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As a kid, Pudge Rodriguez used to hang from the side of the road hoping to make himself taller

By Chris Landers

As you might have heard, Ivan Rodriguez is pretty short. There's a reason he earned the nickname "Pudge," after all. But before he was Pudge Rodriguez, beloved 14-time All-Star and member of the Hall of Fame class of 2017, he was just Pudge Rodriguez, a little kid from Puerto Rico who would do just about anything to grow an extra inch or two.
And by "anything," as we learned during his induction speech in Cooperstown on Sunday, he meant anything -- up to and including hanging from the side of the road to try and stretch his body out. (You can click on the video above to hear him tell the whole story.)
Luckily for little Pudge, even at "a tall 5-9" (his words, not ours) you can make it all the way to the Hall:

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