Astros honor trailblazer Rene Cardenas

Rene Cardenas was sitting on the couch with his wife watching television this spring when he heard the phone. The Astros’ former Spanish language broadcaster gingerly rose to answer the phone. He didn’t expect much because his phone is usually flooded with appointment reminders and spam calls.

What the 94-year-old former broadcaster heard on the other line from the Astros made him smile. Cardenas was ecstatic to learn that he was selected to the Astros Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024. He walked into his office in the Houston suburbs after the call and glanced at the memorabilia he has collected over the years.

The black and white photographs seemed vibrant. He reflected on pictures with former players and his personal favorite, the image of his first time in the booth. The Astros will honor Cardenas and his 67 years of service to the franchise and MLB during the team’s Hall of Fame weekend on Saturday.

Cardenas was a trailblazer for MLB’s Spanish broadcasting. He was also an innovator on how sports are called today. Because of his age and his long retirement, Cardenas assumed he was consigned to oblivion despite his contributions in sports.

‘Rejuvenated’ Rene Cardenas

“I felt like I was on cloud nine,” Cardenas said. “I was surprised because I believed in my 94 years of age I was a person who was forgotten. And I imagined that my life would imitate a lost soldier; just vanish. But when I heard I was nominated for this award I felt rejuvenated.”

Cardenas’ path to becoming a renowned sports broadcaster started in his native Managua, Nicaragua. His grandfather Adan Cardenas served as the 62nd president of Nicaragua. After serving four years, his term ended in 1887.

The seventh Nicaraguan president focused on education reform. Adan Cardenas established the first national bank, and enhanced the Nicaraguan military. He also brought baseball to Nicaragua.

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At 16, Rene Cardenas began writing about baseball for Nicaraguan newspapers La Prensa and La Estrella de Nicaragua. He also called baseball games for Radio Mundial. With most of his family already living in Los Angeles, his mother pleaded with him to move with them. After much persuasion, Cardenas immigrated to California.

He established the first Spanish baseball broadcast in the United States in 1958. Learning that the Brooklyn Dodgers were on the verge of moving to Los Angeles, Cardenas pitched an idea to KWKW Radio, which had one the first Spanish radio networks in Pasadena, Calif.

The idea was to transmit Dodgers games in Spanish. He wanted to reach an audience of over two million Spanish speakers who called Los Angeles home.

Historic pitch

After meeting with the president of the radio station, Cardenas reached an agreement with their board of directors in less than five minutes. They believed in Cardenas, and they believed in the idea of reaching the growing Latino audience.

Then they met with Walter O’Malley, who owned the Dodgers at the time. O’Malley was persuaded easily too. 

“I explained the plan to O’Malley,” Cardenas said. “O’Malley said, ‘I love the idea. Of course we’ll do it. And maybe after these transmissions we can sign a Mexican pitcher.’”

The Dodgers signed Fernando Valenzuela 20 years later. Cardenas had Hall of Fame broadcaster Jaime Jarrin as his color analyst. Jarrin, who knew little about baseball at the time, was trained by Cardenas.

As a trial, they called half of the games. That quickly changed because the Spanish radio broadcast was a huge success. During home games both men were in the broadcast booth.

However when the Dodgers were away, Cardenas had to hear the transmission led by Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett, and simultaneously translate it to Spanish. Rene Cardenas considers translating live games in real time the hardest obstacle he had to overcome.

Cardenas finds home in Houston

After he spent four successful years calling play-by-play for the Dodgers in Spanish, he sought a new challenge. Cardenas accepted a role in Houston to initiate Texas’ first Spanish baseball broadcast.

“I thought growing with an MLB franchise is an honor and something fantastic,” Cardenas said. “People thought I was crazy to leave a historic franchise like the Dodgers for something that was filled with uncertainty.”

Cardenas was in the booth for the Astros through the 1975 season. Cardenas returned to Los Angeles to take on his role before establishing the first radio network for the Texas Rangers. The Rangers convinced Cardenas by offering daily roundtrip flights because he refused to move to Arlington.

Cardenas opened many opportunities for Latinos in sports media. For Nicaraguans, Spanish language journalists and broadcasters. His work set the foundation for today’s Latinos in sports.

“For Nicaraguans, Rene (Cardenas) is an inspiration and a pioneer who has opened a road never seen before in sports,” Nicaraguan writer Edgard Rodriguez said. “What he’s done has filled Nicaragua with pride with his high-quality work and his character as a human being.”