The Mexican League (, ) is a
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Mod ...
league based in Mexico and the oldest running professional league in the country.
The league has 18 teams organized in two divisions, North and South. Teams play 114 games each season. Five teams in each division advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the
Serie del Rey The Serie del Rey () is the annual championship series of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol to determine a champion at the end of each season since 1970. The champions from each division, Norte and Sur (), compete in a best-of-seven series, with the winn ...
, a best-of-seven championship series between the two division champions. The Mexican League has two affiliated minor leagues, the
Liga Norte de México
The Liga Norte de México (''LNM'') (English: ''Northern League of México'') is a professional baseball league located in the Northwest of Mexico in the states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. Formerly known as Liga Norte d ...
and
Mexican Academy League
The Mexican Academy League, or the Liga de Mexicana de Beisbol Academia, is a professional minor baseball league sanctioned by the Mexican League.
The Academy League was founded as a feeder league to the Mexican League. It is composed of eight ...
.
Though founded in 1925, the league joined the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (
Minor League Baseball) in 1955, when it was designated a
Double-A league. Some member teams entered player development contracts with teams in the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
at that time. Triple-A classification was granted in 1967. As part of the 2021 reorganization of the minors, the Mexican League was not included as a Triple-A league, though it continues to operate independently.
League organization
From 1925 to the 1960s, the league consisted of about six teams each season. The league expanded to eight teams in the 1960s. In 1970, after the circuit had grown to 10 teams, the league was split geographically for the first time. In 1979, the
Mexican Central League
The Mexican Central League was a Minor League Baseball circuit that operated for 19 seasons, from 1960 through 1978, with several clubs based across Mexico.
History
The Mexican Central League was formed in 1960 at the Class D level. It was plac ...
was absorbed into the expanded Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (Mexican Baseball League). The newly expanded league featured a 20-team circuit with four divisions. However, after a series of team bankruptcies, the Mexican League was reduced to 14 teams in two divisions.
Although there is a stable core of teams in the league, it is not unusual for clubs to relocate. Often, new incarnations of the teams come about through new owners. Teams also cease after unsatisfactory results or bankruptcy. Since its foundation in 1925, more than 90 teams have passed through the Mexican League, and the only organizations that have remained since their inception are the
Sultanes de Monterrey (1939),
Diablos Rojos del Mexico
The Diablos Motorcycle Club, or Diablos MC for short, is a " one-percenter" outlaw motorcycle club that has chapters in cities across the United States.
John E. Irvin, president of the Diablos' San Fernando Valley chapter, and Thomas E. Pastor, ...
(1940),
Tigres de Quintana Roo
The Quintana Roo Tigers (), formerly known as the Mexico (City) Tigers () are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League based in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The team is part of the Southern Division (). The team has won twelve champio ...
(1955),
Saraperos de Saltillo
The Saraperos de Saltillo (English: Saltillo Serape Wearers) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League. Their home ballpark is the Estadio de Béisbol Francisco I. Madero in Saltillo, Coahuila. They have won three championships (198 ...
(1970), and
Piratas de Campeche
The Piratas de Campeche (English: Campeche Pirates) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League (LMB) based in Campeche, Campeche, Mexico.
History
In 1980, the Alacranes de Durango moved to Campeche, and played their home games at Ven ...
(1980). The
Acereros del Norte have played uninterrupted since 1982, the
Olmecas de Tabasco
The Olmecas de Tabasco (English: Tabasco Olmecs) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League based in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. Their home ballpark is the Estadio Centenario 27 de Febrero.
The Olmecas won their only Mexican L ...
since 1977, and the
Leones de Yucatán
The Leones de Yucatán (English: Yucatán Lions) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League. The team play its home games at Parque Kukulcán Alamo in Mérida, Yucatán. The Leones have won the Mexican League title five times in , , , ...
since 1979.
Teams
Future teams
Defunct teams
The league has lost 12 teams since it was established in 1925.
