FOX Deportes’ Rolando Nichols came full circle during Fall Classic

This past fall Rolando Nichols called his seventh World Series for FOX Deportes. For the Mexican beisbolero every Series is as exciting as his first one, but this October’s Fall Classic was special because it took place in Houston, a city and team that holds a very special place in his heart.

“Even though I am not an Astros fan. It is a special place and team to me,” said Nichols.

It’s a privilege to call baseball for a living and he is grateful considering he grew up watching his family play baseball. His dad, uncle and grandfather all played the game in Sonora, the northern Mexican state that gave us Fernando Valenzuela.

Nichols even had the privilege to play baseball professionally in Sonora. He wore Mexico Green in the Pan American Games. He can remember his very first game; but for him more than anything it’s his first game he ever called as a broadcaster in the majors involving a crazy coincidence and a gift from his father from beyond.

It was 1996 when a young Nichols was working hard to make a name in the business calling Tucson Toros games of the Pacific Coast League. Back then the Toros were the Astros’ Class AAA affiliate.

It so happened that the Astros Spanish play-by-play man and fellow Sonoran Ernesto Ruiz was listening to his call of the Toros. The name Rolando Nichols seemed familiar to him. One day while Nichols was working at Hi Corbett Field, he got a random call from Ruiz asking him his full name and if he knew another Rolando Nichols from Sonora?

“I said, ‘Yes I do. My dad was Rolando Nichols like me,’” he recalled. “And as he began crying he told me the story that years before he had been in an accident on a highway in Sonora and a person by the same name as mine had stopped on the side of the road and helped him, took him to the hospital and also issued him an insurance policy to make sure he was covered for the accident.”

That person was Rolando Nichols Sr., Rolando’s father, who owned an insurance agency. Ruiz was very grateful but never heard back from his dad and he wanted to know how he was doing. He had to tell him his father had been tragically murdered some years before. He was devastated and asked him what his biggest dream was?

“I told him that my dream was to make it to call play-by-play in the big leagues. And right then and there he invited me to the Astrodome to call a Major League Baseball game for the Houston Astros alongside former Astro and Mexican player Alex Treviño.”

It wasn’t enough that Ruiz made good on his offer to let him call a game in the majors. He also had him stay at his home as a guest while he was in Houston for the series. The weekend of Sept. 6, 1996, he traveled to Houston and called the Saturday and Sunday games against the Rockies.

It was a surreal experience for a young broadcaster to call a game at the Astrodome years earlier his career as a ball player.

“It was the most exciting day of my life!” he says.

So, what does Rolando think about this crazy coincidence?

“When I am in Houston I am overcome with emotions,” he says. “Houston has a very special place en mi corazón. Beautiful memories. The memory of the gift my father sent me after he died.”

Featured Image: Rolando Nichols