Four Venezuelan managers make history in Mexico
Photo: VTV
Published at: 10/03/2025 11:42 AM
For the first time in 100 years of Aztec professional baseball, a quartet of Venezuelan leaders has opened a tournament, which is a record and marks the 100th anniversary of the Mexican League, whose schedule is due to start on April 17.
The Criollos who will be responsible for leading the Mexican ball will be: José Amado (Rieleros de Aguascalientes), Néstor Rojas (Águila de Veracruz), Wilfredo Romero (Olmecas de Tabasco) and Russell Vásquez (Pericos de Puebla), who became the first quartet of Venezuelan managers to start a campaign in the circuit founded on February 24, 1925.
The previous record of the most Venezuelan leaders in a Mexican Baseball League harvest was three. It was produced twice: 2015 Lino Connell (Monterrey), Marco Davalillo (Aguascalientes) and Wilfredo Romero (Yucatán), while in 2012 Álvaro Espinoza (Durango), José Moreno (Mexico) and Omar Vizquel (Tijuana).
According to Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) on its website, the presence of Venezuelan leaders in the Aztec ball dates back 66 years. This year, with the premieres of Amado and Vásquez, the number rises to 19.
The legendary Luis “Camaleón” García was listed as number 1 on the list. It was in the 1959 campaign, when he replaced the Mexican José Bache in the middle of the contest and led the team to win the champion cup as manager-player for the Poza Rica Petroleros.
No other Venezuelan of the first 16 that followed the Carupanero forerunner has managed to win an LMB scepter as manager.
Wilfredo Romero is the most experienced of the four Venezuelans who this year are responsible for holding the reins of teams in the Mexican summer league.
Romero has experience as a strategist and with important awards, both in Mexico and in the United States, Venezuela and Puerto Rico. He came from leading the Santurce Cangrejeros in the 2023-24 campaign of the Puerto Rican league and was also with the Angels subsidiaries in 2023 and 2024.
In Venezuelan ball, he was champion with the Navigantes del Magallanes in the 2021-22 edition, which he crowned with the Manager of the Year award, while for the next competition he led the Tigres de Aragua.
In Mexico, he has an enviable record of services. As a player, he played for fourteen seasons (1999-2012) in which he left a lifetime average of more than 300 with 1,704 hits.
In the role of strategist, he has managed several clubs on the summer circuit and in the Pacific. In both cases, he won the Manager of the Year award, with Yucatán in 2015 and 2016 and with Navojoa in the 2017-18 contest.
Meanwhile, Néstor Rojas will manage Veracruz for the second straight year in what will be his third management contest in Mexico, where he started in 2023 with the Bravos de León club.
In the case of José Amado, he received the opportunity to lead the Rieleros after working as a batting coach in 2024 and as a coach in the United States.
Finally, Russell Vásquez held the position of bench coach of Los Pericos since 2022. The Venezuelan has a long career of 30 years as a technician in the United States, Venezuela and Mexico. He has just qualified the Tigres de Aragua in the LVBP as an interim pilot to replace the American Buddy Bailey.
Mazo News Team