League of their Own

PHOENIX, Ariz. – It’s been a big week for U.S.-Mexico relations in this part of the country and it has nothing to do with the hot-button immigration issue that seems to grab newspaper headlines and lead news casts almost other week in this city.

Mexican nationals will be coming to the forefront in droves this week when the Monterrey Sultanes take on the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field and everybody seems happy about the visitors for a change.

It’s funny how a little sport like baseball can remind us all that everybody is basically the same and we are all looking for the same happiness, mighty dollar and stability in life. Well, at least it’s a reminder for three hours or how ever long it takes to play nine innings in an exhibition game.

Listen up: Baseball is beisbol. Beisbol is baseball. Give credit to the Diamondbacks for coming up with the idea.

The notion that a Mexican League team is playing a Major League club so close to Opening Day is a real cause for celebration because the D-Backs will likely field their regular starters, meaning it’s going to look like a real game. The fact that it is taking place in city known equally for its beauty, sun,  diversity -- and its protest marches, heated debates and political posturing involving the immigration issue (read: Mexicans) is a reason for a fiesta in itself.

Arriba!

Yes, it’s been a good week for Mexico. On Sunday, Major League Baseball announced that Mexico City will serve as one of the four international locations for the first round of the World Baseball Classic along with San Juan, Toronto and Tokyo. Monterrey also put in a bid to host the games but D.F. (Districto Federal), as it is known in Mexico, won the games instead. It is going to be a show. Mexico City’s Stadium Estadio Foro Sol, is a hitter’s park with shallow dimensions, especially down the base lines. Look for plenty of home runs from the home team as well as deep drives from the teams from Australia, Cuba and South Africa.

It’s a good start to the 2008 season for Mexico but I’ve seen enough to know that there is more work to do. Last year, of the 829 players on Major League rosters on Opening Day, 246 were foreign-born. Of those 246, the Dominican Republic had the most players with 98, followed by Venezuela’s 51 and Puerto Rico’s 28. Canada had 19 while Mexico and Japan each had 13 players on big league rosters.

Tied with Japan? Until a recent posting system was developed to compensate Japanese team owners, Japanese players were not even allowed to negotiate with a Major League team until they had played nine years in the Japanese professional leagues.

Nine years.

Here’s the problem. In Mexico, in a system similar to Japan, Mexican team owners own the rights to their players and negotiate directly with a MLB club. The Mexican owners do not want to lose their star players so sometimes the asking price is steep. The practice discourages teams from investing too much in Mexico because for the same money a club can invest in several players in the Dominican Republic or Venezuela. Unlike most Latin countries, MLB does not have academies in Mexico so the pipeline to the big leagues. The results are obvious and shocking.

Thirteen players in the big leagues from a country with a population of 110 million is hard to fathom. And don’t even try the “Mexico is a soccer country” line because I’m not buying it.

I’ve seen the players and I’ve seen the parks. Granted, not on Mexican television because media types there view soccer as a sport better suited for television and dollars than baseball.

The solution is not a simple one. But a real partnership between Mexico and MLB could be one answer. Imagine Mexican players trained in MLB academies in Mexico, fulfilling an obligation to play in the Mexican Leagues, and then given the option to stay in Mexico or go to the USA to play in the Major Leagues if they are good enough – without compensating the owner in dollars.

That’s one way to get more Mexicans in the Major Leagues and it also makes the Mexican League stronger by stacking it with young and better trained players. And let’s face it, not every player in Mexico (or any country) is good enough to play in the Major Leagues so there will always be a surplus of home-grown players. The steady stream of Dominicans, Venezuelans, Puerto Ricans and American citizens that fill the Mexican League rosters also promotes stability so there is really no reason to worry about the decline of the Mexican League or its teams should MLB step in with some type of partnership or academy.

It’s a good time to start thinking about the future of baseball in Mexico. It’s already been a good week for the country. Why not make it a better one?