Cuban Germán Mesa will manage Panamanian baseball team

September 3, 2018

Former Cuban national baseball team player Germán Mesa and his compatriot Rogelio García, a former right-handed pitcher, will manage the team from the central province of Veraguas in the upcoming Panamanian baseball season.

According to a statement from the Provincial Baseball League, the Veraguas team hopes to compete for the national title, after completing "an excellent campaign" in the recent major league tournament, where Chiriquí won first place.

To this end, they announced the hiring of experienced former Cuban players and coaches, who will arrive on isthmian soil on September 25th and among their functions stand out the direction, coordination and supervision of training for the major and youth teams of that province.

According to the note, Mesa will serve as manager replacing santeño Luis Durán, who led the team to the semifinals of this year's tournament, and García as a pitching coach.

This addition represents the return of both coaches to Panamanian major league baseball, as Mesa directed the Veraguas team that reached the national final in 2008, a series that they lost in six games against the Los Santos squad.

García, for his part, was also with Veraguas in the 2006 tournament, when that team was managed by his compatriot Primitivo Díaz.

The addition of the best shortstop defender of all time in Cuba and the "strikeout artist" to the management of the team is part of the program for integrating Cuban baseball coaches to Panama, the message specified.

It should be noted that Los Indios de Veraguas reached the semifinal round of the recent national major league championship, defeating Panama Metro four to three in the eight-game series they played against each other.

Before that, they played a tiebreaker game against Coclé for the eighth seed, where they won one to zero, only to finally lose four to two against the Chiriquí team, the current national champions.