Champions
Records
Single season batting
Single season pitching
History
Beginnings of Mexican baseball
Some sources claim that baseball reached Mexican soil because of the US military forces that participated in the US-Mexico War between 1846 and 1848. The last decades of the nineteenth century have been beneficial to the baseball boom, while American companies were investing in various sectors of the Mexican economy and their employees were broadcasting the game. The origin of baseball in Mexico City, the capital, dates back to 1887 with the birth of the "Mexican Club", which is undoubtedly the oldest team of the republic. Since the start of the 20th century, baseball has become one of the favorite sports of all of Mexico.
As early as 1925, Mexicans' interest in baseball was such that sports journalist Alejandro Aguilar Reyes and his friend baseball player Ernesto Carmona founded the Mexican League. They had to overcome many difficult obstacles, especially when, on May 26, the rival Mexican Association prepared a "coup" against them, but managed to rebuff it. In the period since, competing leagues have occasionally been formed, but have been absorbed by the LMB, the most famous being Central League in 1979.
Popularity and growth
The sport's popularity rose immediately and culminated with the first Mexican-born major leaguers.
During the so-called "first stage of the Mexican League" the league attracted several well renowned players from Cuba and the
Negro leagues
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...
. Cuban ballplayers Martín Di higo, Lázaro Salazar, Brujo Rossell,
Agustín Bejerano all played in Mexico at some point. The era was mostly dominated by the teams in the central areas of the country, in and around Mexico City. The first champions were Regimiento 74, a team from Puebla. After that for a solid decade the Championship was only won by teams from the capital city, with
Agrario de Mexico and
Tigres de Comintra
Tigre ("Tiger" in various languages), Tigres or El Tigre may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Le Tigre, an American rock band
** ''Le Tigre'' (album)
* '' El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera'', a Nickelodeon animated TV series
** ''El Ti ...
dominating with two titles each. In the late 30s, when the first wave of Cuban players arrived, teams from the Gulf coast started dominating the league; they were more attractive to Cuban players given their proximity to their home island, with the
Cafeteros de Cordoba and the
Rojos del Águila de Veracruz winning titles.
Because of the late foundation of the league, there never was a "dead-ball" era, which helped enhance the sport's popularity quickly. This along with the fact that it was only played on weekends, which allowed for easy following on a game-to-game basis, helped the sport grow.
22 Major Leaguers move to Mexican League in 1946
In 1946, twenty-two Major Leaguers, including eight members of the New York Giants, moved to the Mexican League.
These moves were motivated by businessman Jorge Pasquel investing more money to raise the profile of the Mexican League and offering contracts which were in some cases higher than American Major League contracts. These moves were also motivated by the anticipation of increased competition from former Major Leaguers who had been serving in World War II and were now returning home.
["From Mexico to Quebec: Baseball's Forgotten Giants"](_blank)
SABR (Society for American Baseball Research), published in ''The National Pastime: Baseball in the Big Apple'', Bill Young, 2017.
1949: Landmark ruling of ''Gardella v. Chandler''
The
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case
''Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs'' held that the baseball leagues and their commissioner are not violating antitrust laws (specifically the
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 (, ) is a United States antitrust law which prescribes the rule of free competition among those engaged in commerce. It was passed by Congress and is named for Senator John Sherman, its principal author.
Th ...
) when they ban, trade, or otherwise change the playing eligibility of players.
The ruling went untested until the Mexican League was formed. Players who went to play in the Mexican League were
blacklist
Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist (or black list) of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list. If someone is on a blacklist, t ...
ed from Major League Baseball. One such player,
Danny Gardella
Daniel Lewis Gardella (February 26, 1920 – March 6, 2005) was an American left fielder in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Giants (1944–45) and St. Louis Cardinals (1950). Born in New York City, he batted and threw left-han ...
, was blacklisted because MLB claimed he had violated the reserve clause. On the other hand, Gardella's side claimed he had been fired by
Giants
A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore.
Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to:
Mythology and religion
*Giants (Greek mythology)
*Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...
player-manager
Mel Ott
Melvin Thomas Ott (March 2, 1909 – November 21, 1958), nicknamed "Master Melvin", was an American professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants, from through .
He batted left-handed an ...
during 1946 spring training because of frequent arguments, primarily about his salary.
During 1948, Gardella brought a claim against Commissioner of Baseball
Happy Chandler, the
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...
and
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...
