Pudge winning race against time

02/15/2008 7:00 PM ET
Pudge winning race against time
Tigers backstop defies age with workload behind the plate
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

LAKELAND, Fla. -- It has become a recurring story every year around the start of Spring Training, when Ivan Rodriguez shows up for the first day of camp. Repetitive or not, Pudge is in good shape.

"I'm feeling great, man," Rodriguez said on Friday morning as he checked over his catching equipment. "Feeling good, feeling strong and I'm ready to go."

It's the reason the 36-year-old Rodriguez can say with a straight face that he plans on catching at least a few more years and not have a shred of doubt about it. As he prepares for his 18th big league season, he has spent nearly half of his life in the Majors. Whether he catches beyond this season with the Tigers is another question.

The man who became the face of the Tigers when he signed with Detroit as a free agent four years ago has what could be his last shot at completing the Tigers' turnaround from 119-loss also-rans to World Series champs. Yet while he works out to keep playing year after year, he's not thinking beyond this year -- at least, not in that sense.

"I don't know," Rodriguez said. "I have a one-year contract here, and that's the only thing I can control. I don't know [the Tigers'] decisions. I would love to stay here, but as of right now, I'm going to be here for one year. I'm just going to play my best and do my best at it -- try to put this team in the playoffs."

As the Tigers had to determine at last season's end, his best is still pretty good.

Only eight players in modern Major League history have caught 120 games in a season at age 36 or older. The list includes Bob Boone -- who did it six times -- Carlton Fisk, Rick Dempsey, Tony Pena, Benito Santiago and, most recently, Brad Ausmus two years ago. Rodriguez turned 36 in November, the only month in which he allows himself to relax before he picks up his offseason training.

Unlike Rodriguez, none of the catchers on that aforementioned list was catching in the big leagues when he was a teenager.

"See," Rodriguez said, "everybody needs to know and realize that I was one of those players -- luckily -- that came up when I was 19 years old. And everybody thinks that because it's my 18th season, I'm old. I'm only 36, OK? And I still can play a lot of ball. The way that I take care of myself and the way that I work, I know I can play a lot of baseball. I know how to take care of myself, and I know that I can play a lot of baseball."

For most catchers, 36 is still old age, or else more would've lasted past that stage. Out of the 10 players with at least 1,800 games caught in their careers, only four of them -- Fisk, Boone, Pena and Santiago -- caught at least 100 games in a season at 36 or older. Others physically couldn't do it after the wear and tear of catching that long.

When team owner Mike Ilitch, president/general manager Dave Dombrowski and his staff had to decide whether to pick up Rodriguez's $13 million contract option, they put together a list of catchers around the Majors and tried to compare where Rodriguez ranked on that list. What they determined was that, while his skills obviously aren't the same as when he was younger, they still rank him among the top catchers in the game.

With no obvious replacement in the system and no obvious upgrade on the free-agent market, the decision was made. If the Tigers eventually trade Brandon Inge this spring as discussed, it could actually open the path for another debate on Rodriguez next winter.

As manager Jim Leyland listened to Inge talk about the rigors of catching again, Leyland couldn't help but think of Rodriguez, but not for roster reasons.

"I think it gives you a great appreciation for what Pudge Rodriguez has done over the years," Leyland said. "Carlton Fisk, Pudge Rodriguez and those guys -- to me, that's unbelievable."

Rodriguez caught 127 games last year, his highest total since joining the Tigers. And while the question seemingly pops up every spring as to how many games Pudge can catch in a given season, every manager's plan to rest him more -- whether it was Leyland or his predecessor, Alan Trammell -- seemingly fell flat.

When Rodriguez can play, he wants to play. The rest will take care of itself.

"You just don't worry about guys like that," Leyland said. "Pudge Rodriguez is as proud of a player as I've ever been around. He's a very proud player, make no mistake about it. That's a heckuva compliment.

"He's going to want to play. That's just Pudge's makeup, and that's a good thing for a manager. I'm going to try to use common sense, and I'm going to watch him like I do everybody else. I may overplay my guys sometimes. I'm probably guilty of that. But it's hard to tell an everyday big league player that he's not playing when he really wants to play."

Rodriguez puts himself through the ringer each offseason so that he can play as close to as often as he wants. The only change he made in his routine this offseason, he said, was to ease off of the bicycle portion of his workouts and hit the weights to be stronger. His running regimen -- the distances, the repetitions of 200- and 300-meter sprints -- remains.

"The best thing that I have is I prepare myself for four months," he said. "I take one month off out of the whole year, the month of November. That's my offseason, to be honest with you. Just take one month off and then start working. And when you prepare yourself for 4 1/2, five months before you catch the first pitch and hit in the first at-bat, it's easy. It's easier to catch because my body's already in shape to be here.

"My body makes me do it. See, I'm a little different because it's not because I have to [work out]. It's because my body asks me to. When your mind tells you that you've got to go do this, you cannot stay home, sit around and do nothing. You're already used to it."

He's so used to it that he figures he'll be working out even after he retires. The sprints might be gone, but the cardio running, the lifting and the bike work will probably remain. He still has a while to think about it, though.

"I'm 36 and I feel like I'm 30, or 20-something years old," he said. "It's what you've got to do to keep yourself in shape to play as many games as I've been playing every year. If you want to play 125 or 130 games, you need to work hard. If I don't play that many games, I feel like I've lightened up."

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.