Manuel Capote

Manuel Capote (August 3, 1903 — June 20, 1963) was a Venezuelan professional baseball player and manager. He was the first manager to win a game in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, skippering Navegantes del Magallanes to a victory over Patriotas de Venezuela in 1946. He was also one of, if not the first manager to lead both of the Eternos Rivales, Magallanes and Caracas.

As a player, Capote was a left fielder with the Royal Criollos club in the early 1930s. He managed the Venezuela club to a championship in the amateur First Division in 1938. He was selected to manage the Venezuela national baseball team at the 1940 Amateur World Series. For the 1943-44 season, Capote was hired as manager by Magallanes; the team finished the tournament as champions with 12 wins.

Capote remained the manager of Magallanes when the First Division went professional in 1946; he defeated the Venezuela club in the first game of Venezuelan professional baseball, a 5–2 victory on January 12, 1946, played at the Estadio Cerveza Caracas. It would be the shortest managerial stint in Venezuelan professional baseball history, until Luis Ugueto (10 games) was fired by the Cardenales de Lara during the 2021–22 season.