Mexican League

From BR Bullpen

The Mexican League is a professional baseball league based in Mexico. In Spanish, the league is known as the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, or LMB. The league currently has 16 teams. The Mexican League is currently considered a class AAA minor league. While its teams are not affiliated with MLB clubs, some have signed working agreements with MLB teams. The Salon de la Fama honors prominent individuals from the league.

[edit] History

The Mexican League was founded in 1925 with 5 teams and slowly grew. By the late 30s and 40s, the league was drawing the top players from the Negro Leagues, including Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Martin Dihigo, Ray Dandridge and Willie Wells. Native Mexican talent was almost run out of the league in 1940, when many Cuban and Negro League stars took central stage - only a handful of Mexican players like Angel Castro and Jesus Valenzuela were competitive with the foreign imports. Three Negro Leaguers won Triple Crowns in a 4-year period - since then only three other players have won Triple Crowns in the Mexican League. In 1946, millionaire owner Jorge Pasquel began luring big-leaguers like Sal Maglie and Max Lanier to Mexico and offered blank contracts to Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, and Ted Williams. While the white Americans who did jump borders added prestige and famous names to the league, they generally were of lesser talent than and could not compete with the league's population of Cuban and Negro League greats. Also, by this time Mexican players were much more prevalent and productive than they had been in the '40-'41 seasons, when Negro Leaguers almost forced them out of the league. Legal action by the American major leagues and salary cuts by the Mexican clubs led to most of the Americans leaving by 1948. With integration the black stars mostly returned north as well, though some stayed south due to the racially tolerant environment.

By 1955, the Mexican League was fading. New owners helped make the league part of Organized Baseball as a AA circuit. Later, it became a AAA league - while the talent was AA on average, the attendance and size of the cities represented were comparable to other AAA circuits.

[edit] Current Teams (2008)

[edit] Champion Teams

[edit] Franchise Records

BOLD indicates a current franchise.

(through 2005)

[edit] Further Reading

• G. Richard McKelvey: Mexican Raiders in the Major Leagues: The Pasquel Brothers vs. Organized Baseball, 1946, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2006.
• Pedro Treto Cisneros: The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics
• John Virtue: South of the Color Barrier: How Jorge Pasquel and the Mexican League Pushed Baseball Toward Racial Integration, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2008.

[edit] External Links

• Mexican League
• Mexican League (en espanol)