Germán Mesa Returns as Manager to Professional Baseball

December 15, 2023

The legacy of one of the most spectacular ballplayers in Cuban baseball, Germán Mesa, is not limited solely to all the wonderful things he accomplished glove in hand as a shortstop inside and outside of Cuba. Nor to that 2010 season, when he, as manager, gave the blue fans the last crown of Industriales in the National Series.

The Havana native, who was also a good hitter, has equally left his mark as a manager in Nicaragua, surpassing what he planted on the Island, which places him among the most select group of mentors with experience in that country's professional league.

Many know that number 11 of the Lions and national teams has accumulated two titles in the National Professional Baseball League of Nicaragua. Soon, Germán will have the opportunity to seek his third crown in that country.

It was reported that the Gigantes de Rivas team dismissed its manager, Venezuelan Rainer Olmedo, and registered Anibal Vega as interim manager. According to a source close to the club who informed Cubalite, Vega will be in that role until Mesa arrives, who will be the new skipper. "Germán is expected to arrive in Nicaragua this week with the objective of straightening out the team. After a rough stretch, the Gigantes are in second place, with a 10-9 record," the source said.

The first time El Mago Mesa managed in Nicaraguan territory was during the 2012-2013 season. At the helm of the Tigres de Chinandega and accompanied by the Pinar del Río native Omar Linares—batting coach—, he led the regular season (29-25) and secured a direct spot in the finals. In that instance, the Tigres defeated the Orientales de Granada in six games and thus obtained their second championship, while Germán won his first title as a champion.

The second title in that Central American country for the native of Cotorro came in his third campaign, the second with the Gigantes de Rivas, in 2015-2016. With a record of 20 wins and 22 losses, the Rivas team finished third in the qualifying phase, so they had to face the Tigres de Chinandega in the playoff series.

After winning the matchup in four games, they defeated the Orientales de Granada in the dispute for first place, in a series that extended to the seventh game. In January 2016 he placed the Gigantes at the top of the Latin American Series, which represented the first gold for Nicaragua in that competition.

In the 2019 contest he was not included in the finals, managing the Gigantes, but he also has two runner-up finishes to his credit with the Rivas representative: 2014-2015—they led the preliminary segment, but succumbed for the championship against the Indios del Bóer in six games—and 2016-2017—they finished second in the initial round and lost the title in five games against the Tigres de Chinandega.

In five seasons as manager this is his harvest: two golds, a pair of silvers, and a bronze. His passage through the qualifying stages leaves him with 123 wins and 99 losses.

But Germán Mesa is not the only Cuban manager who knows what it is like to win in the Nicaraguan Professional League, as that honor has also been held by the Pinar del Río native Jorge Fuentes (2006, Chinandega) and the Sancti Spíritus native Lourdes Gurriel (2008, Bóer), while the Vuelta Abajo native Juan Castro finished second in 2014 with Bóer. In the 2016-2017 contest the Havana natives Rey Vicente Anglada (Granada, fourth place) and Juan Padilla (Bóer, third place) managed.