One of those special athletes retired Monday

Fixed day

Ivan Rodriguez arrived in Texas from Puerto Rico as a 19-year-old kid with a special arm. He was feted Monday night, back in Texas, as the man who caught the most games (2,543) in the history of baseball.

For most of those 21 seasons, he was also the game's best at throwing out base runners. As his final act on the field, instead of throwing a ceremonial first pitch, he fired a ball down to second base. Home runs are nice — and Rodriguez hit 311 of those, so he was no slouch with a bat in his hands — but in baseball fielding counts.

Baseball-Reference.com, by the way, estimates that Rodriguez made $122,573,932 as a major league baseball player. Dude is still just 41 years old.

Rodriguez's exit speech