, as well as their presidents (
Ford Frick
Ford Christopher Frick (December 19, 1894 – April 8, 1978) was an American sportswriter and baseball executive. After working as a teacher and as a sportswriter for the ''New York American'', he served as public relations director of the Natio ...
and
Will Harridge
William Harridge (October 16, 1883 – April 9, 1971) was an American executive in professional baseball whose most significant role was as president of the American League (AL) from 1931 to 1959. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the ...
, respectively). Gardella charged that they were engaged in
interstate commerce
The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amo ...
because the defendants had made contracts with radio broadcasting and television companies that sent narratives or moving pictures of the games across state lines. MLB then settled with Gardella and offered all Mexican League jumpers amnesty, protecting the ambiguity of the antitrust protection.
In 1949, Gardella won a major appeal against baseball's
reserve clause
The reserve clause, in North American professional sports, was part of a player contract which stated that the rights to players were retained by the team upon the contract's expiration. Players under these contracts were not free to enter into ano ...
in the federal courts. This successful appeal is recognized as the first major early step towards baseball
free agency
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is ...
.
Expansion and MiLB
For most of its existence, the league consisted of six to eight teams. During its first few decades most of the league's teams played around Mexico City and the Gulf Coast. The southernmost team being Veracruz, while the northernmost team being Tampico. Most of Mexico City's teams disappeared in the late '30s, and were replaced by teams all around the country. It wasn't until the 1940s, that the League first reached the northern part of the country with the introduction of the
Sultanes de Monterrey. Teams in
Nuevo Laredo
Nuevo Laredo () is a city in the Municipality of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The city lies on the banks of the Rio Grande, across from Laredo, United States. The 2010 census population of the city was 373,725. Nuevo Lar ...
and
Torreon soon followed. The west coast first had a team in 1949 with the emergence of the
Charros de Jalisco
The Charros de Jalisco ( en, Jalisco Horsemen) are a professional baseball team in the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico, Mexican Pacific League based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Their home ballpark is Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco y Atletismo, Estadi ...
. It still was a difficult region to gain popularity given the presence of the
Mexican Pacific League
The Mexican Pacific League (), known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons or simply LMP for its acronym in Spanish, is a professional baseball winter league based in Northern Mexico. The ten-team regular season schedule run ...
, an important winter league in the northwest of the country.
The emergence of teams in the north was key in expanding the league's popularity. The north followed baseball closely, because of various aspects that all helped its teams thrive and has been the home of the most consistent teams in the league, with the Saraperos, Sultanes and Acereros not having stopped play in over 40 years. For the Sultanes it even resulted in a Minor League partnership with the
Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
, and played a major role in the league achieving AAA status with the Minor Leagues. This achievement should be attributed mainly to Anuar Canavati, who is considered one of the greatest Mexican baseball executives along Peralta and Harp. His relationship with MiLB was key in the growth of Mexican baseball.
Southern Mexico has also been a bastion of baseball, with both the Tabasco and Campeche teams enjoying consistent attendance due to the sport's popularity. The league first expanded southward with the introduction of the
Olmecas de Tabasco
The Olmecas de Tabasco (English: Tabasco Olmecs) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League based in Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico. Their home ballpark is the Estadio Centenario 27 de Febrero.
The Olmecas won their only Mexican L ...
in 1975, which was followed by the
Piratas de Campeche
The Piratas de Campeche (English: Campeche Pirates) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League (LMB) based in Campeche, Campeche, Mexico.
History
In 1980, the Alacranes de Durango moved to Campeche, and played their home games at Ven ...
in 1980, and the
Leones de Yucatán
The Leones de Yucatán (English: Yucatán Lions) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League. The team play its home games at Parque Kukulcán Alamo in Mérida, Yucatán. The Leones have won the Mexican League title five times in , , , ...
in 1979, after a couple of previous unsuccessful attempts. Although the Yucatán Peninsula teams have consistently existed for 40 years, they have enjoyed little successes in comparison with their northern peers, although these southern teams have won seven titles.
In 1979, the
Mexican Central League
The Mexican Central League was a Minor League Baseball circuit that operated for 19 seasons, from 1960 through 1978, with several clubs based across Mexico.
