Julio Medina

Julio César Medina Prado

• Born December 13, 1962 in León, León Nicaragua

Biographical Information

Julio Medina was a long-time second baseman for the Nicaraguan national team.

Medina was offered a contract by the Cincinnati Reds in 1982, but opted to stay as an amateur in his homeland. He played for Nicaragua in the 1983 Intercontinental Cup and 1983 Pan American Games (they won a Silver Medal in the latter event, beating a US team with Mark McGwire, B.J. Surhoff, Tim Belcher and other future big leaguers, but Medina hit only .216). In the 1984 Amateur World Series, Medina hit .286/.296/.531 with 12 RBI in 13 games; only one of his teammates had even half as many RBI. Julio played in the 1984 Olympics and 1985 Intercontinental Cup. When Nicaragua won the 1986 Central American Games, he led the team with 14 hits and batted .538 (2nd to Elry Britton). His 8 runs tied Pablo Juárez and Britton for the team lead. In the 1987 Pan American Games, he hit a home run off Andy Benes in the opener but was 4 for 26 overall.

In the 1988 Baseball World Cup, Medina hit .238/.377/.357 but stole six bases in six tries, scored 11 runs in 11 games and played error-free ball at 2B. He tied Tom Goodwin and Kenji Tomashino for the event lead in steals. He was on the Nicaraguan squad that took Silver in the 1990 Central American Games, leading the event with 13 RBI. His .407 average was 7th in the event, between Ariel Delgado and Mauricio Montenegro. With a 4-4 tie in the 9th of the finale, though, he made an error on a ball hit by Rodolfo Rosales to let José Antonio Marroquín score the winning run as Nicaragua failed to win Gold for the first time in the event. He batted .395/.413/.651 with 8 runs and 8 RBI in ten games in the 1990 Baseball World Cup and was named the All-Star 2B, beating out Antonio Pacheco and Chung-Yi Huang among others. In the finals, he went 3 for 6 with two triples, a walk, run and two RBI, producing 3 of Nicaragua's five runs as they were swept by Cuba in two games to wind up with a Silver Medal. He was with Nicaragua in the 1991 Pan American Games, when they failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics.

Medina hit only .227/.306/.250 for Nicaragua in the 1993 Intercontinental Cup but still led his team with seven runs in 11 games. He hit .182 in the 1993 Central American and Caribbean Games, the lowest average of their starters. He was with Nicaragua for a Gold Medal run in the 1994 Central American Games. In the 1994 Baseball World Cup, he hit .310/.354/.310 with 8 runs and 7 RBI in 10 games; he tied Sandy Moreno for the team led in runs scored. Nicaragua lost to Japan in the Bronze Medal game. He helped Nicaragua to a Silver Medal in the 1995 Pan American Games.

Medina also was a star in Nicaragua's amateur league. He scored 103 runs in 1993, the only player in league history until Arnol Rizo did so in 2014, breaking his record in the process. Through 2008, he was 6th in Nicaraguan history with 1,538 career hits, behind Ariel Delgado, Prospero Baca, Nemesio Porras, Ernesto López and Henry Roa. In 2004, Medina was inducted into Nicaragua's sports Hall of Fame.

Sources include 2004 article on Medina, Defunct IBAF site, old beisnica site