History of Nicaraguan Baseball 1887

History of Nicaraguan Baseball 1887

"A Short History of Nicaraguan Baseball"

Story by Tito Rondon. Originally published in Nica News 12 (March 1998)

This starts off like a good trivia question, because the truth of it is that Nicaraguan baseball was first played outside Nicaragua.

Before the turn of the last century, the Nicaraguan Atlantic Coast was occupied by the British, and cricket - not baseball - was the most popular sport.

Albert Addlesberg, an American businessman living in Bluefields in the 1880s, became miffed with the local sports authorities and convinced two of the most popular cricket clubs to switch to baseball. He imported the necessary equipment from New Orleans.

Two baseball teams, "Southern" and "Four Roses" were created in 1887 and the first games were played the following year. Baseball has been played on the Miskito Coast almost continuously since that time, but the Atlantic Coast has long since been incorporated into the Republic of Nicaragua.

The first "official" games in Nicaragua were played in the new capital of Managua in July of 1891 between Managua and Granada.

The first team with a (more or less) continuous history was founded by the U.S. Consul in Nicaragua, Carter Donaldson, in 1904. It was named the "Boer" because it was the custom to name teams after warring factions at that time, and the war in South Africa was much in the news.

Later on, the unlikely team names of "Russia" and "Japan" were founded in Masaya in 1904 to honor the war between those two countries. Ironically, the "Boer" team remains the most popular in the country.

The first national tournament was organized in 1914 and the "Managua" team beat the "Boer" and the clubs from Masaya, Leon, Chinandega and Granada to win the Interlocal Championship of 1915.

The first international contest took place when the "Boer" visited neighboring Costa Rica in 1924.

A few of the black players from the Atlantic Coast had played with teams on the Pacific side, but in 1932, the "Navy" team from the Miskito Coast traveled to the Pacific side. They went 40-3 for the season, and so astounded the public with their prowess that they were accused of witchcraft.

Many of their players remained on the Pacific Coast, and the quality of Nicaraguan baseball took an exponential jump. That same season, the first foreign team visited Nicaragua. During the competition with the Dominican team of "General Trujillo", Nicaraguan players discovered that they were not quite ready to compete with top-flight international teams. The first player with major league experience arrived in 1933 as the player-Manager of the Cuban barnstorming team, the "Cueto Cubs", which were fielded by former Cincinnati Red star Manuel Cueto.

The team also featured players from the famous Negro Leagues in the U.S., and it proved almost unbeatable, finishing out with a season record of 25-1.

Several of their players decided to stay on in Nicaragua for a time and helped teach the Nicas some of the fundamentals of the game.

In 1934, Cuban team, "Almendrares" visited Nicaragua, and three of their pitchers decided to stay in the country for a while. They included Ponciano Lombillo, the young reserve catcher of the "Havana Reds", who played, coached, managed and later became a famous sportscaster in Managua.

In 1935, Nicaragua took second place behind Cuba in the Central American and Caribbean Games, the oldest regional Olympic competition in the world.

In 1938, Leslie Mann organized a World Championship in England between the British and the United States. Although the real nationality and the amateur status of some of the participants was in doubt, this event was recognized as the first Amateur Baseball World Championship.

Nicaragua and the United States participated in another World Championship in Cuba the following year.

Through the intervening years, Nicaragua has always tried to participate in these events, and the country has hosted five of them: 1948, 1950, 1972, 1973 and 1994.

Professional baseball has enjoyed several golden ages in Nicaragua. One of them was from 1956 to 1967, when Nicaragua won two international championships: the Pan-American series in 1958 won by "Leon" over Mexico and Colombia and the Interamerican Series of 1964, which was won by "Cinco Estrellas" over Puerto Rico and Venezuela.

Unfortunately, baseball fell into disarray when the pros folded. Baseball was finally reorganized as an amateur league in 1970 by Carlos Garcia, who should probably be considered the father of Olympic baseball in Nicaragua.

The 1970s were the second golden age, as Nicaraguan once again became a force in international baseball competition. The country produced five Major Leaguers during this period: Denis Martinez, Tony Chevez, Albert Williams, David Green and Porfirio Altamirano.

The sport suffered a slump during the 1980s, but the national team won a silver medal at the Pan-American Games in Venezuela in 1983 over a U.S. team led by Mark McGwire, Will Clark and Barry Larkin.

Baseball is flourishing anew in this decade, and only Cuba is considered to have a better national team than Nicaragua . Because of the political unrest during the 1980s, many people had fled the country during the last decade and of the nine Nicaraguans in professional baseball, two were signed on in the United States and one in Panama.