THE WEDDING DAY

Author

Matthew Garringer
February 20, 2024

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. The newsletter that lays down baseball history like an Endy Chavez drag bunt.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about a 24-hour period that was both the best and worst day of Iván Rodriguez’s life.

Pudge is undoubtably one of the greatest catchers to ever sit behind the dish.

His highlight reel is endless, and this man LOVED when people tried to steal on him.

But his hall-of-fame career began on the worst day possible.

It’s hard to imagine being sad on the day you get called up to the big leagues, but in a piece he wrote for the Player’s Tribune, Pudge admits that he was a little bummed when he got called up.

That day, Rodriguez was supposed to get married on the field down in Tulsa where he was playing Double-A ball.

They had even done rehearsals with all the players out on the field just the night before.

Pudge’s manager, Bobby Jones, called him into his office and said:

"Hey kid, I think we have a problem. You're getting called up, so you have two choices: You can either get married here tonight, or you're going to Chicago with the Rangers, but you can't do both. If you're headed to the big leagues, we're going to have to delay the wedding."

That night, at 19-years old, Iván Rodriguez was a big leaguer and he never looked back.

RIDICULOUS STATS

BASEBALL TRIVIA

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Getting straight serial killer vibes from Hanson in his Baseball Reference profile pic.

Horsey had a four-inning whirlwind experience in the big leagues and he got absolutely shelled.

He took the mound for the Reds in a blowout loss, and proceeded to give up 10 runs on 14 hits.

After his appearance in the show, he continued to play minor league baseball and eventually became an umpire.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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