Adrian Beltre in Cooperstown for First Post-Election Visit
COOPERSTOWN, NY— Adrian Beltre met with the national media today for the first time in person since he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Beltre was joined by fellow electees Joe Mauer and Todd Helton in the Plaque Gallery inside the Hall of Fame.
The recent electees donned their newest team cap and jersey; the cap with the Baseball Hall of Fame logo on it, the jersey a cream colored jersey with Hall of Fame in script across the front of it.
Beltre was able to take an orientation tour the Hall of Fame prior to Thursday’s media availability. Asked what stood out to him about his tour of the baseball shrine, Beltre was quick to recall his home, the Dominican Republic.
“I think every corner here is impressive,” Beltre said. “But the one I was glad to see and shocked to see was Juan Marichal. Being a little kid from the Dominican, that was the first big name that I heard in baseball.”
“Everything you heard was about Juan Marichal when I was growing up,” Beltre added.
On the enormity of being elected to the Hall of Fame, Beltre was recalling the phone call on Tuesday from Jack O’Connell, the Secretary-treasurer of the baseball writers association, which is the voting body for the Hall of Fame members. The ringing phone was the moment Beltre knew, “This is it, this is real, it’s happening,” he said.
“It was a surreal moment.”
Since being elected on Tuesday evening, Beltre and his wife, Sandra, have traveled from their home near Los Angeles to Arlington on Wednesday for a press conference there with the local media delegation and former Texas Rangers teammates, including Hall of Fame catcher Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez. From there a group made the trip to Cooperstown for the orientation tour this morning and the press availability this afternoon.
Beltre reflected on life since that phone call on Tuesday evening, “It’s been so crazy the last 40 hours that it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
“As of right now, I haven’t really sat and understood what all of this means. This is a great honor,” Beltre added.
In taking questions from the media, it was clear that Beltre’s path to and within baseball was entirely different than that of Mauer and Helton. However, in the end, they are all on the same stage now and they are all going into the Hall of Fame on the same day this July.
Steve Parkhurst is the author of a forthcoming biography about Adrian Beltre to be released in the fall of 2024.
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