Angels Go That Extra Mile to Find New Pool of Prospects

Bill Bavasi, Angel general manager, and his entourage walked into a restaurant near the Mexican border Friday.

A man looked up from his meal, noticed the slacks, dress shirts and ties, then turned to his friend and said, “FBI or CIA.”

Nope, just Disney Sports Enterprises.

Bavasi and company looked a tad out of place in the near 100-degree weather here. But their four-hour drive to the border city was without sinister motives.

They had merely come to get a piece of Mexican baseball.

Bavasi and Mario Hernandez, president of the Mexicali Eagles, consummated a working agreement with the team, which is in the Mexican Winter League. It’s an association the Angels hope will reestablish their ties outside the United States and create interest in the Latino community in Orange County.

It was such an important occasion for the Angels that the team sent the top brass from the scouting department and brought reporters along for the event.

Bob Fontaine (vice president for scouting and player personnel), Ken Forsch (director of player development), Jeff Parker (assistant director for scouting and player development) and long-time scout Dave Garcia made the trip. If nothing else, they learned the approximate driving time and that the heat in Mexicali makes neckties optional.

But business being business . . .

“Mexicali is perfect for us,” said Bavasi, who later lost the tie and loosened his shirt collar to cool off in the air conditioned motel room provided by the Eagles. “We won’t have to send players halfway across the globe for winter leagues. We can send them to our own back yard.”

The Eagles, for their part, made a big show of the event with a news conference worthy of Disney, right down to the charts and graphs. Hector Teran, governor of Baja California, and Amparo Pelayo, director of sports for the state, attended the news conference, which included souvenirs left over from three Angel promotions.

The Eagles, like the Angels, want to renovate their stadium and, like the Angels, wish to get public funds to pay for it. A portion of the news conference was used as a sales pitch directed toward Teran.

“This is a great deal for the Angels and us,” Hernandez said. “They were the only team to give us preference to any player on their [winter-ball] roster. No other team offered this.”

San Diego and Baltimore also negotiated with Mexicali.

The benefits to the Angels could either be far-reaching or short-lived, depending on the initial success.

It’s a one-year deal with two two-year options, giving the Angels almost exclusive rights to Mexicali.

They will provide the Mexicali team with five players--the maximum foreign players allowed under league rules--a manager and pitching coach. They will also hold tryout camps and beef up their scouting in Mexico. The Angels will pay most of their players’ expenses, including salaries and travel.

Catcher Bret Hemphill, pitcher Matt Perisho, pitcher Robert Ellis, first baseman Chris Pritchett and pitcher Mike Freehill will play for Mexicali in the upcoming season (Oct. 19 through Dec. 31). Angel third baseman George Arias, whose father Raul played in the Mexican League, will play later in the season.

Mario Mendoza will be the manager and Kernan Ronan will be the pitching coach.

It was Mendoza, who managed at double-A Midland last season, who put the two teams together. Mexicali, which has been associated with the San Diego Padres and the Dodgers in the past, contacted Mendoza in May to ask if he would manage the team.

“I had told Bob Fontaine in spring training that I would like to get some of our players in the Mexican League,” said Mendoza, who played 21 seasons in the Mexican League and has managed the last six. “I got the Mexicali job and it went from there.”

The Angels expanded on the idea. They will hold tryouts--the first next month--in an attempt to find players from Mexico. Fontaine and five scouts will evaluate the talent and make recommendations.

Eusebio Perez is the Angels’ only scout now covering Mexico.

“This should improve our ability to sign Mexican players,” Bavasi said. “We feel there is a lot of talent that has not come out of here.”

The Angels made a much bigger attempt at cultivating other markets in the early 1990s. They even signed three players from Russia. But the team shut down its Dominican Republic baseball academy in a cost-cutting move last November and the Russian players were released two years ago.

But Bavasi said if the Mexico operation is successful, the team will likely return to the Dominican Republic.

The Angels have had few Latino players in the past, while the Dodgers receive large support from the Latino community. Bavasi said he hoped they could make inroads in that fan base.

“That’s a byproduct that could happen,” Bavasi said. “I’m not in marketing, but as a novice, I’d say there is something there.”

Later at the news conference, Bavasi joked with the Mexican media: “I want to handle this differently than I did with our media. I’ll answer all your questions, only I’ll tell you the truth.”

Mendoza, translating, left out Bavasi’s punch line.