Iván Rodríguez, Puerto Rican-American baseball player
Iván Rodríguez Torres (born November 27, 1971), nicknamed "Pudge" and "I-Rod", is a Puerto Rican former Major League Baseball catcher. He played for the Texas Rangers (in two separate stints, comprising the majority of his career), Florida Marlins, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and Washington Nationals. Rodríguez was awarded the AL MVP award in 1999 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest catchers in MLB history.
Rodríguez won the 2003 World Series with the Florida Marlins over the Yankees, and also played in the 2006 World Series while with the Tigers. He is the major league career leader in putouts by catchers. On June 17, 2009, Rodríguez set an MLB record by catching his 2,227th game, passing Carlton Fisk (coincidentally also known by the nickname "Pudge"). During his career, he had the best caught stealing percentage of any major league catcher, at 45.68% (versus a league average of 31%), and he had nine seasons with a caught stealing rate of 50% or higher.On January 18, 2017, he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown in his first year of eligibility, receiving 76% of the votes cast, and was officially inducted on July 30, 2017.
Most recently, Rodríguez has served as a Shadow Representative from Puerto Rico.