What makes Adrian Beltre a Baseball Hall of Famer - ESPN

Adrián Beltré became a first-ballot Hall of Famer on Tuesday night, when the Baseball Writers' Association of America revealed its ballots. His credentials — 3,166 hits, 477 home runs, a .286/.339/.480 career slash line and the third-highest WAR ever among third basemen — made it a no-brainer. Over a career that spanned three decades with four different teams, Beltré was a four-time Silver Slugger and a five-time Gold Glover, as formidable on offense as he was dynamic on defense.

But it isn't the accomplishments that define him. It's how he reached them, how much fun he seemed to have along the way and how he made us feel when we watched him. It's how he homered off a knee and made plays from the ground and glared at those who dared to rub his head. His skills were remarkable, but his vibe was unmatched.

What follows is a look through Beltré's splendid, Hall of Fame career through the eyes of four of his closest observers.

Albert Pujols crossed home plate, bypassed the St. Louis Cardinals teammates who waited to embrace him and darted straight to the Dodger Stadium backstop. Pujols had just become the first Dominican-born member of the 700-home-run club, an exceedingly short list without qualifiers, and all he wanted to do was share the moment with Adrián Beltré, the first Dominican-born player to reach 3,000 hits.

He found him in his first-row seat and high-fived him through the netting.

«I wanted to celebrate that with my countryman, Adrián Beltré — somebody I respect, somebody special to me,» Pujols said, thinking back to that night on Sept. 23, 2022. «There was nothing really planned or anything; it was just something that came out of me. That, for me — and this is how I look at it now — was like sharing with 10