Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez one of the best catchers

Former Texas Rangers catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez recently turned 43 on November 27, which is hard to believe.  It’s seems like it was only yesterday that he was playing for the Texas Rangers with Juan Gonzalez, Rafael Palmeiro, Nolan Ryan, Kenny Rogers and other greats from the Johnny Oates days.

Since his departure no one has been able to fill the void he left behind the backstop, though some have done a very good job while they were here such as Mike Napoli and now Robinson Chirinos.  But, Pudge was one of the best at the game and he was really good at his craft.

Video: Relive Ivan Rodriguez gunning down base stealers .

Ivan Rodriguez announces his retirement from baseball on 4/23/2012

While with the Texas Rangers over his 13 amazing season he had a batting line of .304/.341/.488/.828 with a total of 1,747 hits for a career total of 2,477 hits over 21 years of service.  That’s pretty amazing for a catcher to play that long and at that level.  Catchers like him don’t come along very often and the Texas Rangers were able to see most of his awesome career.   Although his baseball playing days are over he is still involved in the game.  He joined the front office back in February of 2013.  He is currently serving at a Special Assistant to the General Manager Jon Daniels. He’s spent a lot of time working with the Rangers catchers such as Jorge Alfaro and Robinson Chirinos.

He was one of the best while he played with the Texas Rangers and now he’s working to help players like Alfaro be the best they can be.  Some have said that Jorge Alfaro plays the same way Ivan Rodriguez used to play, maybe that’s because he has a great teacher.