Liga Mexicana de Béisbol logo |
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| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1925 |
| No. of teams | 14 |
| Country(ies) | Mexico |
| Most recent champion(s) | Tigres de Quintana Roo (10) |
| Official website | www.lmb.com.mx |
The Mexican League (Spanish: Liga Mexicana de Béisbol) is a summer minor league baseball league with teams based across Mexico. Along with the International League and the Pacific Coast League, it is one of three leagues playing at the triple-A level, which is one step below Major League Baseball.[1] It is the only Minor League Baseball (MiLB)-sanctioned triple-A league outside the United States. Nonetheless, Mexican League teams are not affiliated with specific Major League Baseball clubs as part of the farm system like the International and the Pacific Coast leagues.
The other professional baseball league in Mexico is the Mexican Pacific League.[2]
The Mexican League has three minor leagues of its own, the Liga Norte de Mexico, Liga de Beisbol del Noroeste de Mexico, and the Liga de Mexicana de Beisbol Academia (a summer and a winter league). The current champion is Tigres de Quintana Roo.
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When it was founded in 1925, the league included six teams (74 Regimiento, México, Agraria, Nacional, Guanajuato and Águila). Since then, the league has expanded to sixteen teams, divided equally into a north and a south zone, the champions of which meet to contest a best-of-seven game playoff series. The season begins in mid-March with the playoffs running through mid-August.
Judges use Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore v. National League of Professional Baseball Clubs to uphold that the baseball leagues and commissioner are not violating anti-trust rulings because they are not doing anything different than was done when the previous ruling occurred. Included in the previous ruling was the fact that the baseball leagues could transmit information about their games via telegraph wires. And, because the leagues are only negotiating, their actions in negotiating the television and radio broadcasts are no different than their actions with telegraphs. Therefore the previous decision can be upheld. Judges also assert that this the previous decision hasn’t been objected by Congress, so it must also be of the opinion of congress that baseball does not fall under the rules of the Anti-Trust Act. (Of course, consider that some judges felt differently, but ruling was overall in favor of the Leagues.)
The ruling went untested until the Mexican League was formed. Players who went to play in the Mexican League got blacklisted from MLB. One such player, Danny Gardella, was blacklisted because he had broken his contract and gone to play professional baseball in Mexico.
In 1948, Gardella brought a claim against Commissioner of Baseball Happy Chandler, the National League and American League, as well as their presidents (Ford Frick and Will Harridge, respectively). Gardella charged that they were engaged in interstate commerce 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 -- protected the ambiguity surrounding the antitrust protection.
In 1949, baseball player Danny Gardella won a landmark appeal to baseball's reserve clause in the federal courts. This successful appeal is recognized as the first major step towards baseball free agency.
In 1979, the Mexican Central League was absorbed into the expanded Liga Mexicana de Beisbol (Mexican Baseball League). The newly expanded league now 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.
| Team | Titles | Runner Up | Years Won | Years Runner Up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diablos | 15 | 17 | 1956, 1964, 1968, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2008 | 1940, 1941, 1946, 1947, 1957, 1958, 1963, 1966, 1970, 1977, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2011 |
| Tigres | 10 | 6 | 1955, 1960, 1965, 1966, 1992, 1997, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2011 | 1956, 1982, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2009 |
| Sultanes | 9 | 6 | 1943, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1962, 1991, 1995, 1996, 2007 | 1953, 1969, 1986, 1994, 2006, 2008 |
| Rojos del Águila | 5 | 4 | 1937, 1938, 1952, 1961, 1970 | 1939, 1960, 1962, 1968 |
| Pericos | 4 | 5 | 1925[3], 1963, 1979[4], 1986[5] | 1948, 1961, 1964, 1965, 2010 |
| Saraperos | 3 | 6 | 1980, 2009, 2010 | 1971, 1972, 1973, 1988, 2004, 2005 |
| Leones | 3 | 3 | 1957, 1984, 2006 | 1954, 1989, 2007 |
| Piratas | 2 | 0 | 1983, 2004 | - |
| Broncos | 1 | 2 | 1969 | 1967, 1981 |
| Olmecas | 1 | 0 | 1993 | - |
| Guerreros | 1 | 0 | 1998 | - |
| Acereros | 0 | 1 | - | 1998 |
| Team | Titles |
|---|---|
| Diablos | 15 |
| Tigres | 10 |
| Sultanes | 9 |
| Rojos del Águila | 5 |
| Tecolotes | 5 |
| Azules | 4 |
| Pericos | 4 |
| Alijadores | 3 |
| Leones | 3 |
| Saraperos | 3 |
| Agrario | 2 |
| Algodoneros | 2 |
| Cafeteros | 2 |
| Charros | 2 |
| Piratas | 2 |
| Tigres (Comintra) | 2 |
| Bravos | 1 |
| Broncos | 1 |
| Chiclet's Adams | 1 |
| Gendarmería | 1 |
| Guerreros | 1 |
| Indios | 1 |
| Monte de Piedad | 1 |
| Obras Públicas | 1 |
| Ocampo | 1 |
| Olmecas | 1 |
| Petroleros (Poza Rica) | 1 |
| Policía | 1 |
| Rieleros | 1 |
| Tráfico | 1 |
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