Pudge Rodriguez recalls his favorite moment in his Hall of Fame career
Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez achieved so much in his Hall of Fame baseball career — he won an MVP and a World Series, he won 13 Gold Gloves as a catcher and was on 14 All-Star teams.
But when we talked to Rodriguez earlier this month — in Miami for the MLB All-Star game, where he was making an appearance at the Esurance MLB All-Star Challenge — and asked for his favorite moment, none of those were what he talked about.
In fact, it wasn’t something he got a trophy for. His favorite moment, as he explains in the video above, was simply making the big leagues and getting accepted as a 19-year-old by his veteran Texas Rangers team. He talks specifically about his relationship with the legendary Nolan Ryan, and how that helped keep Rodriguez in the big leagues at a young age and propel him to Cooperstown.
Pudge joins Jeff Bagwell and Tim Raines in this year’s Hall of Fame class. They’ll be enshrined at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
