The Mexican Baseball League’s 2022 season gets underway later this week, and the Acereros de Monclova will host Generales de Durango for a three-game series beginning Friday at Estadio de Beisbol Monclova. The Acereros (Spanish for “Steelers”) have gotten attention from fans on social media ahead of the opener, many of them flabbergasted by the amount of big-league talent on their Opening Day roster.
You'd be hard pressed to find another team, past or present, from Mexico’s highest level of professional baseball boasting a former World Series MVP (Pablo Sandoval), a Cy Young winner (Bartolo Colon, miraculously still pitching at 48 years old), a Gold Glove recipient (Josh Reddick) and a former home run champion (another ex-Yankee in Chris Carter, who led the National League in home runs in 2016 as a Brewer).
And the skipper for that squad? None other than former Mets skipper Mickey Callaway, who was fired from the Angels and subsequently suspended two years for sexual harassment allegations dating back to his time with Cleveland, where he served as pitching coach under Terry Francona.
Other players and coaches of note include Addison Russell, a former consensus Top 5 prospect and SS for the 2016 World Champion Cubs; WFAN favorite Al Alburquerque, who is indeed a pitcher and not a figment of a child prank-calling a Sports Pope; and hitting coach Julio Franco, a three-time All-Star and former AL batting champ for the Texas Rangers who himself finished his career in the Mexican League in 2009...at age 49.
The Mexican League, as observed by John Rocker avatar Kenny Powers on Season 2 of HBO’s Eastbound and Down, has often been a safe haven for fading stars not quite ready to give up on their dreams, flocking south of the border in a last-ditch effort to prolong their struggling careers. Given the lower stakes, players are also afforded a level of anonymity in Mexico, allowing them to maintain a living playing the sport they love without having to answer for their past sins.
That’s certainly the case for Russell, exiled from MLB since a domestic violence scandal brought his big-league career to an abrupt end in 2019. Bruce Maxwell fled to Mexico under similar circumstances following his arrest for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (he would later plead guilty to a lesser charge, receiving two years probation for disorderly conduct), though he did appear in 18 minor-league games for Double-A Richmond (Giants) and Triple-A Syracuse (Mets) last season.
The Acereros, who won their lone title in 2019, reached the playoffs with a 35-31 record last season, winning their first-round series over Saraperos de Saltillo before bowing out to the eventual champion, Toros de Tijuana, in the quarterfinals.
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