HOUSTON -- Former Astros Spanish broadcaster René Cárdenas passed away on Sunday at his home in Houston. He was 96 years old.
Cárdenas, who was inducted into the Astros Hall of Fame in 2024, 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 an MLB team when he joined the L.A. Dodgers as their original Spanish radio broadcaster. In 1961, 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, Cárdenas 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 would eventually reach 13 different countries in those regions.
Cárdenas would call Astros games on radio for 14 seasons before returning to his native 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, Cárdenas wrote for the Astros Spanish-language website for several years as well as for La Prensa, a Nicaraguan newspaper. Throughout his retirement, he made several guest appearances on the Astros Spanish radio broadcasts and was a mentor for current Astros play-by-play announcer Francisco Romero.
During his illustrious career, Cárdenas 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 Cárdenas, 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.
Cárdenas received many accolades throughout his distinguished career. He was a four-time finalist for the prestigious Ford C. Frick Award, most recently in 2025, he was inducted into the Nicaragua Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000, and was inducted into the Broadcasters Wing of the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame in 2002. In 2013, he was inducted into the Astros Baseball Media Wall of Honor.
During his two stints with the Dodgers, Cárdenas 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.