Adrian Beltre was able to play with joy and become a Hall of Famer because to the Texas Rangers
With a loaded Texas Rangers lineup in 2011, Adrián Beltré was able to unwind, rekindle his passion for the game, and earn a spot in the Hall of Fame.
Prior to the 2011 season, Adrián Beltré signed with the Texas Rangers, where he became a part of a formidable lineup that had just won the team’s first American League pennant.
There were All-Stars like Michael Young and Ian Kinsler on the team in addition to sluggers like Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruz, and Mike Napoli.
Not that Beltré had to be “the man.” Speaking at a news conference on Wednesday at Globe Life Field, the day after he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on the first vote, he remarked that he was just another man among men and that it suited him well.
Before joining the Rangers as a free agent, Beltré had some outstanding seasons. In 2004, during his final season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he set a league record with 48 home runs and 121 RBI. During his one and only season with the Boston Red Sox in 2010, he batted.321 and hit a league-high 49 doubles, making him an All-Star.
But it was during his eight seasons with the Rangers that he cemented his credentials for the Hall of Fame. His 400th home run, his 3,000th hit, his surpassing of 1,500 runs and 1,700 RBI, and almost all of his benchmark moments proved he belongs in Cooperstown, N.Y. During his first six seasons with the team, he was voted MVP.
In front of the media and more than a dozen former colleagues present to help commemorate the occasion, Beltré said, “It’s a big part of my career and where I ended up being more productive more consistently.” “I simply discovered that this was the ideal location for me when I arrived. My guys were excellent. It was easy for me to just go out there and play the game because the front office was supportive of my family and me, and I just felt that the team we had was a team to contend.”
Beltré was much more than just another member of the clubhouse, of course. He soon gained the attention of eager young players like Elvis Andrus and the respect of team captains like Young.
Beltré credited Rangers instructors for helping him gain a better knowledge of the mechanics of his swing and the stability of those Rangers teams for helping him de-stress and rediscover the joy of the game he had loved so much as a child growing up in the Dominican Republic.
He began by calling out a few of his former teammates, many of whom were present, “I came here with a great team that went to the World Series the year before.” “I felt like I could play the game hard and have fun like I was just one of the guys because they made me feel at ease. We were winning a lot, and it’s easier to have fun when you’re winning. I gained a lot of knowledge from the excellent hitters on our team. It was more like, “I can just be one of them; I don’t have to be the guy.
Accepting the business aspect of the game but refusing to let it control how he played was another epiphany for him.
“I just love the game, that’s all I wanted to do when I was a little kid, and I lost a little bit of that along the way,” he stated. “After I made the decision to play the game for the fans rather than just because I was required to by contract, I never looked back. I found it to be excessive.
Thus, he recollected the young child who cherished playing baseball, a sport that came naturally to him.
That’s when I realised, what if I just went ahead and enjoyed the game? It would be simpler for you. Just get the job done, right? I therefore had some difficult periods in Seattle as well as difficult occasions when I did not love the game,” he remarked. “After that, I asked myself, what could possibly go wrong? I told you to simply enjoy it because there isn’t a worse stinking year than this one.
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