Iván Rodríguez

Iv?n Rodr?guez Torres (born November 30, 1971 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico), nicknamed "Pudge", "Pud-rod" or "I-Rod", is a professional baseball player. He has a career batting average of .304 and has won eleven Gold Glove Awards as a catcher, as well as the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1999.

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When Rodr?guez made his major league debut with the Texas Rangers in 1992, he became the youngest person to play catcher in a major league game. He immediately established himself as an excellent hitter who was also proficient in throwing out would-be base-stealers.

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Although he had the nickname "Pudge" since his youth, Rodr?guez was often compared early on to the veteran catcher Carlton Fisk, who was also called "Pudge." Fisk retired early in Rodr?guez's career, and fans and sportswriters viewed it as the passing of the torch from one Pudge to another.

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When his contract with Texas ran out following the 2002 season, Rodr?guez signed with the Florida Marlins for one year. By then a major-league veteran of over a decade, he helped lead a team of talented youngsters to victory in the World Series. In the off-season, he left Florida to sign with the Detroit Tigers.

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1971: 1971 is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar)....

Vega Baja, Puerto Rico: Vega Baja is a municipality in north central Puerto Rico. As of the 2000 census:...

Baseball: Baseball is a team sport, a bat-and-ball game, in which a hard, fist-sized ball is thrown by a defensive player called a pitcher, and an offensive player called a batter attempts to hit it with a tapered, cylindrical, smooth stick called a bat. The ball itself is also called a baseball. Scoring is a...

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