José Benito Camacho Urrutia

Benito Camacho was one of the great Czars of Cuban baseball for more than a decade (1998-2010) from the always controversial position of Technical Director in the "Commission".

Benito Camacho held for several years, with outstanding work, the responsibility of Head of the Technical Commission of the Cuban Baseball Federation, in addition to being part of the faculty at the University of Sciences of Physical Culture and Sports, Commander Manuel Fajardo, taught classes at schools for physical education teachers and contributed his knowledge in countries such as Panama, Colombia, and Mexico.

Benito was the man who, after an unexpected defeat against Japan in the Intercontinental Cup in Barcelona-97, was entrusted with the complicated mission of replacing Miguel Valdés in preparing the Cuba team.

He had the privilege of working in the strongest period of international baseball—beginning in 1999—and his service record tells us that we are dealing with a born winner. With the national team he achieved all possible titles in very difficult tournaments and like any human being, he also suffered defeats in others.

After his retirement he worked for five seasons in Mexico with the Freseros de San Quintín, a team belonging to the North League of that country. He started as batting coach and in the last four he was the manager. This was a young franchise, only five years old. The results were very positive, winning a championship and in 2018 they fell in the final series against the Marineros de Ensenada.

With the Freseros de San Quintín he did excellent work as manager.

Benito had the historical fortune of working between two extraordinary generations of players. He watched with nostalgia the departure of Linares, Germán, Ulacia, Pacheco, and Kindelán, but he was very happy shaping that generation of Kendry, Yulieski, Cepeda, Michel, Contreras, and Lazo…

It was a great satisfaction. At one point we thought that Cuban baseball would not continue to be competitive when those great stars retired. It is clear that stars cannot be replaced, but they worked hard with a new group of prospects with a lot of talent and we managed to maintain the level at a time when international baseball considerably raised the quality.

With them they won World Championships, Olympic Games, and we registered that memorable performance at the First World Baseball Classic. Still, some of those players shine at the highest level of baseball.

Currently he was part of the management of Industriales for the 61st National Series along with manager Guillermo Carmona. He accompanied Rey Anglada in recent seasons when he managed Industriales.

Benito Camacho's Record as Technical Director of Cuban Baseball

Central American Games (Gold-Maracaibo'98 and Cartagena'2006)

Pan American Games (Gold-Winnipeg'99, Santo Domingo'2003 and Rio de Janeiro'2007)

Olympic Games (Silver-Sydney'2000, Gold-Athens'2004, Silver-Beijing'2008)

World Championships (Gold-Italy'98, Taiwan'2001, Havana'2003 and Holland'2005, Silver-Taiwan'2007)

First World Baseball Classic'2006 (Silver)*

*Best historical result of Cuban baseball