The debut of three managers, the return of two to those functions and the existence of only one with more than a dozen seasons mark the curriculum of the technical staffs for the upcoming National Baseball Series.
The tournament, scheduled to begin on the second of September, has as its most veteran among the managers the Havanan Guillermo Carmona, with eleven campaigns at the helm of capital teams.
According to the archives of statistician Benigno Daquinta, Carmona managed Metropolitanos for four years, with which he reached fifth place in the 36th national series, played between the years 1996-1997.
With the Leones, the veteran strategist has accumulated seven tournaments in a couple of seasons, from 1998 to 2001 and from 2020 to the present.
In his record he files 485 victories with 369 defeats between both teams in the regular phase, whilst in playoffs he shows a negative balance of 37-43.
As best results with the Azules he holds the runner-up positions achieved in the 38th campaign (1998-1999), when he fell in the final to Santiago de Cuba, and in the 2022-2023 tournament, whose victor was Las Tunas.
In the next season, the former players Vicyohandry Odelín, with the Toros de Camagüey; Osmel Cordero, at the head of the Huracanes de Mayabeque; and Yoandry Moya with the Elefantes de Cienfuegos will make their debuts in the command bridge.
In turn, the espirituano Eriel Sánchez and Marcos Fonseca return as managers, the latter designated to recover the successful trot of the Alazanes de Granma, both with a couple of campaigns in their record.
Sánchez commanded the Gallos in the 60th and 61st series, and in the last of them he conquered third place in the championship, whilst Fonseca’s experience goes back to the 45th and 46th campaigns, between 2005 and 2007, with fourth place in the final standings in his debut as his best performance.
Of the 16 managers who will act in the forthcoming National Series only three have ever lifted the most coveted crown of Cuban sport: the villaclareño Ramón Moré in the 52nd series (2012-2013), the matancero Armando Ferrer in the 59th tournament (2019-2020) and the tunero Abeicy Pantoja, champion in the two seasons he has managed the Leñadores (2022-2023 and 2023-2024).
These will also be the second baseball campaigns as managers for the isleño Maikel MacCoy, the holguinero Lugdis Pineda and the Avilanian Danny Miranda.
The other managers for the baseball classic will be the pinareño Alexander Urquiola (four series), the guantanamero Rubén Prevot (5) and Yuliesky González (Artemisa) and Eddy Cajigal (Santiago de Cuba), both in their third year of experience.
