From Southwest Houston, Nationals star Rendon longs for taquerias and a title on work trip home for the World Series
HOUSTON – Anthony Rendon can still smell the Astrodome’s stench more than two decades later. Even now that he’s the biggest superstar on the team he calls Los Viejos, the old ones, the Washington Nationals’ third baseman transforms away from his usually reserved demeanor into the goofy kid who ran around the bowels of the Eighth Wonder of the World in search of autographs.
Rendon is back home for the World Series. This is where it all started for the southwest Houston native, beginning with the Post Oak YMCA Giants. This is home. It will always be home, he says.
It’s where he finds the most comfort, the best barbecue and best tacos and taquerias. Rendon, 29, is renowned for his introverted personality. He declined to attend his first All-Star Game this summer in part because he wanted to rest, but those who have worked with him knew he also passed on the Midsummer Classic because he didn’t want to deal with the media hassle.
Yet, on the Eve of the World Series, he was clearly the most popular player to interview by the local, national and international media. It took him a few minutes to warm up, but once he did, he unshackled the personality that his good friends and family members love.
He was home, after all, in the concourse of Minute Maid Park, a stadium where he first played as a member of the Lamar High Texans and then at Rice University and eventually as a visitor with the Nationals.
Well, actually, he never played for the “Texans.” They had a more politically incorrect name when Rendon attended Lamar.
“Redskin for life, that’s for sure,” Rendon says of the old Lamar nickname. “I know they’ve changed it to the Texans, but I’m still going to hold true to that. They’ve had a lot of great players come through their system. I think that’s a testament to the coaching staff that they’ve had over the years.”
No Lamar product has been better than Rendon, who is also likely to go down as the best player in Rice history.
Rendon may even become the first player from Rice to win the National League MVP Award. He’s one of the favorites this year along with the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger and the Brewers Christian Yelich.
“I think he’s an incredible baseball player,” said Astros third baseman Alex Bregman, who is among the favorites for the AL MVP Award. “I think he’s one of the top players in all of the game. He’s the MVP in the National League, makes it look easy.
“He hits from line to line with power, controls the strike zone, doesn’t swing and miss much. Hits for power, hits for average, high OPS and then also, not to mention, a great defender over there.”
He’s not sure how many family and friends will be at Minute Maid Park for Game 1 of the World Series Tuesday night, but he concedes that the number will be more than 100.
He is bracing for a rush of emotion and a montage of childhood memories to hit when he sees his parents and siblings in reds Nationals gear among the sea of Astros orange.
“A lot of memories here, definitely in high school, and we played here in high school and college,” he said. “Fortunate enough to play here at this level too. Probably all of those memories are going to come hit me at once. Hopefully they’ll hit me while we’re taking (batting practice) tonight and maybe we’ll get it out of the way.”
Rendon wasn’t certain if he could get away with the rush of memories during Monday’s workout. He also didn’t know what he would do after the evening workout.
He had a good guess, however. Like a true Mexican American from Houston, he was eager to get Mexican food or barbecue.
Heck, in the fourth largest city in America and the largest city in the Lone Star State, one can even get Mexican food and barbecue in the same joint. Brisket tacos, anyone?
Washington DC may be the center of power, but the nation’s capital has nothing on Houston in terms of Mexican food.
Rendon hoped to hit the town after Monday evening’s workout to see what had changed around Houston since he left in February for the start of spring training in West Palm Beach, where the Nationals share a facility with his hometown Astros.
Oh, and he wanted to find some food. Actually, one specific type of food.
“Any Mexican food possible,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes. “There’s no Mexican food in DC or barbecue, so I might hit them all.”
Any recommendations?
“I love … Demeris Bar-B-Q,” he said. “That was kind of a spot we would go to in college. There’s a lot of hole-in-the-walls, those little taquerias around here that you cannot miss.”
There may not be a taco truck in every corner of Houston, yet you probably couldn’t go four miles before hitting multiple taquerias. Great hole-in-the-wall taquerias are as common as young ballplayers in Houston.
The Houston area is a true baseball mecca, producing Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan and superstars such as seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens and All-Stars Andy Pettitte, Lance Berkman, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett, Jose Cruz Jr. and Rendon, to name a few.
Rendon, Berkman and Cruz are the best trio of players ever produced at Rice. Only one of them, however, can say that the city declared a day in his honor.
Former Houston Mayor Annise Parker declared Anthony Rendon Day on June 29, 2010, after Rendon won the Dick Howser Trophy as the best baseball college player that season. He had celebrated his 20th birthday earlier in the month.
He was only a sophomore and a bit naive as to what Anthony Rendon Day entailed, he admits with a hearty laugh. Moreover, he notes that Parker may have been a bit biased in his favor because she’s a Rice alum.
“It’s not an annual event, but it was definitely an awesome experience,” he said. “You hear all these stories, ‘so and so, he plays for the Rockets or he’s the best fireman in the world and he gets a key to the city.’
