On many afternoons in Georgia, when David Mendez and his pupils get to work, it isn’t one but two countries that are represented on the ballfield: the United States and his beloved home of Panama.

Like the excitement of late-inning heroics, the melding of those two creates the platform on which a dream continues to be realized. Mendez Baseball Academy is not just a baseball academy. It is a bridge between countries, generations, and hard-earned dreams. And Mendez, the man at the center of it, treasures that journey.

Gifted as a left-handed pitcher, he began drawing attention as a teenager. From ages 13 to 16, Mendez played for the Panama national teams. As part of those teams, he represented his home country in various international tournaments in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. At 15, the Panama national team represented all of Latin America in the Senior League World Series in Kissimmee, Fla.

“First, it was a dream come true,” he says, thinking back to boyhood in Panama, where the thread of baseball ran through the tapestry of his family. His father played. His brothers played. “I am the youngest one out of three brothers,” he says. “I saw them first, and then I wanted to follow that line.”

Soon after his final tournament in Cuba, the childhood dream took shape and Mendez signed with the Atlanta Braves organization. For a boy who had admired the club from afar, it felt enormous. But wonder quickly met reality.

“It was a time to grow up,” he says. He was 16, far from home, without the English he speaks now, and separated from his parents and everything familiar. “It was hard, but it was a great experience.”

He remembers the scale of it all: the long months in the minors, the grind of spring training, the feeling of being inside a world that had just celebrated a World Series title. Around him were names that seemed larger than life: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz. As a young lefty, he watched Glavine closely. “His control impressed me,” he says. “He could just put the ball wherever he wanted.”

But it was also during his time with the Braves, as a member of the final Macon Braves squad in 2002, that his life was changed again, as he met his wife, Andrea. Now, more than two decades later, they have two sons, both of whom he has had the opportunity to coach.

Years later, the lessons he carried were not only about pitching. They were about discipline, respect, and what a game can build inside a person. Those lessons became the foundation of his academy.

He began by bringing young players from Panama to the U.S., giving them opportunities he knew were rare. Better fields. Better equipment. Better visibility. Then he mixed those players with local kids, creating something larger than a travel team. Today, many of his players go on to college. He says one recent class sent about 95 percent of its players there.

Success has followed him to Henry County, where his teams have won numerous Perfect Game and USSSA tournaments at various age levels (9-18). He also was the pitching coach for the Ola High School Mustangs in 2025 when they went undefeated in the region, winning the region championship.

Still, his proudest measure of success is not a scholarship or a signing day.

“Baseball is just a channel,” he says. “If you’ve got good people that take you through that channel, you can become a great person in life.”

By Craig Threlkeld