'Pudge' Rodriguez cried when he was told to be a catcher

Ivan Rodriguez may have never become the revered backstop we now remember him as if he'd had his way.

In a chronological piece written for The Players' Tribune on Monday, "Pudge" revealed he had aspirations of growing up to be a pitcher or a heavy-hitting third baseman, but his father - thankfully, in retrospect - crushed those dreams when he noticed his son's cannon of an arm:

I actually used to be a pitcher and a third baseman. That’s how I started. But my dad was my first coach, and he noticed pretty quickly that I had a strong arm. So one day he sat me down and told me, "You are not going to pitch or play third base anymore, you're gonna be a catcher. And I think you're gonna be a good catcher." I immediately started crying. I didn’t want to catch. I wanted to be a third baseman and hit home runs. He said, "You can cry as much as you want, but you’re gonna catch from now on." I was eight years old.

His father's judgment turned out to be spot on. Years later at a prospect showcase in Puerto Rico, the Texas Rangers were immediately convinced to sign the then-16-year-old, paving the way for one of the best careers ever carved by a catcher, filled with 13 Gold Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers, 14 All-Star nominations, an AL MVP award, and of course, a World Series win in 2003.

Rodriguez will hope those accolades will be enough Wednesday, when members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America vote to decide if the 45-year-old's career is worthy of acceptance into the Hall of Fame.