Remembering the First Royal All-Star: Ellie Rodriguez

by Freneau on Jul 9, 2011 2:17 PM EDT in Honoring & Remembering Former Kansas City Royals

The first player to represent the Kansas City Royals was Ellie Rodriguez, a backup catcher for the American League in 1969.

On the day the 1969 All-Star game was played, Rodriguez was a .261/.342/.344 hitter. Um, ok. Are we missing something? Well, he was a catcher and it was the late 1960s... and... yea, that was still a bad line. Rodriguez was in his second season in the Majors and his first season as a Royal. He also ended up randomly making the All-Star team in 1972 as a Brewer. Well, then. (His stats are after the jump.)

Year	Age	Tm	PA	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1964	18	OAK-min	223	.332	.332	.484	.816
1965	19	NYY-min	342	.272	.272	.354	.626
1966	20	NYY-min	372	.233	.309	.304	.614
1967	21	NYY-min	343	.246	.322	.282	.604
1968	22	NYY-min	151	.291	.396	.370	.766
1968	22	NYY	27	.208	.296	.208	.505	58
1969	23	KCR	308	.236	.333	.296	.629	78
1970	24	KCR	267	.225	.312	.290	.602	68
1971	25	MIL	380	.210	.311	.257	.568	64
1972	26	MIL	422	.285	.382	.352	.734	123
1973	27	MIL	350	.269	.376	.303	.680	97
1974	28	CAL	485	.253	.373	.357	.730	117
1975	29	CAL	293	.235	.380	.301	.681	102
1976	30	LAD	90	.212	.400	.212	.612	80
1977	31	PIT-min	163	.224	.356	.313	.669
9 Seasons			2622	.245	.356	.308	.664	94
162 Game Avg.			548	.245	.356	.308	.664	94

MIL (3 yrs)			1152	.255	.357	.306	.663	95
KCR (2 yrs)			575	.231	.323	.293	.617	73
CAL (2 yrs)			778	.246	.376	.337	.712	112
LAD (1 yr)			90	.212	.400	.212	.612	80
NYY (1 yr)			27	.208	.296	.208	.505	58

AL (8 yrs)			2532	.246	.354	.311	.665	94
NL (1 yr)			90	.212	.400	.212	.612	80

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/9/2011.

The 1969 Royals were a run of the mill bad team. They didn't lose 100 games, but when you look at their roster, you don't see many strong performances. I suppose taking a random catcher -- in what looks like a weak era for American League catchers -- makes as much sense as anything else. Mike Fiore was probably the team's best hitter, but he was hardly an All-Star caliber first baseman.

But back to Ellie Rodriguez. He didn't play in the game and ended up hitting poorly in the second half, dragging down his season line to an even more meager .236/.333/.296.

Now, Rodriguez was Puerto Rican, and I'm not sure real baseball men have ever considered many Puerto Ricans real leaders like Jeff Francoeur or Jason Kendall. Whispers surrounded Pudge Rodriguez for the first decade of his career: he was selfish, he couldn't call a good game, etc. Maybe that wasn't the case, I really don't know. Maybe he had a great defensive reputation. Maybe the AL just wanted a third catcher to have around.

Anyway, he was our first All-Star.

Tweet Comment 7 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Huzzah! Huzzah! Huzzah!

why isn’t a monument dedicated outside Kauffman to our FIRST All-Star? I expect an Emanuel Leutze painting in the works, if only Leutze was still alive.

by jrcnc on Jul 9, 2011 2:23 PM EDT reply actions

Mike Fiore was the best hitter?

um….Lou PInella ring a bell?

The only measure of true success in the NFL is the Vince Lombardi trophy. Anything less is a rationalization.

by sm7600 on Jul 9, 2011 7:41 PM EDT reply actions

Look up the stats

That year, Fiore was significantly better as a hitter.

Edgar knows best.

by kcbottom9th on Jul 9, 2011 8:23 PM EDT up reply actions

which of course explains how Pinella got to be rookie of the year

sorry, I don’t care what the stats say. Having watched the deal go down, Pinella was a better hitter

The only measure of true success in the NFL is the Vince Lombardi trophy. Anything less is a rationalization.

by sm7600 on Jul 10, 2011 2:25 AM EDT up reply actions

OBP SLG OPS OPS+ BB SO
420 .428 .848 138 84 63
325 .416 .741 107 33 56

so, who ya like? Player 1 or Player 2? Player 1 took FAR more walks and
had a highter SLG and OPS … yanno, that Player 1 musta been pretty good,
maybe he should win ROY, huh?

wait … sorry, that goes to Player 2 … Player 1 is Fiore, Player 2 is Piniella

I was there, too … wonder what might have been if Fiore, not Piniella, had
been the Opening Day hero

Winner: 2009 Nostradamus of Arrowhead Pride Award
"I shall conquer untruth by truth" - Mahatma Gandhi
"It's always easier to sell 'em some shit than it is to give 'em the truth" - Shel Silverstein, The Perfect High
hi, Mo! 5 minutes!!!

by upamtn on Jul 10, 2011 3:05 PM EDT up reply actions

significantly? no ... not by any means

Fiore was significantly better as a hitter

in some categories Fiore had the edge … Piniella had a higher average and far more RBIs … SO about the same, Fiore took more BB … Sweet Lou had a tendency to swing more than Fiore

by upamtn on Jul 10, 2011 3:11 PM EDT up reply actions

Piniella was hitting .300 at the AS break, so he would have been pretty justifiable

But its hard to break in as an outfielder. Here are the AS outfielders that year and their first half stats:

Starters – Reggie Jackson OAK, Frank Howard WAS, Frank Robinson BAL

Reserves
Roy White NYY .313/.433/.471 4 HR 46 BI
Paul Blair BAL .312/.358/.533 19 HR 52 BI, Gold Glove defense
Reggie Smith BSN .339/.395/.485 9 HR 45 BI
Carlos May CHW .279/.377/.505 18 HR 57 BI – only CHW rep
Mike Hegan SEP .293/.426/.463 7 HR 30 BI – only SEP rep

Lou Piniella KCR .305/.339/.434 10 HR 52 BI

Relive Royals History at royalsretro.blogspot.com

by RoyalsRetro on Jul 10, 2011 4:02 PM EDT reply actions