TTM Stats
- Sent: 2/1/2018 | Received: 5/15/2018 | 104 Days
- ’17 Topps
- Address: Texas Rangers Spring Training
The Story of the Autograph
Adrian Beltre is a third baseman from the Dominican Republic and currently with the Texas Rangers. He’s played in MLB for 21 years (so far) with the Dodgers, Mariners, Red Sox and now the Rangers. His accolades include:
- 4x All-Star
- 5x Gold Gloves
- 4x Silver Slugger
- 3,000 Hit Club
I feel like I almost take Adrian Beltre for granted. He’s been a great player for a while. Maybe it’s partly that the Rangers are a bit of a blind spot for me. Or maybe it’s that Beltre kind of disappeared on my while in Seattle. Either way, I think I’ve appreciated him more in in these recent years than I had before.
He started so young with the Dodgers when he made his MLB debut at 19. Of course that’s part of how he played so long. He’s only 39 at this point. It sounds funny to say “only” but he just keeps on ticking. He was signed when the was 15. But in 77 games as a 19 year old he ended with a .215 average, seven homers and 22 RBI. By 2004, his last year with the Dodgers he would lead the league in homers with 48, have a .334 average and 200 hits (his highest hit total for a season in his career).
His years in Seattle he definitely dropped off a lot. He batted .266 during those years which is the lowest average he’s had anywhere he’s been. The one funny story I saw about his time there was that he doesn’t where a cup and he got hit one year and went on the DL. When he returned, Ken Griffey Jr. got the PA guys to play the Nutcracker Suite for his walk up music.
After a year in Boston that got him back on track, he headed to the Rangers. They made the postseason a few times and got to the World Series in his first year there (2011). My favorite story from Texas that I remember was from last year. He was not in the batting circle while warming up. When the ump told him to get in the batting circle he walked over to it. The ump that everything was fine but then Adrian moved the circle to where he wanted it and he got tossed for it.
The Score on Adrian Beltre – 2.0
From what I’ve seen and heard, Adrian’s autographs are by autopen. This is the first time I’ve ever gotten something back from him and the only thing I would say is that it seems a smaller size than I’ve seen other get. That said, it does look consistent with an autopen signature. Since I knew what it was going in, I was OK with that. I wanted to see what I would get for myself. It’s disappointing that it smudged and I would guess that’s from being in the envelope with out the ink dry.
Thanks Mr. Beltre! This one gets a 2 though for the smudging.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.