When
Ivan Rodriguez announced his retirement last week, he bid farewell to the DMBL for good. He had
137 plate appearances in MLB last year, leaving him 67 short of DMBL eligibility for 2012.
He certainly will be on the ballot for the DMBL Hall of Fame by 2017, and as a longtime catcher, likely will get heavy consideration on his first try. If it's not Pudge leading catchers in a career batting category, it's
Mike Piazza.
Pudge spent much of his career with his original franchise, the now defunct-
Columbia Crusaders. He was the face of the franchise since being selected in the 6th round (50th overall) in the 1993 draft and spent 12 seasons with the Crusaders/Rattlesnakes. He was a two-time all-star (1996 and 2001) and appeared in a DMBL-record 18 seasons.
After Columbia left the DMBL, Pudge was a bit of a vagabond
catcher -- left unprotected but usually being drafted -- playing for five different teams in his final six seasons. Much of
his final three years was spent as a part-time player, logging 190 games
with three different squads.
Most impressively, between breaking into the DMBL in 1993 and 2008, Pudge played no fewer than 130 games a year with the exception of one season (2002, 102 games, and of course, the strike-year of 1995). He leads catchers in career hits, at-bats, doubles and games played (tantalizingly close to 500 doubles, and 2,000 "official" games), and trails Piazza in most other categories.
Entering the 2012 season, he ranked 6th all-time in games played with 1,991 -- only
Derek Jeter,
Alex Rodriguez,
Chipper Jones,
Manny Ramirez and
Vlad Guerrero have "officially" played more. He also finishes 4th in doubles with 490 (surpassed only by
Edgar Martinez,
Chipper and
Manny).
(Games played wasn't an official stat in the early days of the DMBL and many old-timers have incomplete records for the category. Rodriguez certainly played more than 2,000 games but the 1994 and 1996 seasons are incomplete, and he likely played as many as 300 games in those two years considering his number of at-bats.)
Other career stats for Pudge:
Batting average: .282
On-base: .313
Slugging: .439
OPS: .752
AB: 8,318 (7th)
H: 2,370 (7th -- ahead of
Roberto Alomar, 2,207, behind
A-Rod, 2,436)
HR: 263 (30th -- ahead of
Javy Lopez, 260, behind
Bobby Abreu, 264)
RBI: 1,100 (18th -- ahead of
Rafael Palmeiro, 1,099, behind
Larry Walker, 1,103)
Runs: 821 (29th)
Strikeouts: 1,359 (19th; only 378 career walks)
Helton, drafted by the Hoboken Cutters in the 7th round this year, smacked two doubles in Monday night's win over Marietta, passing Edgar Martinez to move into third all-time. He started the year tied for sixth with Barry Bonds (487), and also passed Ivan Rodriguez (490) along the way. The only players left ahead of Helton are Chipper Jones (535), who is chasing Manny Ramirez (538).
