Irony is a word that’s often misused.

For instance, it is not ironic the World Series began Saturday without the Cubs. Pathetic would describe it better. Typical would capture it in a nonjudgmental sense, as this will be the 61st consecutive time the event has been contested without featuring the Cubs.

It is, however, ironic that the Series will include two great players the Cubs shied away from for health reasons, the Detroit Tigers’ Ivan Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez, while so many of the players they were counting on to be healthy enough to get them there, most notably Mark Prior, Kerry Wood and Derrek Lee, have been injured.

Few, if any, players have been more valuable to their teams during the last 15 years than Rodriguez. Maybe Derek Jeter. Maybe Curt Schilling. And that is about it.

Rodriguez is a Hall of Fame-caliber catcher, a force who uses his powerful arm to help the pitchers he catches and is a tough, dangerous hitter. Though he has moved around more than some other great players, he has established a pattern that reflects nicely on him.

His teams win.

Texas has been to the playoffs three times in its history, all of which came during the 12 seasons that the homegrown I-Rod was the regular catcher. Florida won the World Series in 2003, the only year Rodriguez played there. Detroit has made the journey from 119 losses to the World Series during Rodriguez’s three years as a Tiger.

The Rangers never should have allowed Rodriguez to leave, but they did. They were afraid he had caught so many games under managers Bobby Valentine and Johnny Oates that his knees would cripple him, a theory reinforced when he was available for a maximum of 111 games in 2000 through 2002.

Other teams, notably the Cubs, were scared away. Rodriguez would have loved to sign with the Cubs in 2003, when he went to Florida. The marriage seemed to make even more sense the following year, after he had showcased himself during Florida’s National League Championship Series victory over Chicago. Yet general manager Jim Hendry still considered Rodriguez too risky.

Then only 31, he signed a four-year contract with Detroit, for whom he has caught 379 games and counting. The Tigers were making a statement when they lured Rodriguez to their last-place team with a package worth $40 million over four years (and an option for a fifth).

And they look back now to see that signing as a key to others in the last two seasons, most notably Ordonez and Kenny Rogers, the left-hander who will start Game 2 of the World Series tonight at Comerica Park.

Ordonez badly wanted to stay in Chicago, a city he loves. If he couldn’t stay with the Sox, his preferred landing spot was Wrigley Field, where the Cubs were beginning life after Sammy Sosa. But Hendry declined to engage seriously in contract negotiations, citing reports on Ordonez’s knee that suggested he would be limited to a designated-hitter’s role.