Ellie Rodríguez

Eliseo Rodríguez Delgado (May 24, 1946 – April 23, 2026) was a Puerto Rican 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.

Early life Rodriguez was born in Fajardo, Puerto Rico, on May 24, 1946. His family moved to New York City in 1953, growing up within walking distance of Yankee Stadium. His boyhood idol was Yankees catcher Yogi Berra. He was an amateur boxer as a teenager. Rodriguez attended James Monroe High School in the Bronx, New York, graduating in 1964.

Baseball career Minor league 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. He spent the 1964 season in the rookie and Single-A Minor league baseball teams of the Athletics, playing catcher. 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.

Major league Rodríguez debuted for the Yankees on May 26, 1968, against the Chicago White Sox, starting at catcher. He played nine games over the course of the season while also spending time in Syracuse as well, where he had a .291 batting average. He finished the season with a batting average of .236 in 95 games.

On February 2, 1971, after the end of the 1970 Kansas City Royals season, the Royals traded Rodríguez to the Milwaukee Brewers for Carl Taylor. He finished the season with a career-high batting average of .285 and over 100 hits. Rodríguez 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.

During the 1974 California Angels season, Rodríguez tied an American League record with 19 putouts in a nine-inning game and set another with 21 putouts in an extra-inning game, while catching in games pitched by Nolan Ryan. He also led the league in putouts by a catcher, throwing out attempted base stealers (with 10 more than the next closest catcher), and tied Thurman Munson for the league lead in assists by catchers. The following season (1975), he played 90 games as catcher, and caught Nolan Ryan's fourth no-hitter.