HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Ren\u00e9 C\u00e1rdenas, the first Spanish-language broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers during a 60-year career, has died. He was 96.<\/p>\n
The Astros said Monday that C\u00e1rdenas died Sunday at his home in Houston.<\/p>\n
C\u00e1rdenas joined the Dodgers when they moved to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. He was part of the first Spanish broadcast of the World Series in 1959 and the All-Star Game two years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe mourn the passing of Ren\u00e9 C\u00e1rdenas, who in 1958 with the Dodgers became the first full-time Spanish-language broadcaster in MLB history and would ultimately spend 21 years behind the mic for Los Angeles,\u201d the Dodgers said Sunday in a social media post.<\/p>\n
The expansion Houston Colt .45s hired C\u00e1rdenas in 1961 for their inaugural season of 1962. He spent 14 seasons with a franchise that was renamed the Astros in 1965, when they moved into the Astrodome.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith yesterday\u2019s passing of Rene Cardenas, we lost a true legend and pioneer in broadcasting,\u201d the Astros wrote Monday in a statement on social media. \u201cAs the franchise first Spanish broadcaster, Rene had a tremendous impact on the success of the Colt .45s\/Astros in Houston\u2019s large Hispanic community and beyond. We send our heartfelt condolences to Rene\u2019s family and loved ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
C\u00e1rdenas returned to his native Nicaragua in 1975 before coming back to MLB in 1981, when he was the first Spanish broadcaster for the Rangers, according to retired Rangers public relations executive John Blake.<\/p>\n
A second stint with the Dodgers lasted nearly two decades starting in 1982. He also returned to the Astros, becoming the first to call games in Spanish on television for Houston in 2008.<\/p>\n
After retiring, C\u00e1rdenas wrote for the Astros\u2019 Spanish-language website and for La Prensa, a Nicaraguan newspaper.<\/p>\n
C\u00e1rdenas also called high-profile events in other sports, including the Muhammad Ali-Jimmy Ellis heavyweight boxing match at the Astrodome in 1971.<\/p>\n
He was inducted into the Nicaragua Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000. He was inducted into the Broadcasters Wing of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2002. He was inducted into the Astros Baseball Media Wall of Honor in 2013.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) \u2014 Ren\u00e9 C\u00e1rdenas, the first Spanish-language broadcaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros and Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":791260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[30320,1578,359,276,1596,159075,4345,315922,1266,50,7202,62,358,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-791259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-app-professional-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-austin","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-dallas","13":"tag-dfw-what-you-need-to-know","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-houston-what-you-need-to-know","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-san-antonio","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-texas","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116562120357850215","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}