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Born January 28, 1974, in Coro, Venezuela) is a Major League Baseball right fielder and right-handed batter who has played for the Chicago White Sox (1997-2004) and the Detroit Tigers (2005-). He's exactly six feet tall and weighs 215 lb. After spending his entire career with Chicago, he signed with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent on February 7, 2005. His 5-year, $75 million contract is the largest the Tigers have ever paid a player. Because of Ordóñez's knee injury from the 2004 season, the contract included a clause stating that if he were to spend more than 25 days on the disabled list due to the same injury, the contract could be bought out for $3 million at the discretion of the Tigers' management.

After signing with Detroit, a minor war of words occurred between Ordóñez and Ozzie Guillén, his former manager and teammate in Chicago. 1 Their apparent mutual dislike for each other was a contributing factor to Ordóñez's departure from the White Sox. However, the rivalry appears to have cooled, as Guillén actually requested Ordóñez for the 2006 All-Star game.

Ordóñez hits the ball with authority to all fields. He has good strike-zone judgment and a short, quick stroke. He pulls the ball against left-handed pitchers but with opposite-field power against right-handers. As a fielder, he has a decent arm, a quick release and good accuracy.

In the five seasons prior to 2004, Ordóñez hit at least .300 with 29 home runs and 99 RBI, and reached the 30-home run, 100-RBI plateau in four of those seasons. He also collected over 70 extra-base hits from 2001-03, but a collision with second baseman Willie Harris on Omar Vizquel's popup to right field during a May 19 game in Cleveland, cost him two trips to the disabled list and two surgeries on his left knee. He finished with .292, 9 home runs, and 37 RBI in 52 games.

In an eight-year career, Ordóñez is a .307 hitter with 207 home runs and 788 RBI in 1,134 games (as of June 2, 2006), and he has been selected for the All-Star Game five times (1999-2001, 2003, and 2006).

In 2005, Ordóñez's first season for Detroit, he strained an abdominal muscle during the first week of the season and subsequently spent the next three months on the disabled list, as the strain turned out to be a hernia. This caused him to rest after corrective surgery for two months following the injury, after which he began a rehabilitation assignment at the Tigers' AAA minor league team in Toledo. He returned to the Tigers' lineup in early July, and has once again become a force to be reckoned with in the batter's box by hitting consistently over .300, while batting clean-up, since his return.

Ironically, during Ordóñez' first season away from the White Sox, the Chicago team won the World Series, in 2005.

In 2006, Ordóñez has returned to the All-Star form that many thought he would never come close to again in his career. He was selected to the 2006 All-Star game as an injury replacement for Red Sox OF Manny Ramirez. At the All-Star break, Ordóñez was hitting .312 with 16 HR and 62 RBI, and was a mainstay for a Tigers team that was a major-league best 59-29 at the break.

On October 14, 2006, Ordóñez completed the Tigers` sweep of the ALCS with a three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, the 8th time in MLB history that a postseason series has ended with a homerun. The win sent the Tigers to their first World Series appearance since 1984. Coincidentally, it also happened 22 years to the day from when the Tigers won the World Series in that year.