Ivan Rodriguez celebrated the 20th anniversary of his big-league debut Monday, but the Nationals had the day off and then last night he sat on the bench as the man who’s replaced him as the starting catcher, 23-year-old Wilson Ramos, delivered a game-winning homer.
Despite that lack of drama, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post wrote a nice article about the future Hall of Famer’s first 20 years in the majors, beginning with his first game on June 20, 1991.
Rodriguez was still a teenager then and the Rangers were playing the White Sox, whose catcher was 43-year-old Carlton Fisk, who in addition to being a Hall of Famer is also the original “Pudge.”
At this point Rodriguez is one of the worst hitters in the league, but he’s hit more career home runs as a catcher than anyone in baseball history and is the first catcher to top 2,500 career hits, let alone make a serious run at 3,000. He needs 161 more to get there, which is a tall order for a 39-year-old hitting just .224 while playing a couple times per week.
