Puerto Rican baseball player and manager (born 1946)
Baseball player
Eliseo Rodriguez Delgado
(born May 24, 1946) is a Puerto Rican former
professional baseball
catcher
. He played in
Major League Baseball
(MLB) from 1968 to 1976 for the
New York Yankees
,
Kansas City Royals
,
Milwaukee Brewers
,
California Angels
, and
Los Angeles Dodgers
.
Career
[
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]
His professional baseball career began in 1964 when he was signed by the
Kansas City Athletics
as an amateur free agent after graduating from
James Monroe High School
in Bronx, NY.
[1]
He spent the 1964 in the rookie and A-class
Minor league baseball
teams of the Athletics.
[2]
at the end of the season, on November 30, 1964, he was drafted by the New York Yankees from the Athletics in the 1964 first-year player draft.
[1]
Rodriguez spent the next few years moving up the Yankees farm system, eventually making it to the AAA-level
Syracuse Chiefs
in 1967.
[2]
A year later, Rodriguez made his major league debut for the Yankees.
Rodriguez debuted for the Yankees on May 26, 1968, against the
Chicago White Sox
.
[1]
He played nine games over the course of the season while also spending time in Syracuse as well. On October 15, 1968, Rodriguez was drafted by the Kansas City Royals from the New York Yankees as the 13th pick in the
1968 MLB expansion draft
.
[1]
In his first season with the expansion Royals, he made his first
all-star appearance
, though he did not play in the game.
[1]
He finished the season with a batting average of .236 in 95 games. The following season he split time at catcher with
Ed Kirkpatrick
.
On February 2, 1971, after the end of the
1970 Kansas City Royals season
, the Royals traded Rodriguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for
Carl Taylor
.
[1]
He regained his starting role as the
1971 Milwaukee Brewers season
began. Rodriguez played 115 games in 1971, yet only had a batting average of .210.
[1]
He played 116 games the following season en route to his second all-star game, which he also did not play in. He finished the season with a career high batting average of .285 and over 100 hits.
[1]
After splitting time at catcher with
Darrell Porter
the following season, Rodriguez was involved in a nine-player transaction when he was sent along with
Ollie Brown
,
Joe Lahoud
,
Skip Lockwood
and
Gary Ryerson
from the Brewers to the
California Angels
for
Steve Barber
,
Clyde Wright
,
Ken Berry
,
Art Kusnyer
and cash on October 23, 1973.
[3]
Rodriguez ended up having a breakout year in 1974. He had a
fielding percentage
of .992, played a career high 140 games, and hit a career high seven
home runs
.
[1]
During the
1974 California Angels season
, Rodriguez tied an
American League
record with 19
putouts
in a nine-inning game and set another with 21 in an extra-inning game.
[4]
The following season, he played 90 games as catcher, and caught
Nolan Ryan
's fourth
no-hitter
.
[4]
On March 31, 1976, he was traded by the California Angels to the Los Angeles Dodgers for
Orlando Alvarez
and cash, and spent one season with the Dodgers before being released on May 2, 1977.
[1]
Rodriguez is now a player development consultant for The
Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
and is in charge of scouting Latin America for the league.
[5]
He was later announced as manager for the 2018
Road Warriors
, a traveling team that will temporarily replace the folded
Bridgeport Bluefish
in the
Atlantic League
.
[6]
See also
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References
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]
External links
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]