Adrian Beltre Retires After 21 Seasons

Photo: Jim Cowsert, Associated Press

One of the best third basemen to ever play the game decided to hang up the cleats today.  After 21 years in the big leagues Adrian Beltre made the difficult choice to retire from the game that has treated him so well.  He burst into the major leagues with the Dodgers at the young age of 19 and from there donned three other uniforms throughout his career, most notably with the Texas Rangers, with whom he has spent the last eight seasons with.  The other two teams he played with were the Red Sox and the Mariners.

Beltre is a sure-fire hall of famer, and in my opinion, a first ballot HOFer.  It shouldn’t even be a question if you look at his numbers.  In amassing the 14th most games ever played, Beltre collected 3,166 hits (16 all-time), 1,707 RBIs (24th all-time), and 477 home runs (30th all-time).  He leads all third basemen in the history of the game in hits and RBIs.

Adrian Beltre also gets a lot of respect for playing the game the right way.  He played through the steroid era, but never cheated the game while still putting up historic numbers.  You also wouldn’t have to watch Adrian very long to realize how much fun he had playing the game.  Unlike so many other players, he truly realized how lucky he was to play a game for a living and never took a moment for granted.  There are many highlights of him having so much fun on the field (check out the video below).  Watching him reminds you what it was like when you were a kid playing baseball with your friends.  My hat is certainly off to Adrian Beltre for an incredible career, and I will definitely miss watching him make highlight plays and creating countless blooper reels.

Garett