José Ramon Padilla

José Ramon Padilla Sequeira

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born March 5, 1966 in Rivas Nicaragua

Olympics-Reference page

Biographical Information

José Ramon Padilla was a member of the Nicaraguan national team in the 1990s, including one Olympic appearance.

Padilla debuted for Nicaragua when they won Gold in the 1986 Central American Games. He hit .233/.340/.628 with 13 runs, 9 RBI and 5 homers in 11 games in the 1991 Intercontinental Cup; he fielded .923 as Nicaragua's main right fielder. He led the event in homers, one ahead of Luis Casanova and tied Shinichi Sato and Prospero Baca for third in runs, behind Jose Estrada and Hiroyuki Sakaguchi. He had nearly as many runs as the entire French national team (16). In the Bronze Medal game, he was 1 for 6 but the hit was a game-winning, 13th-inning homer off Kan-Yuan Chuo. On the play, Wei-Cheng Chen was injured chasing the fly and would spend half a year in a wheelchair. He did not make the Cup All-Star team as Sato, Estrada and Carlos Manriquez were the outfielders picked. He was with Nicaragua in the 1991 Pan American Games.

He hit 36 home runs in the Nicaraguan amateur league in 1993; only Ernesto López had hit more in a season. He led the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games with nine RBI despite hitting .192; two of his five hits were homers. He was only 3 for 17 with a walk and no RBI in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup and went 0 for 3 against Hidekazu Watanabe as Japan shut out Nicaragua in the Bronze Medal game. His .467 average led Nicaragua in the 1994 Central American Games and his 8 RBI tied Henry Roa and Julio Osejo for the team lead. He homered off David Santamaría in a win over El Salvador to avenge a loss in the finale four years prior. In the 1994 Baseball World Cup, he produced at a .333/.366/.500 clip with a team-high 12 RBI in 10 games. He tied Omar Linares, German Mesa and Toshihisa Nishi for 5th in the Cup in RBI, behind Cubans Lourdes Gourriel Sr., Antonio Pacheco and Orestes Kindelan and Japan's Takayuki Takabayashi. In the Bronze Medal game, he hit 6th and went 0 for 4 but drove in Nemesio Porras with the lone Nicaraguan run in a loss to Masanori Sugiura and Japan.

The Rivas native was 4 for 24 in the 1995 Intercontinental Cup and made two errors in right, but also drew 8 walks and smacked three home runs. He tied Evert-Jan 't Hoen, Norman Cardoze, Byung-kyu Lee, Linares, Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Hee-sung Mun and Yoshitomo Tani for second in the Cup in home runs, one behind Juan Rodriguez. He led the Cup in walks and nearly drew more than the entire Spanish national team (9) or Mexican national team (10). He was also with Nicaragua when they won the Silver Medal in the 1995 Pan American Games.

Padilla hit .304/.385/.435 with 3 runs and 3 RBI in 7 games in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, with 10 putouts, one assist and one error in right field. He homered off Jeff Williams against Australia. In the Bronze Medal game, he went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts against Team USA's Seth Greisinger, hitting 7th. He produced at a .227/.320/.364 clip with 4 runs and 3 RBI in 7 games in the 1997 Intercontinental Cup, with 8 putouts in right. He led the 1997 Central American Games with 3 homers as Nicaragua won the Bronze; his brother Jose Reynaldo Padilla tied him for the lead with 9 RBI.

He was 8 for 21 with two doubles and two home runs in the 1998 Haarlem Baseball Week. He remained Nicaragua's main right fielder in the 1998 Baseball World Cup, creating some confusion when they went to his brother Jose Reynaldo Padilla in left field. Jose Ramon hit .436/.488/.564 with 9 runs and 7 RBI in 10 games. In the Bronze Medal game, he was 1 for 3 with a walk while hitting 6th against Diego Ricci against Nicaragua beat Italy. He then helped Nicaragua to a Silver Medal in the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games. He was 0 for 6 in the 2001 Baseball World Cup, backing up Eduardo Romero in right. His finale tournament with Nicaragua was the 2001 Central American Games; he went out with a bang, homering twice in the Gold Medal Game win over Guatemala to lead his team to a title.

He retired with 1,176 hits, 217 of them home runs. Through 2008, he was 21st in Nicaraguan annals in hits, 4th in homers (behind Ernesto López, Baca and Ariel Delgado) and third in strikeouts (714, after Arnoldo Muñoz and Apolinar Cruz).

He coached for Nicaragua in the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup.

Sources

• Old IBAF site
• A History of Cuban Baseball by Peter Bjarkman
• 1998 Haarlem Baseball Week
• Defunct Beisnica page (Wayback Machine Internet Archive)