OAXACA.- The city of Oaxaca had the presumed (let’s say) “honor” of being the first place in which the Mexican League applied the modality of playing games of only seven innings on Tuesdays. Modality that is to be justified in the time factor, which was somehow fulfilled by the duel between Pericos de Puebla and the local Warriors lasting 2 hours 27 minutes. The “but” did not come from the duration of the game, but from the attending fanatic, who in this case barely summoned 668 spectators, a figure that would flatly accept the justification for the measure. It will have been yesterday that this 7 innings per game was generalized, that is, that it was applied to the 9 fronts in which matches were held, forcing that today, beyond the results, what is paid attention to is the duration of the meetings. However, it should not be left aside that what is relevant, even if it is hidden, will be to see how much convening power this measure is, if the league, the places, received an incentive to improve their entries that were, essentially the reason for delivering the cut from 9 to 7 episodes. But more fundamentally, it is if, in fact, the cut will have an effect on offering fans a show of better quality, if indeed it will deliver to the audiences present a game of greater competitive value and if this can translate into the fact that at the same time , Tuesday and Wednesday attendances improve. We will see this step by step.
BALANCE.- Few games yet to start drawing conclusions, but not so few as to set expectations in the LMB. In this case, we refer specifically to what those players described the day before as “bomb hires” have shown and that, to date, have shown little how to classify them as “out of league.” A very honorable exception is that of Curaçao, Wladimir Balentien, a strong striker who in his first four games has stood out by batting .385 m with three home runs and 5 productions with the Saraperos de Saltillo. Late that Balentien three a lot in the basket and that in addition to the fact that he will stand out a lot individually, he will be a key factor in the step that the Saraperos take. The guy really hits the ball hard.
ÓLIVER.- It remains for history that Óliver Pérez began this 2022 in uniform with the Arizona Diamondbacks, thus fulfilling his twentieth season in the Major Leagues, something that a Mexican baseball player has never achieved in history.
As much as the hope is fed that some other club will claim him, the most logical thing that will happen is that he will be released and Oliver’s own decision will be to consummate his retirement playing in the Mexican League, with the Toros de Tijuana. On this, a consideration. Óliver has very little need to continue in the ball for economic reasons, his is already for pleasure and hobby. If he glimpsed saying “goodbye”, he surely did it thinking of the Big Top, somehow he managed it, even if it was almost in the dark. With Tijuana he would be so before the local public, that he would thus have the privilege, which it is, of saying goodbye to a player who, amid backlights, forged an admirable career. A pitcher who will be remembered for a long time.
And in the memory, that young man of just 19 years old who peeked out, even with some shyness, in the dugout of the Tomateros de Culiacán in the old Ángel Flores stadium.
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