Valle led the way for countrymen

At least that's what people in this tiny coastal town along Puerto Rico's western shore used to say.

"Tell us again about the time you hit .300 in the big leagues," they would ask with a laugh, figuring if Valle really had been a major leaguer, they would have heard of him.

So Valle went out and had his baseball card laminated and stuck it in his wallet. There, on the front, in gray Dodgers flannels, is Valle striking a fierce pose at the plate. And on the back, in neat print, is proof of his big league career:

Nine games, 13 at-bats, four singles and a .308 average.

If you had blinked, you might have missed Valle's time in Los Angeles. But those nine games have provided him with a lifetime of memories.

"Getting to the major leagues was the ultimate," he said 43 years later. "What a great experience. It was beautiful."

As it turns out, it was historic as well because it made Valle the first Puerto Rican catcher to play in the majors. And the trail he blazed is one many of his countrymen have followed.

Of the 41 Puerto Ricans who played in the majors last season, 13 were catchers. Only twice in the last 12 years has a World Series been played without at least one Puerto Rican behind the plate; three times in the last six years Puerto Rican catchers started for both teams.

And 17 times in the last 18 years a Puerto Rican catcher has started for the American League in the All-Star game.

So how did a commonwealth of less than 4 million people, a place where baseball is no longer the most popular sport, come to dominate what may be the game's most difficult and important position?

"You know, everyone asks me that question," said Ellie Rodriguez, who played for the Dodgers and Angels in the 1970s and was the first Puerto Rican catcher to make an All-Star team.

So far, he hasn't come up with an answer. Which doesn't make him unusual.

"I don't know the reason," said New York Yankees catcher Jose Molina, whose brothers Yadier and Bengie are also big league catchers. "It is unusual. [We] develop differently, I guess."

What is certain, however, is that it all started with Valle.

"I," he said with a wink, "gave the example."

Valle's example notwithstanding, not every Puerto Rican ballplayer set out to squat behind the plate. The Yankees' Jorge Posada was drafted as a second baseman and led the rookie-level New York-Penn League in double plays in his first professional season.