The Wonder of Beltrán

When Carlos Beltrán was a rookie for the Kansas City Royals all those years ago, his manager Tony Muser told him something interesting. Beltrán was 21 years old then, it was another century, before 9/11, before the Star Wars prequels were released, before iPods and Xboxes and GPS Navigation devices and all that.

And Beltrán was really just a scared kid. He spoke little English and was self conscious about it. He shied away from everybody — teammates, media, everybody. He had never played a game above Class AA and had only played 47 games there. His one full minor league season was in Wilmington in 1997. He hit .229 that year.

“Carlos,” Tony Muser told him, “I don’t care if you hit .200. I don’t care if you hit .100. As long as you play hard, play good defense and run the bases aggressively you will be in my lineup.”

Beltrán promptly went out and became the first rookie in a quarter century to score 100 runs and drive in 100 in the same season.

I was thinking about that on Tuesday when Beltrán led off the bottom of the eighth inning with his Astros down 5–3. Beltrán is 40 years old now, and he’s the oldest regular in the Major Leagues, the second oldest hitter of any kind behind the wondrous Ichiro. Nobody thought he would last this long, probably not even Carlos himself. In truth, in his early years, people openly wondered if he even LIKED baseball. He was that uncomfortable around people.

And you look at his career now — it’s magnificent. No, it’s more than that. It’s utterly unique.

Think of it: How many players in baseball have been rookie of the year … and played in 2,500 games … and won multiple gold gloves … and hit 400-plus home runs … and stole bases with abandon … and had scorching postseasons when nobody could get them out … and come back from injuries to become an All-Star again … and yes, had a moment everyone remembers when he did not swing the bat … and starred for both the Mets and the Yankees … and was great when one of the youngest players in the game and great again as one of the oldest?

Tuesday night, Carlos Beltrán steps into the box against Texas’ Keone Kela, a flame throwing reliever who was 5 when Beltrán made his big league debut. Kela is the 1,442nd different pitcher that Carlos Beltrán has faced in his career. The first pitch is a 97 mph fastball just off the outside corner. Beltrán watches it go by for a ball.

Kela then spikes a fastball into the dirt, Beltrán does not go chasing and now is ahead 2–0.

You talk about a full career: How many times in his life has Carlos Beltrán been ahead 2–0 against an inexperienced pitcher? What does he know before the pitch is even thrown that only a handful of people on earth know? Does he know that Kela will be worried about walking him and will try to slip another fastball by him on the outside corner? Does he know that the fastball will probably be a little bit up because the kid is feeling some nerves? Does Beltrán know exactly how he will attack the ball, know that he will hit it the other way but with authority?

Or does he know none of that and simply go on the pure instincts of man who has spent a lifetime in the game?

Whatever he knows, Kela does indeed try to slip that fastball by, and it is up in the zone, and Beltrán pulverizes it to left, off the wall, a double.

And at that moment everything in the game shifts, Jose Altuve walks, Evan Gattis singles to load the bases, a couple of batters later, Marwin Gonzalez crushes the grand slam that gives Houston another victory. The Astros have the best record in baseball. At the moment, they look all but unbeatable.

Beltrán is obviously not the player he once was. He was a dazzling center fielder once and now he’s a designated hitter, even on those occasions when he plays the outfield. He was impossible to throw out as a base stealer — from 2000 to 2004, five season, he was successful 162 out of 177 times, that’s 92% — and for a decade he might have been the best baserunner in the game. This year he’s unlikely to attempt a single stolen base, and he goes station to station like the old commuter train that he has become.

But even now, Carlos Beltrán can still make the play that wins the game. There will be a lot of talk about Beltrán’s place in baseball history, whether or not he’s a Hall of Famer; people will scour his statistics and search their feelings and have strong opinions about it. There’s time for that.

In the meantime, there’s something touching about watching Carlos Beltrán after all these years. Before his career began, I asked Allard Baird, then a Kansas City scout and later the Royals general manager, how good Beltrán could become. He said, “I don’t say this lightly — I’ve probably only said this about two or three players I’ve seen: Carlos Beltrán can become as good as he wants to be.”

Beltrán apparently wanted to be pretty good.

Come on, give the kid a baseball

I was at the Dodgers game on Monday, had really good seats by first base, and ended up sitting next to three young girls, probably ages 7 to 14 or so. They were super cute and super sweet — reminded me so much of my own daughters — and all they wanted was a baseball.

Between innings, as you probably know, first basemen (and first base coaches) tend to finish warm ups and then toss a baseball or two into the crowd. They usually look for kids. Well, of course, between every inning these girls (well, the two younger ones) would jump up and down and wave their arms in the hopes of having one of the baseballs thrown to them. It was fun to watch.

There were a lot of kids at the game, so for a few innings they were not noticed. It got to the point where I was trying to catch somebody’s eye and point to the girls. And at one point, it seemed to work. I caught the eye of Dodgers first base coach George Lombard — I don’t know him really but there seemed to be some recognition — and he reached into his back pocket and tossed a ball to the girls. It was a sweet thing.

Only, he tossed the ball a bit too hard for a 7-year-old to catch it. The ball went through her hands, bounced into the row behind us where a couple of guys jumped on it and proudly held it up.

The girls absolutely took it in stride (“Oh that was so close!” they shouted happily) but this is just a friendly reminder: If you catch a ball at a ballgame and you are older than, say, 18, find a kid nearby and give her or him the baseball. I had someone do that for me when I was a little kid at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The guy who caught that ball — wow, he would have to be in his 70s by now — undoubtedly will not have a single memory of that day. I have never forgotten it.

That Nationals Bullpen

Washington Nationals hitters — let’s leave pitchers out of it for the moment — are hitting .304/.380/.527 so far this year. It is preposterous, ludicrous, it has carried the Nationals to the best record in the league, and yet all is not well in Washington.

That bullpen is a train wreck at the moment.

Tuesday night, Nationals manager Dusty Baker left his starter Tanner Roark in for 125 pitches, the most for any National League pitcher this year, and it was clear he did so because he had no place in the bullpen to turn (and, well, Dusty does have a history with letting his starters go long). Right now the league is slugging .500 against the Nationals bullpen. The bullpen has given up an 32 extra bases hits (half of them homers) in just 75 innings.

Joe Blanton and Shawn Kelley, the two veterans the Nationals brought inthe last couple of years to shore up that bullpen, have given up 10 home runs in 21 innings.

The thing that seems to be missing from the bullpen are powerful but raw young arms — the average age of the pitchers in the pen at the moment is 31. They are not striking out anybody. It won’t be long before Washington general manager Mike Rizzo starts offering his kingdom for a horse that can actually break 95 mph out there.

The BFG (again)

How many puns will Aaron Judge prompt in his baseball career? How many Judgment Day headlines? How many “he’s judge AND jury” calls? How many times will people say, “Here comes the judge?” Or “Order in the court?” How soon will he be on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a judges robe? How long before the Yankees have Aaron Judge gavel day?

It’s all happening.