General Forum

So to dovetail off of the HOF ballot discussion the clock has started for someone else. Adrian Beltre just announced his retirement. Great player, great teammate and HOF bound himself. 

Wow, a printing error on a 89 Bowman is getting more love than Beltre....

Hope Beltre makes it. I think he should. Question beomes which ballot? Might be a 2nd or 3rd ballot guy.

He'll be in first ballot - 3166 hits and 477 HR; 1500+ runs and 1700+ RBI.  And a likeable guy to boot.  That's why I picked up a 2003 Fleer Patchworks SN card of his this past weekend.

Being at lunch and not caring about printing errors, I shall respond. I agree with Dan. He was never THE dominent player. No MVP awards; rarely led the league in anything -- homers once, doubles once, hits once. But he had well over 3000 hits, is 24th on the all-time RBI list, almost 500 homeruns, and 5 gold gloves. Yeah, I'd put him in. And since I don't really believe in this "first ballot HOFer" thing, I'd vote for him as soon as he became eligible. But the voters won't put him in until year 2 or 3.

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Five gold gloves, too. So you could say he was the best fielder at 3B those seasons. Arguable. Six top-10 MVP finishes. Except for his 25-year old season, he was better after 30 than before. Perhaps due to injury. 

Playing in Seattle certainly didn't help much and some of it might have being trying to live up to such a large contract (at that time) while still young. Finally leaving there and going to Boston was a rejuvination. Going to Texas after that.... Oh, people will say that it was 2 great hitters parks he went to, but you still have to hit the ball and he was clutch at the plate and in the field.