El Águila de Veracruz (English: The Eagle of Veracruz) is a professional baseball team that plays in the Mexican League. Based in Veracruz, Mexico, they play their home games at the Estadio Universitario Beto Ávila.
History Baseball was introduced to Veracruz during the early 20th century by employees of American and British oil companies. Native employees began to take an interest in the games, played by the managers of these companies, who then purchased uniforms for the new players. The uniforms they purchased were red, which had a lasting effect on future baseball teams in Veracruz. Mexican Eagle Petroleum Co., a Mexican oil company now known as Pemex, was the inspiration for the name of the first baseball club founded in Veracruz, the Rojos del Águila ("Reds of the Eagle"), founded on September 16, 1903.
Beginnings One of the original teams of the Mexican Baseball League, Águila won its first championship titles in 1937 and 1938, when the league was recently organized and began to keep statistics. Agustín Verde was the team's manager at the time. Subsequent titles came in 1952 and 1961, both under The Kangaroo Santos Amaro's management, and Enrique Izquierdo led the team to its fifth win in 1970. Their sixth win in 2012 was under manager Pedro Meré, "El Comemangos" They are one of the most recognized teams in the Mexican League.
Águila played in the Veracruz Sports Park until 1986, when the team retired from the league. When the team returned in 1992, it adopted Estadio Universitario Beto Ávila as the new headquarters.
Titles
1937
The Eagle won their first championship title in 1937, under Cuban Agustín Verde, in an official championship and inaugural Mexican Baseball League game. Martin Dihigo's outstanding performance, both on the pitching mound and in the batter's box, was a major contributing factor to their win. The team included field players Augustine "Pijini" Bejarano, Felino Cardenas Estaquillo Martinez, Martin "El Maestro" Dihigo, Francisco Medina, Alberto Cornejo, Nero Arjona, Donato "Toco" Aldama, Ramon Michelena, Antonio Tenorio, Julian Ramirez Pajón and Agustin Verde; and pitchers Gustavo Ortiz, Martin Dihigo, Sabas Mora and Carlos Rubio. Sabas Mora holds the win–loss record at 7–0 with an ERA of 2.09, and Martin Dihigo is credited with winning the three games in a row needed to win the series.
1938
In 1938, Dihigo led the team to a second title, again directed by Agustín Verde+. Dihigo reached a batting average of .387, and swept the pitching department with 18 wins and 2 losses and an ERA of 0.90, with 184 strikeouts. The team consisted of field players Martin "El Maestro" Dihigo, Silvio Garcia, Jacinto Roque, Manuel Salvatierra, Nero Arjona, José Luis Gómez Rodríguez, Donato "Toco" Aldama, Raul "Chicalón" Mendez, Jorge Rosas, Alberto Cornejo, Amado Alvarez and Julian "Handjob" Ramirez; and pitchers Martin Dihigo, Julian Ramirez, Silvio Garcia, Tirso de Anda and Raul Mendez.
1952: The crown of 1952
The third team title in the Mexican Baseball League was won with another Cuban, Santos "The Kangaroo" Amaro. In this campaign, Santos Amaro led the team to another title with the help of Rene Gonzalez, who achieved the highest batting average of .370, and Peter "Charrascas" Ramirez, Mario Ariosa, Antonio Castanon, Charles White, Earl "Red Skin" Taborn, Guillermo "Huevito" Alvarez, Reynaldo Green, Gonzalo "The Blackout" Morales, Ricardo "Chamaco" (The kid) Garza, Rafael "Chino" Lopez, Jaime "El Loco" (Crazy) Abad, Manuel Fuentes, Octavio Favela, Ernesto Cortes, Federico Cortes, Isidro Ortiz and Santos Amaro himself as field players. In the pitching department, the top player in that season was William "Don Pants" Lopez, who won 19 games for 8 lost, and a 2.94 ERA. Pitching importance followed with Lino Donoso (18 - 11), Guadalupe Ortegón, Fernando Sanchez, Pedro Ramirez and Hector Moreno Marín "Pepino" Azamar.
