Background
Cárdenas was born in Managua, Nicaragua. He is the grandson of Adán Cárdenas, who introduced baseball to Nicaragua in the late 19th century and served as the President of Nicaragua.
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Rene Cardenas
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He became the first Spanish-language announcer to cover Major League Baseball, when he joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1958. He has also broadcast games for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers, and has announced boxing matches as well. While working for the Astros, Cárdenas developed the first international radio network, which broadcast games to Central and South America.
At age 16, Cárdenas began writing about baseball for Louisiana Prensa and Louisiana Estrella de Nicaragua, Nicaraguan newspapers.
He also called games on Radio Mundial. In 1958, the Los Angeles Dodgers hired Cárdenas to announce their games on the radio in Spanish, making him the first Spanish-language baseball announcer in Major League Baseball.
He trained Jaime Jarrín, who had little prior experience with baseball. Cárdenas also called a championship boxing match held between Sugar Ray Robinson and Gene Fullmer.
In 1961, he was hired by the expansion Houston Colt.45s (now the Houston Astros).
He created the first international radio network for baseball in 1966 in order to help the Astros recruit talent in South and Central America. His signature was stamped onto the last beam used in its construction. The Astros cancelled their Spanish-language broadcasts in 1975, firing Cárdenas.
He returned to Nicaragua, where he called games on television and radio, but he returned the United States in 1981 to call games for the Texas Rangers.
From 1982 through 1998, he called games for the Dodgers. After that, he entered semi-retirement, as he continued to write for Louisiana Prensa and the Spanish-language website of the Astros.
Cárdenas returned to radio to broadcast Astros games in 2007. The following year, Cárdenas made his American television debut with the Astros, broadcasting 15 games.
Cárdenas" first marriage ended in divorce.
Cárdenas became a citizen of the United States in 1963. Cárdenas" half-brother, Chestor Escobar, had worked with the Somoza family, and was executed by the Sandinista government. Cárdenas now makes his home in Houston, and he refuses to return to Nicaragua until his belongings are returned to him.
Cárdenas is a survivor of colon cancer.
Achievements
Politics
In 1979, the couple fled Nicaragua and lost their home and valuables to the Sandinista National Liberation Front.
