RINGING ENDORSEMENT
Diamonds delight as Beltran returns to warm welcome
A shining trophy and a golden banner that will last forever.
A stage where world champions were presented with their diamond-covered rings.
A gold-wrapped jersey and a proud fanbase that warmly embraced him.
Of course, Carlos Beltran came back for this.
“I’m extremely happy to be back in Houston and get to say hi to the boys,” Beltran said Tuesday night, before Justin Verlander faced the Baltimore Orioles at Minute Maid
Park. “Having an opportunity to be present at the ring ceremony is something that, as a ballplayer, I tried to chase that dream for a long time. And finally, thank God, that gave me the opportunity to receive it last year in my retirement year. So it’s a very special day for me.”
The evening only became more memorable for a 20-year pro who spent two historic playoff seasons (2004, 2017) with Houston’s baseball team.
Beltran followed former teammate Jose Altuve onto the field, then was hugged by Carlos Correa near second base as the Astros covered the infield and once-in-alifetime rings officially became part of team history. Minutes later, Beltran was loudly cheered inside the stadium he was once annually booed in, throwing the ceremonial first pitch to Correa. And as the real first pitch approached Tuesday, Beltran stood inside the Astros’ dugout one more time, then slowly made his way up the steps as he hugged a stream of ex-teammates.
“They don’t come much better. He truly cares about people. He truly cares about everybody and he’s willing to talk to anybody,” said veteran Astros catcher Brian McCann, who bonded with Beltran with the New York Yankees and Astros. “When you have that kind of stature — when you’ve accomplished so much and you’re going to the Hall of Fame — and you still have the ability to help out rookies and be approachable, that’s what it’s about. His story, for me, that’s it. It’s the fact that, it doesn’t matter who you are, he’s willing to be there for you and help you out.”
‘A perfect fit’
We’ve spent the last two days (and five months) celebrating everything about the 2017 Astros. Beltran spent 20 seasons waiting for Tuesday, briefly reuniting with a team that benefited as much from his clubhouse wisdom as his veteran bat.
“It’s been well-documented how important he was to our team, to our culture, to our vibe in the clubhouse, and the participation he’s had on our team and our organization,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “So what a perfect fit for him to celebrate it with the rest of this team on the day that we get the rings.”
It was Beltran who helped calm and steady the Astros after they exited New York staring at a 3-2 deficit in the American League Championship Series and facing two elimination games.
“Knowing that we were going to come home and how well we play here in Houston, I felt confident,” Beltran said. “My wife asked me, ‘Are we going to win?’ I said, ‘Hell yeah, we’re going to win. We’re going to win. We’re going to be fine.’ And we came home and we win those two games.”
It was also Beltran who broke down in tears when the franchise that let him slip away after a magical 2004 finally got everything right in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.
“There’s no doubt that when we were in the postseason, we wanted to win. I wanted to win — I wanted to win the championship,” said Beltran, who finished his career with 2,725 hits, 435 home runs, a .279 batting average and .837 OPS.
Retiring two weeks after the Astros downed the Dodgers, Beltran then interviewed for the Yankees managerial job that eventually went to firsttime manager Aaron Boone. Four-plus months into retirement, Beltran acknowledged that he wants to return to a sport he’s devoted most of his life to, but added that a family-work balance is key.
“There’s no doubt that if you disappear from baseball for a long time, nobody remembers about you anymore,” Beltran said. “I have a lot of passion for the game. I enjoy teaching the game of baseball. It’s something that’s in me and I want to be around the game of baseball. This year, I wanted to take it off, full, to be with the family. … I want to have flexibility where I can be with my family but also being around the guys and help them, and work with (an) organization that is passionate about developing ballplayers.”
The new downtime has allowed Beltran to continue to shine a light on Puerto Rico.
“It doesn’t go in the news anymore, but it’s still a tough situation. … It’s been almost seven months and some people in the middle of the island, they don’t have water, they don’t have power,” said Beltran, whose foundation plans to rebuild almost 200 homes on an island still recovering from the destruction of Hurricane Maria.
No matter where Beltran’s baseball career goes from here, his name should return to the daily discussion of the game early in the next decade, when the Hall of Fame could call his name.
Cooperstown case
Does he think he’ll end up in Cooperstown with all-time greats Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell and Nolan Ryan?
“That depends on you guys,” Beltran said. “What do you think?”
Then he backed his life’s work.
“I look at my numbers and I feel like they’re pretty good, based on my position, what I played, based on being a switchhitter,” he said. “I feel like I’m a rare type of case. … You cannot compare me with a righthanded hitter or a lefthanded hitter. I’m a switch hitter, so I end up being in a different category.”
From 1998 with 72-win Kansas City to 2017 with the 101-win Astros, Beltran was one of the most respected and dependable names in the game. It took him 2,586 regular season and 65 playoff games to finally earn a ring.
Tuesday night, he rejoined the teammates that looked up to him, receiving a reward reserved for champions.
With that ring, Beltran will always be a World Series-winning Astro.