• Chad's love for baseball comes from his father, Edward, and his mother, Patricia. The parents used to play softball on a regular basis in California. Soon, Chad followed suit.

According to the father, Chad loved the game so much he would sometimes pay his brother, Matthew, and some friends to play ball. But Chad said he never would have been good at baseball if not for Edward.

His Dad was a truck driver for the Wonder Bread company. Edward and Patricia also have a another son, Alan, and daughter Ashley.

Edward also was Chad's Little League coach. "He switched from working days to nights so he could see my games, and my brother and my sisters' games. He has been there every step of the way," Chad said. (Bill Ladson-MLB.com-6/18/04)

• His senior year of high school, his record was 7-4 with a 2.71 ERA and 108 strikeouts in 63 innings. He was a four-year honor student and scholar-athlete.
  
  In 2002, the Padres drafted Chad out of Don Lugo High School, but Cordero didn't sign. Chad instead went on to Cal State-Fullerton, majoring in kinesiology. After baseball, he plans to be a physical education teacher.

• As a freshman at Cal State-Fullerton, he took a class called "Mental Skills for Sports." He listened and learned.
  
  "He'd just sit there, soaking it up," said Ken Ravizza, a professor in Fullerton's kinesiology department who taught the class. "He didn't ask a lot of questions, because that's not the way he is. But you could see how he took the things we taught to the field. He really worked on a certain approach. He used breathing techniques. He was very consistent in his mannerisms. He understood that he didn't need to just work on the physical stuff. He had to work on the mental approach, too." (Barry Svrluga-Washington Post-2/18/05)

• In 2002, his sophomore year at Cal State Fullerton, Chad went 4-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 81 strikeouts in 56 innings. He was the closer. In 2003, he was 5-1 with a 1.42 ERA and seven saves. He struck out 63 batters in 50 innings and opponents hit .211 against him, heading into the College World Series.
  

• Chad has a superstition. He keeps a note from his grandfather in the right pocket of his baseball pants.

• His favorite baseball team is the Baltimore Orioles. For food, Cordero listed both pizza and onion dip. He likes to watch MTV's Cribs.

• Cordero is a very nice guy. But because of his excellent ability to close games, he picked up the nickname, "The Quiet Assasin," while with Cal State Fullerton.

• Chad is very mild-mannered. And he is a non-egotistical Major Leaguer—something you don't see real often.

• At the start of the 2004 season, Baseball America had Cordero as the #5 prospect in the Expos' organization.

• Cordero doesn't bend the bill of his cap, like almost every other major leaguer Instead, his bill runs straight and flat, nearly covering his eyes.
  
  "I started wearing it that way in college because the caps were already flat," Cordero explained. "Everyone on the team is always making fun of me, and asking if I can see out from under it. Esteban Loaiza asked me, 'Do you iron that thing?'"
  

• Chad left the Nationals for a few days early in May, 2007 on bereavement leave to tend to his ailing grandmother, Josie. He returned to action on May 14, a few days after Josie died from brain cancer.
  

• Chad became engaged to be married during the offseason before 2008 spring training. He and Jamie Moody, an ex-gymnast he met during his all-American days at Cal State-Fullerton, to whom he proposed last year and whom he will wed in a seaside ceremony in Dana Point, California in November 2009.

• Cordero had a diet motivational guru that worked with him, and his wife, during the offseason before 2008 spring training.
  
  "I'm just trying to just take it off slowly," Cordero said. "It's about being healthier. Because the healthier I am, the longer I can play. And I want to play for a while, hopefully another 10 more years."

• Cordero has finally dealt with the grief from the Dec. 4, 2010, death of his 11-week-old daughter, Tehya, from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
  
  Chad says after the tragedy, baseball was the farthest thing from his mind. And then he came back too quickly. He just didn't like baseball, wanting to be at home with his family.
  
  Then, late in the 2012 season, Cordero knew he really, truly wanted to come back to the game.

• His son, Cooper was born in January, 2012.

       TRANSACTION REPORT

• In June 2003, Cordero signed with the Expos for a bonus of $1.4 million. That the Expos drafted him in the first round raised some eyebrows. He was viewed by most in the industry as a second or third round pick. The scout who signed Chad was Anthony Arango. (Editor's note: Looks like the eyebrow-raisers were wrong. In 2005, Chad had 47 saves.)
  

• February 21, 2007: Cordero won his arbitration case, earning $4.15 million in 2007 instead of the $3.65 million the Nationals offered.

• January 11, 2008: Cordero and the Nationals avoided salary arbitration when they agreed on a one-year, $6.2 million contract.

• October 30, 2008: Cordero became a free agent.

• March 12, 2009: Chad signed with the Mariners, pitching in extended spring training early in the year, rehabbing in hopes of pitching later in the season for Seattle.
  
  He began a comeback, pitching mostly at 84-85 mph, topping out at 87 mph late in 2009.

