Omar Linares

Omar Linares Izquierdo is a former Cuban baseball player. Linares, who played third base for the Cuban national team and for Pinar del Río and Vegueros in the Cuban National Series wearing the number 10 on his jersey, is considered one of the greatest Cuban players of all time. Linares's first steps in the world of sports were as a track and field athlete where he was considered a promising star at a young age. Linares soon decided to follow the steps of his father Fidel Linares in the world of baseball. He is well known in Cuba for having started a baseball career at a very young age. It is to Cuban baseball broadcaster Bobby Salamanca to whom it is attributed the popularity of Linares's nickname "El Niño" after Linares impressed Salamanca with his baseball skills as a teen being called to the roster of Cuban national team being only 17, it is to former manager Jose Miguel Pineda that Linares attributes the authority of his nickname in 1982. After a career as a player in Cuba, Linares along with other Cuban baseball stars such as Antonio Pacheco, Orestes Kindelan and German Mesa in coordination with the Cuban national baseball commission decided to give it a try in the Nippon Professional Baseball. Linares went on to spending three unproductive seasons with the Chunichi Dragons wearing the number 44 on his jersey to later after return to Cuba. In 2009 Linares decided to become a batting coach and first base coach for longtime rival team Industriales helping them to conquer a national championship. Although Linares never received an official retiring ceremony, the season of 2001–2002 is considered to be his last appearance in Cuban National Baseball Series.