Omar Linares is hired as an instructor by the Chunichi Dragons

Former star player Omar Linares will return as an instructor to the Chunichi Dragons of Japanese baseball, a team with which he played in the last decade at the twilight of his career.

As announced by the Dragons, Linares will have the role of a traveling instructor, especially to supervise the team's Latin players, his compatriot Dayán Viciedo, who was selected to be in the Japanese baseball All-Star Game, and the Dominicans Ricardo Nanita and Anderson Hernandez.

Linares played his last three seasons in the Japanese league with the Chunichi Dragons, after the forced retirement he suffered in Cuba along with many other players.

In those three seasons, he hit 11 home runs, drove in 61 runs, hit 16 doubles and 86 hits in 349 at-bats. His best year was his last, where he averaged 283 in 182 times at bat, with 4 home runs.

Considered the greatest player to have played in the National Series, Omar Linares is the all-time leader in batting (368). In his 20 campaigns, the illustrious man from Pinar del Río hit 404 home runs, only surpassed by Orestes Kindelán with 487 and Lázaro Junco with 405. In addition, he is the leader in OBP (487) and OPS (1132), second in runs scored (1547), total bases (3,842) and slugging (644), fourth in hits (2,195) and fifth in runs batted in (1,221).

With the Cuba team he was a two-time Olympic champion, among his many international titles, and accumulated dream numbers, with a 438 average, 864 slugging percentage, 78 home runs, 224 RBIs and 326 hits in 191 games played.

(Image taken from pelotacubanablog.files.wordpress.com)