ARLINGTON, Texas -- Adrian Beltre had a sometimes-imposing stare and plenty of quirky habits. He also had a genuine love for the game, and a lot of fun in a Hall of Fame-caliber career.
After 21 big league seasons in which Beltre hit 477 home runs and became the first player from the Dominican Republic to have 3,000 hits, the slick-fielding third baseman for the Texas Rangers retired Tuesday at age 39.
"After careful consideration and many sleepless nights, I have made the decision to retire from what I've been doing my whole life, which is playing baseball, the game I love," Beltre said in a statement. "I have thought about it a lot and although I appreciate all the opportunities and everything that baseball has given me, it's time to call it a career."
Beltre, who will be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in five years, was a .286 hitter with 1,707 RBI in 2,933 career games. His 3,166 hits rank 16th on the career list, with his homers total 30th and RBI 24th. He played 2,759 games at third base -- only Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson had more.
"As much fun as people see us having at the ballpark all of the time, and playing around, I haven't met somebody that was more detailed about the game than him," Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus said. "He's going to be missed for sure. It's going to be different."
The four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner was 19 when he made his big league debut with the Dodgers in 1998. Beltre played with Los Angeles until 2004, the Seattle Mariners from 2005-09 and the Boston Red Sox in 2010. He joined the Rangers on a $96 million, six-year free-agent deal in 2011, and appeared in his only World Series in his first season with Texas.
"The thing for me that stood out that I was unaware of ... was how much he fun he had," Rangers General Manager Jon Daniels said. "He's obviously got an intense demeanor and it probably takes a little while for everybody to kind of get comfortable with him because he's an intimidating guy, just because he's so regimented and serious."
Beltre often checked his own swing to umpires and hated being touched on the head, which teammates often exploited. There were the shuffling feet and swiveling legs in the batter's box on inside pitches or those in the dirt.
There were those times when Beltre and Andrus would be only a few feet apart on the left side of the infield, both with their gloves in the air, one mimicking the other catching a popup. There was a pitching change at Seattle in 2013 when Beltre threw his glove at a fleeing Andrus after being popped on the head with a glove by the shortstop.
In his statement, Beltre thanked former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, then the team's interim general manager, for "believing in this young kid from the Dominican Republic when others thought I was too young to be called up" to the majors. Beltre was only 15 when he first signed with the Dodgers as an amateur free agent in July 1994.
Beltre hit a Texas-high .273 with 15 home runs and 65 RBI in 119 games this season, when he went on the disabled list twice because of a strained left hamstring. He was limited in 2017 to 94 games, his fewest since 77 as a rookie, because of calf and hamstring issues.
He got his 3,000th career hit on July 30, 2017, the 31st major leaguer to reach that milestone.
"To all my fans in the Dominican Republic, the United States and Latin America, my sincerest THANK YOU for your continuous support throughout my career," Beltre wrote. "While I will forever cherish the memories from my time playing the greatest game on earth, I am excited to become a fulltime husband and father, and I am ready to take on the next chapter of my life."
Michael Young, now a special assistant to the general manager, was the Rangers third baseman before Beltre joined the team. Young then became a utility infielder and designated hitter and is still the career leader for games played and hits by a Rangers player.
"I knew he was good defensively, I didn't know he was this good. I knew he could hit, I didn't know he could hit like that. I knew he was tough, I didn't know he was that tough," Young said Tuesday. "I could just pretty much go on, all of the things I knew about him, he was just better in pretty much in every possible way I could have imagined."
Adrian Beltre’s career statistics
YEAR TEAM G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB BB SO AVG.
1998 LAD 77 195 18 42 9 0 7 22 3 14 37 .215
1999 LAD 152 538 84 148 27 5 15 67 18 61 105 .275
2000 LAD 138 510 71 148 30 2 20 85 12 56 80 .290
2001 LAD 126 475 59 126 22 4 13 60 13 28 82 .265
2002 LAD 159 587 70 151 26 5 21 75 7 37 96 .257
2003 LAD 158 559 50 134 30 2 23 80 2 37 103 .240
2004 LAD 156 598 104 200 32 0 48 121 7 53 87 .334
2005 SEA 156 620 69 154 36 1 19 87 3 38 108 .255
2006 SEA 156 620 88 166 39 4 25 89 11 47 118 .268
2007 SEA 149 595 87 164 41 2 26 99 14 38 104 .276
2008 SEA 143 556 74 148 29 1 25 77 8 50 90 .266
2009 SEA 111 449 54 119 27 0 8 44 13 19 74 .265
2010 BOS 154 589 84 189 49 2 28 102 2 40 82 .321
2011 TEX 124 487 82 144 33 0 32 105 1 25 53 .296
2012 TEX 156 604 95 194 33 2 36 102 1 36 82 .321
2013 TEX 161 631 88 199 32 0 30 92 1 50 78 .315
2014 TEX 148 549 79 178 33 1 19 77 1 57 74 .324
2015 TEX 143 567 83 163 32 4 18 83 1 41 65 .287
2016 TEX 153 583 89 175 31 1 32 104 1 48 66 .300
2017 TEX 94 340 47 106 22 1 17 71 1 39 52 .312
2018 TEX 119 433 49 118 23 1 15 65 1 34 96 .273
TOTALS 2,933 11,068 1,524 3,166 636 38 477 1,707 121 848 1,732 .286
Sports on 11/21/2018