1961: The power of Al Pinkston
Nine years elapsed before the Eagle Reds returned to winning a pennant Mexican Baseball League game in 1961, again under the leadership of Santos Amaro. This season, the magic came with "tremendous thumper" Alfred Pinkston joining the team from the Mexico City Red Devils (Diablos Rojos del Mexico), who, with solid work in the batting order, led the Eagle to conquer a new championship. Pinkston, according to his numbers and to those who were fortunate enough to see him play, was a tremendous player. He hit .374 that year and highlighted the work of the "explosive" Cuban Witremundo "Witti" Quintana, who, that year, was the champion of runs of in league with 23 homers. Equally important in this season were the following batters that were above a .300 percentage: Asdrubal Baro, Miguel "Pilo" Gaspar and William Berzunza, followed by below average "Magic" Felipe Montemayor, Ernesto "Natas" Garcia, Paul Bernard, Mario Ariosa, Ramiro Caballero, Witremundo Quintana, Ronaldo "Ronnie" Camacho, Mario Luna, Juan de Dios Hernández Esquivel and Felipe Villareal. On the pitch, a "legend" was born, a pillar to achieving the team win that season was Ramon "Three Skates" Arano, who managed to earn a record of 11 wins and 3 losses, and a 3.72 ERA. Following in his footsteps were Jesus Williams (11-8), Lino "Chucumite" Donoso (10-6), Silvio Castellanos (14-14), Rodolfo Alvaro (11-6), Guillermo Lopez, Aubrey Grigsbi, Pablo Montes de Oca, Lazaro Uscanga, Guillermo Vazquez, Pedro Julián Ladera, and Montane.
1970: The fifth championship As if it were predestined, it was another 9 years until the team won another championship. El Águila was directed once again by a Cuban, this time Enrique Izquierdo. They had important figures for sure, but overall it was an even year as individual accomplishments go. To highlight the work of Cuban Rogelio "El Borrego" (The lamb) Álvarez, he had 33 runs, was the league champion in that department, and batted a .288 percentage. There were three players who hit over .300 percentage: Emilio Sosa (.328), Roberto "The Engineer" Ortiz (.305) and Rolando Camarero (.304). Other hitters were Nicolás Vazquez, Rogelio Alvarez, Francisco Rodriguez Ituarte, Wilfredo Arano, Francisco Chavez, Enrique Izquierdo, Jose Manuel Hernandez, Porfirio Ruiz, Tobias Santos, Rufino Reyes, Jose Reyes Cruz, Joaquin Santiago, Natanael Alvarado, Ernesto García, Olindo Rojas, Octavio Salgado, Octavio Orozco, Hector Rodriguez, Esteban Valtierra, and Carlos Burgos, and the pitchers were Jesus Rizales (12-6), Cesar Diaz (10-8), Alberto Osorio (10-7), Luis Malpica (9-9), Blas Mazon (13-13) and Ramiro Nuño, Rene "Sabañón" (Chilblain) Chavez, Francisco Lopez, Octavio Salgado, Hector Brito, Raul Balcazar, Juan de Jesus Quintana, Juan Burgos, and Felipe Antonety.
The competition was high that season, with ten teams divided into two zones, the South and the North, where the championship series was between the zone leaders or the champions in each zone. Veracruz won in the final series to the Diablos Rojos del México, 4 games to 2, in the Parque Deportivo Veracruzano.
2012: The sixth star
After 42 years without a championship, the team had a successful season in 2011 when they reached the Mexican League Championship Series in the South Zone. The Eagle Reds won the Mexican Baseball League Championship for the sixth time in its history. The manager, Pedro Meré, who took over the team a little after half-way through the season. The "Prince of Mango" continued the work of Puerto Rican Orlando Merced, who was suspended by the league for the rest of the season. Mere, who had won three championships with the Los Tuxtlas Brujos (sorceres) in the Veracruz Winter League, was named as manager in his debut in the Mexican Baseball League, as well as becoming the first Mexican leader of the , as the team's five previous championships were won under Cuban managers.
