Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
HALL OF FAME BOUND
Former Marlins catcher Pudge Rodriguez elected.
Pudge Rodriguez, the star catcher for the 2003 World Series-winning Florida Marlins, was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Wednesday in his first year of eligibility.
Rodriguez is one of three members of the Class of 2017, joining Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines, who was also a Marlin for one season.
Rodriguez drew 76 percent of the votes cast by Baseball Writers’ Association of America members — four more than the necessary 332 of 442 (75 percent) for election. Bagwell led this year’s class with 86.2 percent of the vote, and Raines got 86 percent.
The induction ceremony will be July 30 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
“I have no words, best call ever!” Rodriguez posted on Twitter, along with a video of him hearing news of his election over the phone. “A dream that came true today! So thankful!”
Steroids-tainted stars Barry Bonds (last year’s Marlins hitting coach) and Roger Clemens were passed over for the fifth straight year but received significantly more votes this time and could be in position to gain election in future votes.
Trevor Hoffman, an original Marlin, was this year’s closest call, falling five votes shy of election. He pitched in 28 games for the Marlins in 1993 — picking up the first two of his 601 career saves — before the
team traded him to the San Diego Padres in the deal that brought Gary Sheffield to Florida.
Rodriguez also only spent one season with the Marlins, but it was a memorable one. A perennial All-Star and former American League MVP with the Texas Rangers, he didn’t demand the sort of attention on the open market he thought he might, eventually inking a one-year, $10 million deal to come to South Florida in late January 2003.
For the historically frugal Marlins, the signing was a significant one.
“We were dealing with a great and special opportunity to sign a special player,” owner Jeffrey Loria said at the time. “We feel like, for our team, this is a special year, and a special season, and he warrants it.”
A special season indeed. Rodriguez batted .297 with a .369 on-base percentage and .474 slugging mark, finishing with 16 homers and 85 RBI as the Marlins won the National League wild card.
Rodriguez was even better in the playoffs. He hit .313/.390/.522 with three homers and 17 RBI in 17 games. In the National League Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs — best known, perhaps, for the Marlins’ Game 6 comeback after Cubs fan Steve Bartman interfered with a play down the left-field line — Rodriguez hit .321/.424/.607 and drove in 10 runs in seven games. He was the series MVP.
When the Marlins beat the New York Yankees in six games in the World Series, it was Rodriguez who wound up on the cover of the special edition of Sports Illustrated honoring the organization’s second title.
Rodriguez went on to play with five teams for nearly another decade, cementing himself as one of the best catchers ever. Across 21 major league seasons, he hit .296/.334/.464 with 311 homers and 1,332 RBI. Rodriguez was a 14-time All-Star, 13-time Gold Glover, seven-time Silver Slugger and one-time MVP.
He becomes just the second catcher to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer, joining Johnny Bench.
Rodriguez has also been plagued by suspicion he used performance-enhancing drugs. Jose Canseco, Rodriguez’s former Rangers teammate and an admitted PED user, said Rodriguez was among those who cheated. In “Juiced,” his 2005 expose on baseball’s steroid era, Canseco claimed to have personally injected Rodriguez with drugs.
Rodriguez never failed a drug test, and there is no proof he used PEDs. Two others Canseco outed, Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, had Hall of Fame-caliber numbers but fell well short of induction due to PEDs, with McGwire admitting use and Palmeiro failing a test.
The other former Marlin elected to the Hall of Fame this year had similarly brief stay with the team. Raines rounded out his 23-year big league career by playing in 98 games, most as a pinch-hitter, for the 2002 Marlins in his age-42 season. The Sanford native hit only .191/.351/.258 and stole no bases, perhaps his most prominent skill.
Raines, considered by many to be the second best leadoff hitter ever behind Rickey Henderson, swiped 808 bags in his career.
Rodriguez and Raines join Andre Dawson (1995-96) and Mike Piazza (five games in 1998) as Hall of Famers to have suited up for the Marlins. Like Dawson and Piazza, neither will don a Marlins cap on their plaque.