“‘That was kind of what was going through my mind. ‘Man, I’m about to get a key to the city. She just hands me like a piece of paper, but it was an awesome experience.”
The piece of paper, as he calls it, was a proclamation. He gave it to his parents Rene and Bridget Rendon because he’s certain he probably would have lost it by now. He assumes they have it stashed somewhere.
A year after the proclamation, the Nationals picked Rendon sixth overall in the 2011 June Amateur Draft. He had been picked in the 27th round by the Braves in 2008, but he preferred to attend Rice.
In that way, he set a great example for other Latinos in Houston and everywhere on the value of education.
“Everyone says that college is the best time of their lives, and I would say that about my college experience as well,” Rendon said. “I had a great time playing on that team and just being at a local college where my family can support me.”
That family will be out in force during the World Series, whether at the games at Minute Maid Park or at Nationals Park.
Rendon is always quick to credit his parents. In an era when players focus much time on promoting their brands, Rendon remains true to the lessons he learned growing up in southwest Houston.
“They definitely taught me to be humble,” Rendon says of his parents. “Both of my parents are very quiet individuals. They told me not to boast about myself, it’s not about me.
“Obviously being in this game there’s more players on the team than just yourself, give as you can and then you have nothing to worry about if things don’t go your way because you know that you did everything you could.”
Rendon has built a reputation as a person who is respectful to the media without not exactly caring for interviews or drawing attention to himself. He is not exactly inaccessible, but he’s not usually the best quote either.
Until he is, of course.
On Monday at home, he was at his charismatic best, showing off the personality that Astros outfielder George Springer has loved since they played together on Team USA a decade ago.
Springer and Rendon work out at the same gym together in the offseason.
Springer notes that Rendon is a goofball at the gym.
“I know him pretty well,” Springer said. “He’s a great guy. He’s extremely funny, but again, baseball doesn’t define him. He happens to be really, really good at it, but he’s a great guy. …
“I sent him a text earlier today. I talk to him here and there. He’s doing Anthony Rendon things. (I said) ‘Good luck, have some fun.’ I want him to do well. I think he’s had one of the most unbelievable years. Obviously he’s a superstar in this game. He’s a great dude. I love him.”
In a welcoming city that tends to respect opposing teams, Rendon is likely to get the warmest cheer among the visitors when the players are introduced before Game 1 of the World Series.
He’ll likely smile, perhaps even tip his cap. He’ll have a rush of emotions and likely think back to all the games he played at Minute Maid Park as a Lamar Redskin and Rice Owl.
He fell in love with the Astros by cheering for the original Killer B’s, Derek Bell, Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. He remembers the 2005 team that won the Astros franchise’s only NL pennant for its first World Series appearance.
Much like Rendon’s 2019 Nationals, the 2005 Astros were dismissed early in the season after a horrendous start that had them 15 games under .500 in May. Rendon remembers the infamous Houston Chronicle tombstone that was published on June 1, 2005, declaring the Astros dead five days before Rendon’s 15th birthday.
The Nationals were also dismissed by many pundits this year after they began the season 19-31. When asked if there were any similarities between his 2019 Nationals and the 2005 Astros that reached the World Series, Rendon chuckled and tried to end the comparisons.
“That team got swept (in the World Series),” he noted.
The World Series sweep is not a good memory for Astros fans. Rendon has better memories of his Astros fandom. He’ll always love the 2017 World Series champion Astros for the way they lifted his hometown’s spirits after Hurricane Harvey ravaged Houston and surrounding communities.
His favorite Astros memory, though, involves his family. He was between eight and nine years old, considering that he remembers slugger Mark McGwire was in town with the Cardinals. McGwire never played against the Astros until he was traded to the Cardinals and appeared at the Astrodome after Rendon’s eighth birthday.
The team moved to Minute Maid Park in 2000, so it’s not hard to find the age range. Rendon was following his older brother that day in search of autographs.
“I think my greatest memory would be the only game that I went to the Astrodome,” he said. “I do remember that it was a very smelly place. We kind of got a tour like behind the scenes. And that place was really dirty and real stinky. And I was really young at the time.
“But we actually went with my older brother’s baseball team and his coach and their son. We waited for Biggio, Bagwell. … I was really young at that time. That memory still sticks in my mind.”
Rendon, easily the greatest Latino player produced in Houston, cannot afford to be an Astros fan during this Fall Classic. Win or lose, though, the kid who hunted for autographs at the Astrodome and played at Minute Maid Park as a teenager and young adult will make a more special memory at home during the 2019 Fall Classic.
He’ll likely stop at a few taquerias during his visit too. This is the ultimate family trip to Minute Maid Park. It’s a trip he admittedly didn’t ever dream about as a child, but it’s here, taquerias and all.
Featured Image: La Vida Baseball