sports

by Eric Jackson

Panama Metro, along with Chiriqui, rates as a perennial favorite in Panama’s national men’s and junior baseball tournaments. The demographics would explain most of it: although for baseball purposes Panama province has been divided into Panama Metro and Panama Oeste (the latter being that part west of the canal, whose teams play their home games in La Chorrera), the Panama-San Miguelito area and the rural eastern part of Panama province account for well over one-third of the nation’s population. Chiriqui is the next most populous province, and although Puerto Armuelles and the zone along the Costa Rican border is the turf of a separate baseball entity, Chiriqui Occidente, the team whose home field is Kenny Serracin Stadium in David has a larger pool of talent than most other province’s teams from which to recruit.

Had ARI handled the Atlantic side athletic facilities it acquired from the Americans with the slightest consideration for the people of Colon, that province’s baseball teams would have a suitable stadium, either the one at the old Cristobal High or the field at the former Fort Davis. But that wasn’t the case, and Mariano Bula Stadium, the field next to the Free Zone, is in such bad shape that it can’t be used.

However, as the national junior baseball tournament began, the team from impoverished Colon, which doesn’t have the facilities to play a home game, came into Panama Metro’s fabulous Rodney Carew National Stadium on January 6 and slapped the favorites around. As in 8-4. True, the Mets weren’t in such good form, as they committed six errors in the opening game. But Colon, after its starter allowed four runs in the first four and one-third innings, brought in reliever Rafael Almengor and he allowed only one hit in the following four and two-third innings. The next night the colonenses were far away in Bocas, winning by a 4-3 margin in an 11-inning game.

Understand that this is a year when kids who took Panamanian teams to various Little League and intermediate World Series glories are coming into the junior tournaments, and one would expect that now and in the next few years some of these kids will have continued their development and be of great interest to the professional scouts who attend these games.

While the last couple of junior tournaments produced no particularly hot prospects, it’s another story this year. Already the precocious catcher for Herrera, Herminio Vega, has traveled abroad with his elders as part of Panama’s national team. The Veraguas team has largely been playing together since Little League and brought home gold in the Central American student tournament, and you have to know that the scouts are looking at pitcher David Montilla. In opening night play Montilla and Alcibiades González teamed up to shut Herrera out in a 1-0 pitching duel.

In this tournament there’s a “mercy rule,” and on opening night it was invoked in Aguadulce after seven innings when home team Cocle piled up a 10-0 edge over Panama Oeste.

In Changuinola, the two least-known teams from the least populous provinces that are participating met, with Bocas del Toro clobbering Darien 7-1.

The following evening, after an opening night postponement, defending champion Chiriqui made its tournament debut against Herrera. The game had to be stopped after the seventh, as the home team had piled up a 17-3 advantage.

Also that second night, another pitcher with international experience who has to be of interest to the scouts, Panama Metro’s Ricardo Montilla, allowed Cocle but two hits over 7 and two-thirds innings. The Mets got on the winning board, 7-4.

Meanwhile in Puerto Armuelles, Los Santos reliever Alvaro Melgar went 6 and one-third innings, allowing three hits and one base on balls while striking out nine batters. The visitors beat Chiriqui Occidente 4-3.

On the second night in Santiago Panama Oeste beat Veraguas 3-1.

Night three had Cocle going seven innings against Darien before it was mercifully ended with a 12-0 score. In Puerto Armuelles Luis Ruiz threw a shutout to give Chiriqui Occidente the 2-0 victory over Herrera, while a few miles away in David Chiriqui smashed Panama Oeste 12-4, and in Santiago Panama Metro and Veraguas were tied 2-2 after 11 innings when this story was written.

So far this is a better balanced junior tournament than most, and the odds are that some of its participants will go on to play Major League Baseball. The games will be underway throughout January, in three rounds.

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