northern border spanned from California to Texas. However, in 1836, Texas broke away from Mexico and declared independence. Santa Anna responded with troops and though he scored a big victory at the Alamo, Mexican troops were defeated at San Jacinto and Texas was independent. When Texas decided to join the United States, the move sparked an American invasion into Mexico in 1848, and the disorganized Mexican army was not able to hold off the invaders. The resulting Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo resulted in the loss of nearly half of Mexico to the Americans, all of which are now states in the USA.
Losing to the Americans was essentially the end of Santa Anna politically. In the 1850's, an Indian lawyer named Benito Juarez led the way to a new constitution in which church and state were separated, church and corporate owned lands were sold, and all citizens were made equal before the law. The church and army resisted this, but a four-year War of the Reform gave liberals behind the constitution victory...for a time.
One of the things Juarez, who by now was president, did was suspend payments of foreign debts because Mexico itself was in debt. That brought on another invasion, this time by joint forces from Spain, France and England in 1861. Although Mexico won the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1861 (now celebrated as CInco de Mayo), the invaders prevailed and installed Maximilian of Hapsburg as emperor of Mexico. Maximilian, a liberal at heart, knew nothing of Mexico's internal problems, and his refusal to repeal Juarez' reforms lost him what few conservative allies he'd had. Eventually, a threat from the USA to intervene on the behalf of Juarez' resistance helped push the invaders back to Europe, and Maximilian ended up getting shot by a firing squad in 1867.
Juarez resumed power after Maximilian's death, but died in office in 1872. After another period of instability, a former general under Juarez, Porfirio Diaz, took over the presidency, a position he held with an iron fist for 34 years. A dictator in every sense of the word, Diaz was no humanitarian. Although his modernization policy led to great gains in transportation, communication and industry, much of this was accomplished through brutal repression and by handing over much of the country to foreign investors. Even today, Diaz is almost equally hated and admired.
Things finally came to a head in 1910, when Diaz responded to an election-year challenge from Francisco Madero by ordering him imprisoned and declaring himself the winner at the polls. Madero escaped to Texas, declared himself president, and called on Mexicans to revolt against the aging Diaz. With Pancho Villa and Pascual Orozco leading the resistance in the north and Emiliano Zapata doing the same in the south, Diaz eventually fled into exile and Madero returned to rule. Madero liberalized some aspects of Mexico, but did little to help the poor. This led to another uprising by Zapata as well as a plot between American interests and general Victoriano Huerta that led to Madero's assassination and Huerta declaring himself president.
Mexican League Stories from August 24, 2009
- Saraperos top Tigres, 6-3; Take two-game lead - OSC Original by Bruce Baskin
- Saraperos Draw First Blood with 7-6 Win over Tigres - OSC Original by Bruce Baskin
- Baseball Mexico - OSC Original by Bruce Baskin
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