  He uses the memory of his seasons in Washington as motivation. There was a time when, even with bad Nationals teams, he was close to a sure thing in the ninth inning. He doesn't forget that.

  "That year [2005] in Washington was the most fun I've ever had," he said. "To be able to go to an All-Star Game, then follow that up with pitching in the World Baseball Classic. I want to get back to that level again. The end result of this rehab, hopefully, is for me to get back up there and start having a blast.

• December 28, 2009: Cordero signed with the Mariners organization.

• July 15, 2010: Chad declined to be sent to Tacoma by the Mariners and became a free agent.

• July 22, 2010: Cordero signed with the Mets organization.

• January 4, 2011: Chad signed with the Blue Jays organization.

• May 15, 2011: The Blue Jays released Cordero.

• June 21, 2011: Chad retired from the game. He was pitching for the St. Paul Saints at the time.

• February 13, 2013: Cordero signed with the Angels organization.

• Despite his slight frame, Cordero has a resilient, durable right arm. He is a closer who can dominate with his 90-95 mph FASTBALL. It has heavy, boring life. And it is sneaky-fast. He also has a sharp SLIDER and a CIRCLE-CHANGE.
  
  He is very aggressive with his heater and slider. And he has learned to use his changeup—a pitch he didn't need much in college. In 2004, Expos Manager Frank Robinson told Chad he wanted him to mix the slider and changeup in with his fastball more often.
• Chad comes at hitters with good deception from different arm angles, keeping them totally off-kilter. But mostly, he comes from three-quarters, getting his whole body (strong legs and shoulders, thick hips) into his delivery.

• He is a tough competitor who displays poise and good mound presence. He is calm but fierce.

• Cordero is built like Rudy Seanez.

• In June 2003, the Expos moved Chad from the bullpen to the starting rotation when they signed him out of Cal State Fullerton. But he went back to the bullpen when he was called to the majors on August 29, 2003.

• Cordero has been a closer since his freshman year at Cal State-Fullerton in 2001. "We played an intrasquad game, and the coach put a bunch of runners on base to see how each pitcher reacted," Chad said. "I guess I reacted the best."

• Montreal manager Frank Robinson was impressed with Cordero. "He showed me that he is not afraid out there. He is very poised, and he throws the ball over the plate," Robinson said late in the 2003 season. "He has a good fastball. As he settles down and get a little more confident, I think he will be able to throw his other pitches.
  
  "Things don't bother him—not outwardly, anyway," Robinson said. "If he gives up a big home run, he still has the same demeanor as if he struck somebody out in a tough situation."

• In 2004, Chad pitched too often with the count 2-0. When he puts himself in a hole like that, he has a lot of trouble getting the hitter out.
  
  "I would start nibbling and would try get guys to chase the pitches," Cordero said. "I'm going to try to get them out on the first or second pitch [in 2005]. I want to save all the bullets and the arm for the whole year. I'm going to try to have guys hit more ground balls and not worry about strikeouts."
  
  Chad also occasionally let the home plate umpires rattle him if they didn't make calls he liked. It took phone calls to his father, Edward, to calm him down. (Bill Ladson-MLB.com-2/18/05)
  

• Since the save became an official stat in 1969, only three pitchers have save more games than Cordero before turning 24 years old: Terry Forster (74), Byung-Hyun Kim (70) and Gregg Olson (64).
  
  BREAKDOWN VS. LEFTIES AND RIGHTIES

• In 2004, this righty pitcher allowed lefthanded hitters a .243 average with 4 home runs in 35 innings, and held righthanded batters to a .205 mark with 4 home runs in 48 innings.
  

• In 2005, Cordero held lefthanded hitters to a .192 average with 3 home runs in 146 at-bats, and righthanded batters to a .205 average with 6 homers in 132 at-bats.

• In 2007, Chad held lefty batters to a .221 average with 2 home runs in 140 at-bats, while righthanded batters hit .295 with 6 home runs in 149 at-bats.
  

• As of the start of the 2009 season, Cordero had a 20-14 career record with a 2.78 ERA and .224 batting average against him. He had 292 strikeouts and had allowed 39 homers, but only 267 hits in 321 innings.

       POST-PLAYING CAREER POSITIONS

• 2018: Cordero was Pitching Coach for Greeneville (APP-Reds).

• March 27-April 12, 2008: Cordero went on the D.L. because of right shoulder tendinitis.
• April 30, 2008: Chad was on the D.L. with a tear in a muscle in the back of his pitching shoulder—a torn right latissimus dorsi muscle.
  
  While rehabbing in Viera, Florida at the Nationals training complex, Cordero continued to have weakness. And on June 30, 2008, and arthrogram revealed a right labrum tear, a shoulder injury more serious than any previous diagnosis and one sidelined Cordero for the rest of the year.
  
  Dr. Lewis Yocum performed surgery in July 2008.