LMB: The sad tale of Conspiradores de Querétaro.

There is a mutiny about to take place in the Liga Mexicana de Béisbol and it will come at the hands of the players that make up the roster of the Conspiradores de Querétaro’s player. The expansion team that sits two hours away from México City has been an eye sore for the league this year.

This season kicked off with the team’s home stadium behind on its construction and the players having to play in an incomplete stadium. The team has yet to finish paying the cost of completing for the construction of the stadium. How is a team to pay its players if it hasn’t even finished paying its creditors?

Having to play in an incomplete stadium is not only dangerous for the fans and the players, but also an irresponsible act on the behalf of what is supposed to be a professional baseball team. Risking the well-being of human beings for profit seems wrong on so many levels. Employees are also prohibited from photographing the team’s facilities or stadium.

Pay has also been an issue this season. On Wednesday right-hander Miguel Romero refused to take the mound because of lack of payment, while league legend Augustin Murillo packed up and left the club because of deplorable conditions. Romero eventually got paid and will more than likely pitch on Friday. Players are being told that they haven’t been paid because of snafu with the deposits. Leonys Martín did not play tonight and will not play until he is paid.

It should be only a matter of time before the league steps in to remedy this sad situation. Sources tell me that adequate nutrition is not being provided for players before or after games. This includes feeding a full baseball team with five large pizzas after a game. Players are also not provided meal money to add insult to injury. After game meals include some stale noodles, something favoring a Russian goulash and sometimes nothing at all.

From day one of training camp here are some of the complaints from the players as relayed to me by my sources:

  • Improper nutrition before and after games.
  • No meal money.
  • Players have yet to be paid a full month.
  • Improper and inadequate transportation for the players to and from games.
  • Improper equipment such as a lack of team bats and balls for practices and games.
  • Incomplete stadium and practice facilities.
  • No wifi in the stadium for anyone.
  • Hotel almost and hour away from the stadium.
  • Inadequate logging for players

Not only is the hotel is also an hour away from but their is only one team bus for the 40-man roster and a rundown mini-school bus to also transport the rest of the team to and from games, while the other teams in the league have two luxurious buses. Some players who have played in Cuba have described conditions similar to that of the Serie Nacional.

A similar situation occurred last season with the Mariachis de Guadalajara and led to the whole team sitting out until they were paid. With agents and players gathering support from the media gradually this could snowball into probably another scandal for the Mexican League if the ship is not righted.

Keep a close eye on this situation at it continues to develop, but at the pace that this is going Querétaro might have a fate similar to that of Guadalajara’s last year which ended up in the relocation of the team to Jalisco if things do not start to get better. It is safe to say that the Conspiradores resemble the Cleveland Indians of the hit movie Major League, but the difference is that Querétaro is not a fictitious team and these players are not actors.

Conspiradores de QuerétaroCuban Baseball DigestLiga Mexicana de BéisbolLMB
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