5 Sports Biographies by Hall of Fame Latino Baseball Players

The stories of Big Papi, Mo, Pudge, and more.

Major League Baseball has the most selective Hall of Fame in all of professional sports in the U.S., given the low percentage of players that have played in the Big Leagues, that are enshrined at the Hall in Cooperstown, New York. There are Latino players in the Hall, of course, and some of them have had autobiographies or biographies published in recent years that explore their lives on and off of the field. Below are 5 of those players:

1.The Closer by Mariano Rivera with Wayne Coffey (Authors)

Mariano Rivera is one of the greatest closers of all time, and a New York Yankees legend — the only Big League team he played for. His biography covers his life from his beginnings in Panama, through his impressive baseball career, to his retirement from Major League Baseball. Rivera was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 2019, with a 2.21 career ERA, 1,115 games pitched, 652 saves, and 5 World Series championships.

2.Papi: My Story by David Ortiz with Michael Holley (Authors)

Per Bookshop, “In Papi, his ultimate memoir, Ortiz opens up as never before. The result is a revelatory, fly-on-the-wall story of a career by a player with a lot to say at the end of his time in the game to which he gave so much and which gave so much to him.” David Ortiz, also known as “Big Papi,” is a big baseball personality and part of the team that won a World Series and broke the Red Sox’s winning curse. Ortiz was important the two following Sox’s World Series wins, as his Hall of Fame profile states, to which he was inducted in 2022. This Dominican star ended his career with 541 home runs, a .380 on base percentage, and 2,472 hits.

3.They Call Me Pudge: My Life Playing the Game I Love by Iván Rodríguez with Jeff Sullivan (Authors)

Another Hall of Famer on this list of Latino baseball player biographies, Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez is part of the Hall’s 2017 class. In this biography, he takes readers behind the scenes of his career as one of the best catchers in baseball history, with 13 Gold Glove Awards, 1,354 runs, and 2,427 games caught: all number one for catchers in the Majors. From Puerto Rico, he played with teams like the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers.

4.Edgar: An Autobiography by Edgar Martínez with Larry Stone (Authors)

Inducted into the Hall in 2019, Martinez is a pioneering designated hitter in Major League Baseball, who played his entire career with the Seattle Mariners. Folks interested in learning how to be good hitters would do well to check out this book, since “Martinez even offers practical insight into the mental side of baseball and his training regimen, detailing how he taught himself to see the ball better than so many before and after him,” per Bookshop. A native of Puerto Rico, he finished his career with 2, 247 hits, a .312 batting average, and a .515 slugging percentage.

5.Pedro by Pedro Martínez with Michael Silverman (Authors)

This biography is a New York Times bestseller that recounts Martínez’s many years in the Big Leagues, during which he ultimately won 3 Cy Young Awards and was part of the historic 2004 Red Sox team, along with Ortiz. Martínez retired with 3, 154 strikeouts and a 2.93 ERA, among other important stats. He is one of several Dominican players in MLB’s Hall of Fame — including fellow pitcher Juan Marichal — having been inducted in 2015.