History
The Mexican Central League was formed in 1960 at the Class D level. It was plac ...
was absorbed into the expanded LMB. The newly expanded league featured a 20-team circuit with four divisions. However, after a series of team bankruptcies, the Mexican League was reduced to 14 teams in two divisions.
Rule changes and the introduction of playoffs
For the 1970 season teams were divided into geographic zones to lower travel costs, however it was not until three years later that the league introduced a playoff system for the first time. In 1973 the first of what is now called the
Serie del Rey The Serie del Rey () is the annual championship series of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol to determine a champion at the end of each season since 1970. The champions from each division, Norte and Sur (), compete in a best-of-seven series, with the winn ...
was held. The members of each zone have changed frequently as teams have come and gone (particularly for those teams in a central location), but each zone has maintained a core of the northernmost and southernmost teams. In 1974 the League introduced the
designated hitter
The designated hitter (DH) is a baseball player who bats in place of another position player, most commonly the pitcher. The position is authorized by Major League Baseball Rule 5.11. It was adopted by the American League in 1973 and later by th ...
rule.
The 21st century and future expansion
The league has found the stability it lacked in the 90s, and has managed to sustain 16 teams for almost two decades, although some teams have relocated, and attendance has been inconsistent, though has rebounded in the latter part of the 2010s with the opening of new ballparks and greater stability. This led to unanimous approval for expansion to 18 clubs.
Despite having cancelled the 2020 season due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, in December 2020, Mexican President
Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Andrés Manuel López Obrador (; born 13 November 1953), also known by his initials AMLO, is a Mexican politician who has been serving as the 65th president of Mexico since 1 December 2018. He previously served as Head of Government of Mex ...
announced the addition of two expansion teams to the league:
El Águila de Veracruz
El Águila de Veracruz (English: ''The Veracruz Eagle'') is a professional baseball team that plays in the Mexican League. Based in Veracruz, Mexico, they play their home games at the Estadio Universitario Beto Ávila.
History
Baseball was intro ...
and the
Mariachis de Guadalajara
The Mariachis de Guadalajara (English language, English: Guadalajara Mariachis) are a professional baseball team in the Mexican League based in Zapopan, Jalisco. Their home ballpark is Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco y Atletismo, Estadio Pan ...
. The league officially approved the additions on 26 January 2021.
Uniforms
In contrast to the Major Leagues in which teams commonly wear a white uniform at home, and a grey one for away games, with team-color jerseys only worn as alternates, Mexican League teams use a colored option as their regular road jersey, a practice started in the 1970s to attract larger crowds and make teams more recognizable.
Season structure
The current LMB regular season, consisting of 120 games per team, typically begins in late March or early April. Each team's schedule is typically organized into three-game series. Postponed games or continuations of suspended games can result in an ad hoc one-game or five-game series. A team's series are organized into homestands and road trips that group multiple series together. Teams generally play games five to six days per week, commonly having Monday or Sunday as an off day. Frequently, games are scheduled at night. Sunday games are generally played during the afternoon. In addition, teams will play day games frequently on Opening Day, holidays, and getaway days. Each team plays either six or nine games against each opponent.
All-Star Game
In mid-to-late July, just after the midway point of the season, the LMB All-Star Game is held during a four-day break from the regular-season schedule. The All-Star Game features a team of players from the North Zone, led by the manager of the previous North Serie del Rey team, and a team of players from the South Zone, similarly managed, in an exhibition game. It has been held consistently since 1942 and from that year up until 1971 a team of foreign players battled it out against a team of Mexicans.
The first all-star game took place on August 29, 1939, in the since-demolished
Delta Park
Delta Park is a public municipal park complex in north Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Delta Park is composed of two distinct sections referred to as East and West Delta Park. The Owens Sports Complex is a notable attraction of East Delta Pa ...
of Mexico City, in a game between the selections of ''Ernesto Carmona'' and ''Manuel Oliveros''. The game ended in 11 innings, 1–0 in favor of the Oliveros team after a
walk-off home run
In baseball, a walk-off home run is a home run that ends the game. For a home run to end the game, it must be hit in the bottom of the final inning of the game and generate enough runs to exceed the opponent's score. Because the opponent will no ...
.
