Cangrejeros Tab Themselves a New Owner
After a months-long ordeal that ended with the ousting of Tom Axon as owner and Liga de Béisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente briefly taking over ownership themselves, the storied Cangrejeros de Santurce have a new owner. Carlos Iguina Oharriz and his investment group, Impulse Sports Entertainment Corporation, have bought the iconic franchise. Hopefully, the reign of Oharriz and his group will bring more stability to the Cangrejeros, but I have reservations anytime an investment group is involved in sports ownership.
Confederations of European Baseball Champions Cup Take a Bow
Having just concluded the 58th iteration of their bread and butter tournament, the Champions Cup, the Confederation of European Baseball dropped a bombshell of an announcement; the 2022 Champions Cup would be the last. Details haven’t yet been released but according to CEB officials, 2023 will mark the beginning of the European Baseball Champions League. I’ll wait for any sort of opinion on the new format/tournament until I know more. Still, the Champions Cup, and possibly other lower-level tournaments, going the way of the dodo sure isn’t something I ever expected.
The Fubon Guardians Lose, Again
Last week saw the conclusion of Taiwan’s Future Stars Championship. Now, it wasn’t the Chinese Professional Baseball League Fubon Guardians who lost, rather it was the Fubon Guardians-farm team who were walked off by the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions-farm in epic fashion when Chang Hsian smacked a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. The Guardians-farm club falling short in the FSC championship game is par for the course for a Guardians franchise that, per your friend and mine Daniel Shih, hasn’t managed to win a single title at any level, in any tournament since becoming the Guardians back in 2017.
Legends Are Struggling
Various reports have surfaced that the Atlantic League’s Lexington Legends are in a very bad place right now. They’ve had to fire numerous members of their office staff and then reduce the hours of the staff they are still employing while allegedly being late on delivering payroll. They have a serious issue with their mound that they seemingly can’t afford to fix and attendance hasn’t been the best. How did the reigning ALPB champions get to this spot? I’m not entirely sure, though taking an area that loved your baseball team and deciding to put another professional team in the Wild Health Genomes in the same stadium so that the loyal fans get tired of baseball now seems like it wasn’t such a smart idea. Either way, the rumors currently have it that Legends/Genomes owner Andy Shea is currently looking into selling the team before next year. If true, quite the fall indeed.
Lead artwork courtesy of Pedro Carvalho
