Rene Cardenas

Rene Cardenas truly was a broadcasting pioneer for both the Colt .45s/Astros organization and for Major League Baseball. In 1958, he became the first full-time Spanish-language broadcaster to call games for a Major League Baseball team when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers as their original Spanish radio broadcaster. He and his partners made history as the first Spanish broadcast team to call a World Series (1959) and an All-Star Game (1961). Following the 1961 season, he was hired by the expansion Houston Colt .45s (now the Houston Astros) to pioneer their Spanish radio broadcasts as both their first broadcaster and as director of Spanish broadcasting. He is credited with helping to grow the popularity of the Colt .45s/Astros in the large Hispanic population in Houston in the early years of the franchise. By 1966, Cardenas had created the first international radio network for baseball in order to help the Astros recruit talent in South America and Central America. That network reached 13 different countries in those regions.

Cardenas would call Astros games for 14 seasons before returning to Nicaragua in 1975, where he called baseball games on both television and radio. In 1982, he returned to Los Angeles where he would call games for the Dodgers for several more seasons before returning to the Astros Spanish radio broadcast in 2007 and 2008. In 2008, he also called several Astros games in Spanish on television for the first time. After retiring from the broadcast booth, Cardenas wrote for the Astros Spanish-language website for several years as well as for La Prensa, a Nicaraguan newspaper. Throughout his retirement, he has also made several guest appearances on the Astros Spanish radio broadcasts and has been a mentor for current Astros play-by-play announcer Francisco Romero.

During his illustrious career, Cardenas also called high-profile events in other sports, including the famous Muhammad Ali-Jimmy Ellis heavyweight boxing match that took place in the Astrodome in 1971.

Cárdenas has been linked to baseball for his entire life. He was born in Managua, Nicaragua and is the grandson of Adan Cardenas, who introduced baseball to Nicaragua in the late 19th century and served as the President of Nicaragua. His uncle, Adolfo, played on the Nicaraguan national baseball team.

Cardenas has received several honors in his long career. In 2000, he was inducted into the Nicaragua Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 2002, was inducted into the Broadcasters Wing of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame. He was also selected to the Astros Media Wall of Honor and the Dodgers Walk of Fame. Additionally, Cardenas has been a finalist three times for the Cooperstown National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting excellence. During his two stints with the Dodgers, Cardenas teamed with Jaime Jarrin, who went on to earn the Frick Award in 1998. Cardenas is credited with mentoring Jarrin during their early years in Los Angeles.