Postseason
When the regular season ends at the end of August, between eight and ten teams enter the postseason playoffs. The top four finishers in each zone automatically qualify, however if the fifth place team in a zone finishes three or fewer
games back of the fourth place team, that fifth-place team qualifies as a
wild card and plays the fourth place team in a single game playoff. That is followed by three additional rounds:
# The First Playoff: two series per zone, each is a best-of-five-game series.
# The Zona Norte and Zona Sur Championship Series: each is a best-of-seven-game series between the winners of each Zone's First Playoff series
# The
Serie del Rey The Serie del Rey () is the annual championship series of the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol to determine a champion at the end of each season since 1970. The champions from each division, Norte and Sur (), compete in a best-of-seven series, with the winn ...
a best-of-seven-game series between each zone's champion.
Within each zone the first seed (the team with the best record) will face the fourth seed on the First Playoff, while the second and third seeds face each other. Since 2017, home-field advantage in the Serie del Rey is determined by regular-season records of the two zone champions, replacing a system used previously where the champion of the zone that won the All-Star Game would receive home-field advantage.
Doping
Similar to MLB, the Mexican League has had issues with
doping by several players. Between 2012 and 2016, 45 players tested positive at the Mexican League's Prevention and Control of Substances program, all of whom were suspended according to the organized baseball anti-doping rule, headed by the Major Leagues. Even so, the league has been accused of "softening" its anti-doping policy to create a safe space for foreign ballplayers to continue their careers there.
Allegedly, the league allows players to pay a fine equivalent to US$5,000, without suspension to make the positive test "disappear". This has caused controversy among the fans and media who have called for the firing of league president Javier Salinas. As recently as August 2019, a player has tested positive, and a press release informing the media of said situation has been handed out, while protecting the player's name.
Media coverage
Television
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...
, AYM sports, and
TVC Deportes
TVC Deportes is a Mexican sports channel, founded August 11, 2007. Currently only can be viewed through cable television systems in Mexico. Its programming combines both national and international sports, a sports news program (''TVC Deportes Tot ...
broadcast games from the LMB. Sky Sports is also the official broadcaster of home games for Diablos Rojos del México and Sultanes del Monterrey, making it the channel that has the greatest coverage of the league. Other teams have local broadcasting agreements.
Radio
La Liga Mexicana de Béisbol has an agreement with Cadena RASA, through which the radio network has the exclusive national radio broadcast rights, including the All-Star Game and the Serie del Rey, as well as any other baseball event of national relevance that is presented. Gustavo Torrero, a well-known baseball commentator on radio and television, provides play-by-play for these broadcasts alongside Javier Figueroa and occasional guest commentators. In addition to this, all teams have their games broadcast on local radio.
Internet
Since 2014, LMB has had an agreement with AYM Sports to stream some games on the Internet through web page LMB.TV.
Likewise, since the 2017 post-season, Cinépolis KLIC has streamed some games.
Additionally, the LMB signed an agreement with Facebook to exclusively broadcast 132 regular-season games and eight playoff games (four for each championship) during its 2018 season through Facebook Live. These streams would be free and would be available from March 22 of that year on the Facebook page of the LMB.
Since 2021 all LMB games have been streamed internationally both live and on demand on Jonron.TV
See also
*
Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Profesional de México
The Salón de la Fama del Beisbol Profesional de México (in English, Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame), commonly called the Salón de la Fama (Hall of Fame) is a baseball hall of fame and museum located in Monterrey, Nuevo León. I ...
(Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame)
*
Baseball awards
Professional baseball leagues, amateur-baseball organizations, sportswriting associations, and other groups confer awards on various baseball teams, players, managers, coaches, executives, broadcasters, writers, and other baseball-related peopl ...
*
Mexican Pacific League
The Mexican Pacific League (), known as Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacífico for sponsorship reasons or simply LMP for its acronym in Spanish, is a professional baseball winter league based in Northern Mexico. The ten-team regular season schedule run ...
*
Sport in Mexico
The most popular sport in Mexico currently is association football followed by boxing. However, there are regional variations: for example, baseball is the most popular sport in the northwest and the southeast of the country. Basketball, Americ ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Sports leagues established in 1925
Minor league baseball leagues
1
Professional sports leagues in Mexico
Multi-national professional sports leagues