Liga de Béisbol Instruccional del Norte de Coahuila (LNC) begins play this March, learn a little about a league I’m just learning about myself.
History
The LNC has been in operation since 1945. However, until 1969 the league took years off here and there. Since 1969 the league has been in operation every year. The LNC strictly operates out of the Mexican state of Coahuila. There’s not much to LNC’s history outside of their professional status. In Mexico, any league that is not mainly populated by professional players from Liga Mexicana de Béisbol or Liga Mexicana del Pacífico seems to be labeled a semi-professional league. I understand why that label is used, but it doesn’t really fit what these leagues are doing. They are offering professional baseball, just at a much smaller scale than their larger LMB and LMP brethren. Starting in 2020 the LMB will be using the LNC as a farm league in the form of the Saraperos de Saltillo furnishing a team.
Format
In LNC they play a 28 game regular season. Games are played on Sundays only, in the form of a doubleheader every time. The league seems to run from March 8th to sometime in August. There are playoffs, which as far as I can tell consist of the top four teams advancing to play a best-of-three game tournament in the semifinals and then the same in the finals. All together the playoffs take most of the months of July and August. Traditional baseball rules apply and every team uses a designated hitter.
Level of Play
The scale,
ML
AAAA
AAA
AA
A
Rookie
This isn’t a hard league to put a label on because for the most part the LNC is populated by really young players. They have to go through tryouts and on the whole, present as a very raw group, talent-wise. The LNC is a Rookie-level league.
Teams
- Agricultores de Morelos
- Atléticos de Acuña
- Azules de Piedras Negras
- Bravos de Sabinas
- Carboneros de Nava
- Diablos de Nadadores
- Rojos de Aguijita
- Saraperos de Saltillo-farm
- Tuzos de Palaú
- Universidad CEUC de Monclova
Statistics
There is no longer a working LNC website, and there does not appear to be any official statistics on any other site, including the league’s Facebook. Baseball Reference does not have any LNC statistics.
People to Follow
Outside of LNC’s Facebook page, I couldn’t find anyone online covering or talking about LNC. Follow their Facebook page and hopefully, they will continue to update regularly.
Websites
Streaming
There is no official streaming site for LNC games. Research shows that games were shown on local TV stations in the past, but it’s unclear if that is still the case or if those stations allow the games to be streamed on any format.
Lead photo courtesy of Unknown – Liga de Béisbol Instruccional del Norte de Coahuila Facebook
