COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Adrian Beltré, Joe Mauer and Todd Helton were pegged as athletic phenoms from a young age and all three lived up to expectations with their induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were so sold on Beltré early on that they broke MLB rules to sign him before he turned 16.
Beltré reached the big leagues just after his 19th birthday and was quickly considered one of the best prospects in sports as a teenager.
In Beltré’s induction speech, he said he played for his first team at age 13 and was a second baseman because his dad told him that was the position he should play.
After a teammate asked him to switch and play third base, Beltré obliged and the decision paid off.
Beltré played 21 years for the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers. He became a five-time Gold Glove winner and is the first third baseman with at least 450 home runs and 3,000 hits.
During his playing days, Beltré made it clear that he did not like anyone touching his head so of course, his teammates ignored the request and made a habit of touching his head anyway. At Sunday’s ceremony, fellow Hall of Famer David Ortiz continued the tradition by touching Beltré's head prior to his speech.
“That never relaxes me,” Beltré said with a laugh. “(But) it was a little cute to go back to my playing days. …It’s just part of being in this fraternity. Even though I don’t love it, I don’t like it, but it felt like I’m open to people to be able to play around with me. I always like that.”
Mauer was a high school phenom in both football and baseball in St. Paul, Minnesota, and was named USA Today’s High School Player of the Year in football in 2000 and baseball in 2001.
He was drafted by his hometown Twins with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2001 MLB Draft.
“It was truly an honor to be a (Minnesota Twin) and represent my hometown team,” Mauer said.
The future six-time All-Star catcher spent just three years in the minors before spending all 15 years of his big league career with the Twins.
Mauer finished with one Most Valuable Player award and three batting titles, and is the only catcher in history with at least 2,000 hits, a .300 batting average and a .380 on-base percentage.
Mauer noted the emotion he felt seeing all the Minnesota fans throughout the weekend.
“It’s not easy to get to Cooperstown and especially with the events that have happened this last week,” he said. “But to see that many Twins fans out there, I just felt the love and I was just hoping that I could deliver the speech that I wrote down.”
Helton was also a football and baseball star and played both sports at the University of Tennessee.
Despite his dominance in both sports at an early age, Helton never felt comfortable in the spotlight or felt like a Hall of Famer.
“Those of you who know me know I’d be more comfortable doing anything other than standing up here talking about myself,” Helton said to open his speech. “I’m just a ballplayer and anyone in the media can attest to that fact.”
Helton’s claim to fame could have been that he was the quarterback at Tennessee between future first-round NFL draft picks Heath Shuler and Peyton Manning, but he was destined for bigger things on the baseball diamond.
After a knee injury in 1994 paved the way for Manning to become Tennessee’s quarterback, Helton shifted all his focus to baseball, where he was named the winner of the Dick Howser Award by the American Baseball Coaches Association and named Player of the Year by Baseball America.
Helton was selected by the Colorado Rockies with the No. 8 overall pick in the 1995 amateur draft and never left the Mile High City.
After becoming the starting first baseman in 1995, Helton finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and posted a .315 batting average with 25 home runs and 97 RBIs.
He went on to become one of just three players to record multiple seasons with 100-plus extra-base hits in his career and helped the Rockies reach the 2007 World Series.
While Helton began the weekend feeling out of place, the second Rockies Hall of Famer knows he is where he belongs now.
“Just standing back there waiting to go up onto the stage, the guys were so kind, but they all came by and offered me advice,” Helton said. “For me, that was the beginning of feeling that I belong. But we have a players-only dinner tonight and I’ll probably feel like I belong after that.”
Jim Leyland was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. He managed for 22 seasons, won three Manager of the Year awards, the 1997 World Series, had a 1,769-1,728 career record as a manager and was the manager of the U.S. team in 2017 when the Americans won their only World Baseball Classic crown.
Leyland made sure to acknowledge the importance of the fans to the game of baseball.
“No matter which Hall of Famer you’re here to support today, or which team you cheer for, your presence is always felt,” Leyland said. “On your feet in the ninth with the home team clinging to a one-run lead, turning on your television for the first game in the World Series and seeing 50,000 fans hoping and praying that this may be their year, or a little boy or girl getting their first autograph scurrying back to the stands to show mom and dad what they just did. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s you. That’s baseball. And this is the Hall of Fame.”
Beltré led this year’s class with 95.1% of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote in his first year on the ballot. Helton followed with 79.7% in his sixth year of eligibility and Mauer received 76.1% in his first year.
Players who fell short of the 75% threshold for election included Billy Wagner (73.8%), Gary Sheffield (63.9%), Andruw Jones (61.6%) and Carlos Beltrán (57.1%). Sheffield was on the ballot for the 10th time without reaching the 75% mark and is no longer eligible for BBWAA consideration.
Joe Castiglione and Gerry Fraley were also honored during Hall of Fame weekend. Castiglione has been the Boston Red Sox radio broadcaster for a record 42 seasons and received the Ford C. Frick Award. Fraley was posthumously honored with the BBWAA Career Excellence Award for his work as a writer. Fraley covered the Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves and Texas Rangers, and also worked as the national baseball writer for the Dallas Morning News.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
Kenny Lacy Jr., The Associated Press