Servio Borges

Servio Borges
Manager
Born: (1947-07-08) 8 July 1947 (age 79) Guantánamo, Cuba
Career statistics
Managerial record	318-130
Winning %	.710
Teams
Azucareros (1968–1972)
Medals Men's baseball Manager for  Cuba Olympic Games 2000 Sydney Team Pan American Games 1971 Cali Team 1975 Mexico City Team 1979 San Juan Team Central American and Caribbean Games 1970 Panama City Team 1974 Santo Domingo Team 1978 Medellin Team Baseball World Cup 1969 Santo Domingo Team 1970 Cartagena Team 1971 Havana Team 1972 Managua Team 1973 Havana Team 1976 Cartagena Team 1978 Rome Team 1980 Tokyo Team 1990 Edmonton Team

Servio Tulio Borges Suárez (born 8 July 1947) is a Cuban former baseball manager. Along with Jorge Fuentes, he is considered one of the best managers in modern Cuban baseball history.

Borges was the most prominent of a generation of university-trained physical education graduates to manage in Cuban baseball. He was named manager of Azucareros in the Cuban National Series at the age of 22, winning the 1968–69 championship in his first season at the helm, the first title for a team outside of Havana.

Borges took helmed the Cuba national baseball team for over a decade, one of the national team's most dominant runs, starting with the 1969 Amateur World Series. Over the course of his career, he led Cuba to nine world championships, as well as gold medal finishes at three Pan American Games, four Central American and Caribbean Games, and an Intercontinental Cup. At the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, Borges managed the team to a silver medal.

Career

Borges played baseball in his youth, mainly as a center fielder, but did not pursue a career as a professional. He instead enrolled as an aviation cadet and later in the Escuela de Profesores de Educación Física (EPEF) Comandante Manuel Fajardo, where his thesis "Speed in Baseball" caught the attention of the Baseball Federation of Cuba. That thesis earned him his first managerial job, at the head of the Azucareros team. Implementing a philosophy of discipline, speed, and agressiveness on the basepaths, Azucareros won the championship in his debut season.

Borges was then selected to manage Cuba at the 1969 Amateur World Series in the Dominican Republic. Cuba defeated the United States, in its return to major international competition, in the championship game. Borges was sacked as manager of the national team after a pair of defeats in the final of the 1981 Intercontinental Cup in Edmonton and the 1982 Central American and Caribbean Games in Havana.

Borges managed relatively few seasons in the Cuban National Series, though he won two championships: with Azucareros of Villa Clara, in 1968–69 and 1971–72. He came out of retirement to manage Havana in the 1990 Serie Selectiva, and led the Cuban national team to the gold medal at the 1990 Baseball World Cup. His managerial record was 167 wins and 64 losses, a winning percentage of .723. In 2003, Borges managed the Olmecas de Tabasco of the Mexican League to an 8–14 record; he remained with the Olmecas front office through 2005.

Borges returned to manage Cuba at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games, held in Sydney, Australia. Cuba lost its 18–0 undefeated record at the Olympics with a group stage loss to the Netherlands, and went on to lose the gold medal game to the United States after a controversial decision to start reliever Pedro Luis Lazo as part of a bullpen game.

References

External links

• Career statistics from Baseball Reference (Minors)