In last night’s Rangers-Astros game, Pudge Rodriguez broke the all-time record for games caught. But that wasn’t the only notable achievement: Omar Vizquel tied Luis Aparicio for most hits by a native of Venezuela.
While most would agree that Pudge’s record was a tougher nut to crack, being the Venezuelan hits leader is not nearly as narrow a feat as some may suspect. Indeed, Vizquel has outhit a pretty impressive group of people in outhitting his fellow countrymen. In addition to Aparicio, Vizquel has Andres Galarraga (2333 hits), Dave Concepcion (2326), Bobby Abreu (2011), Magglio Ordonez (1889), Ozzie Guillen (1764) and Tony Armas (1302) in his rear-view mirror, among others.
There’s a debate out there about whether Vizquel is a legitimate Hall of Fame candidate, and I suspect that he’ll get a lot more support from writers than he otherwise might have due to the perception that he was a little guy who made it in a steroid-fueled world. And that will hold true regardless of there likely being no way of knowing if he ever took steroids in his long career. Personally, I don’t think he’s a Hall of Famer, and I’ll no doubt argue that he doesn’t belong at some point.
But when I and others do, don’t you dare mistake such arguments as disparagement of Omar Vizquel. He’s been really really good for a really really long time, and this record is just further evidence of that.