The Eagle won their sixth championship, on August 29, 2012, taking the seventh game in the series to Rieleros de Aguascalientes (Aguascaliantes Railers), 8–1, in the packed "Beto Ávila" University Sports Park. The Eagle Reds received the Zaachila Cup. With the culmination of a winning season, Governor Javier Duarte de Ochoa later toured the main boulevard of Veracruz thanking the fans for their support. Duarte gave a reception to the new kings of the Mexican Baseball League in the Hall of Flags. Afterwards, there was a meal with the governor, the players, and with the directors of the team. At 6pm, there was a Thanksgiving Mass at the University Sports Park "Beto Ávila", and the edge of 8pm, a convoy of Mexican Baseball League champions paraded through the main streets of Veracruz, where thousands of fans gathered to cheer on their idols. The caravan with new Zaachila Cup holders ran from the Plaza of the Securities to the Malecon Macroplaza. Happy day.
Due to pitcher Tomas Solis' great performance, he was appointed as the Pitcher of the Year, and Dominican Jailen Peguero was recognized as the Reliever of the Year. Finally, in the framework of the XLII Mexican Baseball National Convention held in Villahermossa, Tabasco, Jose Antonio Mansur Galán, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Eagle Reds won Executive of the Year award.
1980s
After the mid-1970s, Pablo Machado, who was then the owner of the team, decided to take the Eagle to become the Aguascalientes Railroaders. In the early 1980s, the team returned to Veracruz. During that time, the team had among its ranks managers Pazos Fernando Sosa, Armando Rodriguez, "Beto" Ávila, Mario Ariosa, and Carlos Sosa Lagunes. They went unnoticed until the season of 1986, when Evelio Brito (the owner) quit during the same mid-season to disappear at the end of that campaign.
Emphasized during that period include George Brunet, Blas Santana, Fernando Elizondo, Vicente Palacios, Hector Madrigal, and others.
1990s
After an absence of six years, the Eagle Reds returned to Veracruz in 1992 under the auspices of the organization of Vicente Perez Avellá, and with the support of Dante Delgado Rannauro, governor at the time, Perez Avellá, kept the team competitive during the seasons of 1993 and 1994.
In 1993, the Reds qualified for the postseason, but lost to the Red Devils by 4 games to none in the first round of playoffs.
In 1994, the team qualified to play-off second in the South Zone and won the first postseason series to the Campeche Pirates, 4 games to 3, in a packed University Sports Park "Beto Ávila", which has been the home of the Eagle since 1992, but fell to the Red Devils in the divisional final, 4 games to none.
During the season of 1995, and without the support of the state governor Patricio Chirinos Calero, the team was dismantled mid-season to finally migrate to Veracruz to become the Poza Rica Oilers for 1996.
During the period of 1992 to 1995, famous players included Dominican Manny Hernandez, Miguel Muñoz, Juan Luevano, Leo Meza, Heriberto Garcia, American Matt Stark and Carlos "El Gato" Gastelum, with the debut of Rodrigo Lopez in the Mexican Baseball League.
By the end of 1998, and the beginning of his term, governor Miguel Aleman Velasco announced the return of the Eagle after their 4-year absence for the season 1999 of the Mexican Baseball League. The state government acquired the franchise of the Mayas de Chetumal. By orders of the governor, Antonio Chedraui Mafud was appointed as president of the organization and Gustavo Souza Escamilla as the General Manager.
2000s
During the management of Antonio Chedraui and Gustavo Souza, the team qualified for the postseason on only two occasions, the campaigns of 2000 and 2002.
In 2000, the Eagle made a big turnaround by getting 2 games to none on the mighty Red Devils, but the Diablos won the next four games, knocking out in the first round of playoffs.
In 2002, the Reds again qualified for the playoffs, but were swept by the Oaxaca Warriors in the first round.