Baseball in Nicaragua

Nicaragua’s once-proud baseball tradition was revived last year with the inauguration of the new Nicaraguan Professional Baseball League (LNBP), the only of it’s kind in Central America.

The LNBP is the first professional baseball league in Nicaragua since the old Liga Profesional Nicaragüense – which once featured future MLB Hall of Fame pitchers Ferguson Jenkins and Jim Kaat – folded in 1967.

Nicaragua has had several other competitive amateur baseball leagues over the years, including the Liga Nica, which once featured teams from Managua, Granada, Estelí, Chinadega, Masaya, Rivas, Bluefields and León. A lack of funds forced some of the teams to quite, and when the league folded in 2004, there were only six teams left.

The new professional league hopes to revive the baseball tradition. The four-team LNBP features teams from Managua, León, Masaya and Chinandega. Granada and Estelí did not field teams during the opening season in 2004; the future of those franchises is not clear.

The Nicaraguan league, which acts as a “winter league” for professional players in the United States, fielded the best Nicaragua has to offer – including Nicaraguan Big League pitcher Vicente Padilla from the Philadelphia Phillies, and pro players from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia and one minor leaguer from the St. Louis Cardinals franchise.

Players earn an average salary of $1,000 a month. The 48-game season runs from October to January, so as not to interfere with Major League Baseball’s 162-game series or spring training schedule. The amateur-league season, which also features teams from Esteli and Rivas, starts several weeks after the professional season ends, but features some of the same players.

Baseball is Nicaragua’s most popular sport

The LNBP is a “passive member” of the Caribbean Baseball Confederation (Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela). Passive member status means Nicaragua is a trial member without a vote, but hopes to be admitted into international league play as soon as this year.

The LNBP hopes that the new league will help Nicaragua’s national team reclaim it past glory of the 1970s, after several years of very disappointing performances.

Nicaragua’s national team hit a new low during the 2003 Mundial de Beisbol in Cuba, when several of the Nicaragua players – still dressed in uniform – were seen getting drunk and rowdy in the hotel bar the night before their game against Panama, which proceeded to pound on the hung-over and groggy Nica team.

Nicaraguans are passionate about their baseball, and catching a game is a good way to pass an afternoon. Park entrance is inexpensive, with seats behind home plate selling at the park for just a couple of dollars. Beer and snacks are available inside the parks.