This week, Adrian Beltré made millions of Dominicans proud by being selected to enter the Baseball Hall of Fame in the ceremony scheduled for July 21 of this year.
The brilliant third baseman received 95.1% of the possible votes to equal the percentage that Babe Ruth had in 1936. Beltré became only the 19th player to receive 95% or more acceptance, a monumental achievement.
He joins his compatriots Juan Marichal, Pedro Martínez, Vladimir Guerrero and David Ortiz and becomes the 19th Latino to receive the highest honor for a baseball player.
Among third basemen, only George Brett (98.2%), Chipper Jones (97.2%) and Mike Schmidt (96.5%) surpass the level of acceptance received by the Dominican, who was in his first year of eligibility.
And is not for less. If we take WAR as a measuring tool, Beltré’s is 97.2 according to Baseball Reference, placing him in 27th place in history. The only players who surpass them with third base as their primary position are Schmidt and Eddie Mathews.
In a 21-season career, he accumulated 3,166 hits, 477 home runs, 1,707 RBIs and 1,524 runs scored with an average of .286/.339/.480. As one of the best defensive third basemen of all time, he earned five Gold Gloves, plus four Silver Sluggers.
Beltré came to MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was just 19 years old and had the best season of his career in 2004, his last year in California. He hit .334/.388/.629, with 48 homers and 121 RBIs, finishing second in the National League MVP race.
After that season he declared himself a free agent and signed with the Seattle Mariners. At the conclusion of that deal, his credentials were not Hall of Fame. In 2009, he suffered injuries that led to the worst season of his career.
But he was able to relaunch his career with an excellent season in Boston in 2010, hitting .321, 28, 102 with 49 doubles and 189 hits.
At the end of his one-year deal with the Red Sox, he returned to free agency for the third time and signed with the Texas Rangers. The rest is history. Beltré was consistently productive in eight seasons in that setting, in addition to becoming the team’s charismatic leader and one of baseball’s best ambassadors.
Thus he finished building his case as a future immortal, receiving the long-awaited call from the Hall of Fame this Tuesday.
2024-01-26 15:45:17
#Beltré #Dominican #immortal
