A Hall-of-Fame career provides so many lasting visual memories. No matter how you remember Adrían Beltré, there is a singular look that goes along with it.
The beauty of his defense: His body, horizontal to the ground, as he flings a throw to first base on a roller he fielded on the run. The power of his swing: Down on a knee as he watches the flight of a breaking ball he just hammered while seemingly falling over. Occasional defiance: Pulling the on-deck circle to him, rather than moving to it. The joy: Playfully swatting away Elvis Andrus as he camps under another pop fly.
All of them are glimpses of Beltré, the Hall of Famer. But if you want the most complete picture, it’s Beltré, crouched between first and second base, a crooked, grateful smile spreading across his face as he greets his three children, Cassandra, Adrián Jr. and Camila, after his 3,000th hit.
It captures Beltré at his core: Hall-of-Fame dad.
“The 3,000th hit was the No. 1 moment for me for different reasons,” Beltré said last week. “I love baseball. That was my passion. But I’m a family man. I do it for my family. The fact that my wife was there, my kids, my parents, is a moment I’ll never forget. For that reason, it’s definitely No. 1.”
The kids had come running out of the tunnel beside the Rangers dugout after Beltré's fourth-inning double against Baltimore on July 30, 2017 for No. 3,000. They sprinted past him to the outfield, where they pulled down the drawstrings over a banner saluting the accomplishment.
It had all been a surprise arranged by the Rangers and his wife, Sandra. As they sprinted back to the infield, Adrian Jr., known as AJ, got to him first and enveloped him in a hug, placing his head on Beltré's shoulder. Then he lifted Camila, only 6 at the time, into the air. Then he embraced Cassandra.
“Running back from that still feels like a dream,” said AJ, now a 17-year-old high school graduate currently committed to play baseball at the University of Washington. “That hug is a picture that will always live in my memory.”
Too often, players are boiled down to sets of numbers: Homers, OPS, WAR and, now, exit velocity. In Beltré’s case, the argument for the Hall of Fame was built on, among other numbers, 3,000 hits and five Gold Gloves. Too often, fans know little about the man inside. Beltré's passion made him more three-dimensional, but it hardly reveals the picture of the man in his entirety.
For that, you have to go to his family. They will tell you the stories of Adrian Beltré, Hall-of-Fame dad.
‘Never a dull moment’
Adrián Beltré hates pickles. Despises them in only a way Beltré can.
It emanates from an incident when he was 17, playing in the US for the first time, not conversant in English and only comfortable ordering combo meals by number off a fast food menu. He bit into it. Got that first taste of pickle and a lifelong aversion was formed.
“I think it triggered something in him,” AJ said. “He can’t even lay eyes on them.”
No, seriously. To this extent: Sandra, his wife of nearly 22 years, and Cassandra, now 20, like pickles. Even buy jars to bring home on occasion only for them to go missing from out of the fridge. Found them in the trash can.
“If my mom has pickles on something, he won’t sit next to her, won’t even kiss her,” Cassandra said with a head shake and a smile. “It’s kind of become a family joke now.”
Because: Beltré. Everything he does seems to have a comedic wise-guy flourish to it.
It reminded Cassandra about how Beltré answered the call from the Hall of Fame last winter. The whole family was sitting on the coach being filmed for the MLB Network. Beltré's phone lit up: Cooperstown, N.Y, on the ID. Beltré looked down, said he didn’t know anybody there and acted like he’d just ignore it as a telemarketer.
“Answer it!” the family yelled.
Beltré smiled that smile.
“Of course he had to do that on national TV,” said Cassandra, who studies at UC-Santa Barbara. “Just answer the phone!
“But the smile you saw on the baseball field was the smile we got at home. Baseball is important. He loved it. But, yes, he genuinely loves us more. He always talked to us about family. When we had a fight as siblings, he always stressed loving your family. You only have one.”
The kids will tell you. He still loves Madagascar, the movie. Will dance like King Julien from the movie on occasion. He loves to use Sonic the Hedgehog GIFs to note great hustle by AJ. He has become the unofficial videographer of 13-year-old Camila’s elite volleyball team. Though, AJ said, he needed some work on getting good angles. He wasn’t good on Instagram initially. He likes Drake. Hey, nobody’s perfect. Bad Bunny, too. He makes a nice Dominican chicken and rice. Good plantains, too. He’s anal about table manners. He’s blunt and direct at home, always has been.
“There is never a dull moment with him,” Camila said.
Adrián and AJ
AJ Beltré was 4 years old when his father signed with the Rangers after 2010. As far back as he can remember, Adrián was willing to take him to the ballpark with him during summer break from school.
With three caveats: Be respectful. Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t inconvenience anyone.
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If AJ could abide by that, Adrián would bring him to the park and, after doing his weight room work, would throw batting practice to him. There are innumerable “toys,” in a big league clubhouse, not to mention mountains of snacks. It can all be distracting for a kid. AJ stood out. By sitting down. He went to his father’s locker, changed, sat down and didn’t move until he was summoned.
“It was the highlight of my day,” AJ said. “I showed him at an early age that it was my passion. He understood it. I treated it as a round of batting practice. The last thing I wanted to do was anything stupid. I was happy to be there.”
AJ has another memory, too. It was from 2014, a mostly lost season for the Rangers. He turned 8 that September. The school year had just started and the family, save for Adrián, had returned to California. The Rangers were in the middle of a long homestand back in Texas.
But on Sept. 8, the morning of his birthday, he was awakened by his dad. Beltré had flown back between series to spend the day with his son.
“He’s just always been very supportive,” AJ said. “At my games, he was never loud. He was always quiet. And always supportive. If I went 0 for 4, he didn’t lecture me. It wasn’t about results. It was about doing things right.”
‘So damn proud’
When the Rangers approached Sandra about how they wanted to honor Beltré for the 3,000th hit, she and the kids took on the secretive mission, knowing it would mean as much to him as it would to them to share in it.
Somehow they were able to get everything and everybody in place in the fourth inning of that Sunday afternoon game without Beltré knowing.
When he laced the ball into the left-field corner, the kids streamed onto the field. Sandra and Beltré's parents followed. He was caught off guard.
“My heart was pounding through my chest,” Cassandra said. “It was just a culmination of everything. And that moment on the field, that hug, it was just amazing. It’s a screenshot that stays in your head forever. To be attached to that moment with him was just so special.”
Later that evening, Sandra, who doesn’t post often, took to Instagram to post a picture of the embrace on the field.
“To watch our kids unveil the sign and run to Adrián’s arms is my proudest moment as a baseball wife and mother,” she wrote. “All the tough, difficult times and hardships I’ve experienced during these baseball seasons (because it isn’t easy … at all) felt so unimportant and totally worth it to just experience what we did.”
She concluded the long post with this:
“I’m just so damn proud of you,” she wrote of Beltré. “Please stop trying to play this down by saying if you play this long, the numbers will add up. We all know you don’t just get to play 20 seasons in MLB. You have to be pretty freakin’ awesome to play as long as you have. I would love it and would be sooooo happy if you would just admit that you are truly an amazing baseball player.”
On Sunday, the baseball world will recognize him as a Hall of Famer. His family knows him as something more.
They know him as Dad.
Twitter/X: @Evan_P_Grant
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