Richard Hunter

Richard Allen Hunter Downs

• Born February 28, 1969
• Died May 1, 2020 in Corn Island Nicaragua

Biographical Information

Richard Hunter played for the Nicaraguan national team several times.

He debuted in 1988 as a teenager with Costa Atlantica, hitting .266/.310/.456. He batted .297/.330/.423 the next year and went 6-for-6 in steal attempts. In 1990, he hit .309/.335/.419 with 18 doubles and 16 steals in 22 tries. He made Nicaragua's team for the 1990 Baseball World Cup, backing up fellow speedster Sandy Moreno in center and Angel Zuniga in left. He hit .294/.368/.529 but was 0-for-2 in swipes surprisingly. Nicaragua finished second behind only Cuba to match their best finish in a Baseball World Cup.

In 1991, he hit .295/.342/.449 with 20 doubles and 8 triples, one shy of the league lead. The next year, he batted .303/.339/.459 with 25 doubles (5 behind leader Nemesio Porras). During 1993, he moved to Dantos and clubbed a career-high 14 dingers while hitting .339/.384/.508. In 1994, he played for two teams and hit .349/.411/.476. He started in center for Nicaragua in the 1994 Baseball World Cup with Moreno playing mostly left; he batted .280/.333/.520 and scored six runs in nine games. He tied Lourdes Gourriel Sr. and Chin-Fan Ho for the event lead with two triples, as many as Japan, Panama, Nicaragua, Sweden, Canada and the Dominican Republic had combined. In the Bronze Medal Game, he started in center but struck out against Masanori Sugiura and made an error before Anibal Vega replaced him in the lineup and Moreno moved from left to center.

Hunter produced at a .304/.346/.439 clip in 1995 with a league-leading five triples. He was with Nicaragua for the 1995 Pan American Games and they won the Silver Medal. In '96, he fell to .174/.208/.304 for Chinandega though he was only 27 years old. He rebounded somewhat to .244/.293/.368 for Chinandega and Granada in 1997. In 1998, he batted .287/.353/.368 for San Fernando then had a solid .333/.372/.453 for the same team in 1999. He dropped to .263/.302/.321 for Chinandega in 2000 to end his career at only age 31.

He hit .302/.344/.432 in 860 games in Nicaragua, with 65 homers, 108 steals in 157 tries, 539 runs and 446 RBI.

Sources: Nicaraguan Baseball Federation, Defunct IBAF site, La Prensa