By David Everett Fisher
I don’t think many people will doubt Adrián Beltré is a great baseball player. He ends his career with a .286/.480/.819. He has 3166 hits. He played well defensively at the hot corner and is a four time all star. He has won other awards, but none of these can really capture what makes Adrián Beltré such a diamond treasure.
He loved playing baseball. You could see it in every game he played, he loved being out there and he loved his teammates, even if they wouldn’t stop touching his head. He played for 21 years and baseball will miss him.
He loved playing jokes on his teammates. He would sit under a pop fly as if he was going to get it even if it was Elvis Andrus’s ball. He would play mad when his teammates touched his head - though I think sometimes it really wasn’t a good time to touch his head.
I am giving a lot of praise for a player that from 2005 to 2009 played for the Seattle Mariners. His time there proves to me that even a great player becomes a very underwhelming player and at one point was hitting .109.
He was a great dugout guy and when he wasn’t perpetrating jokes on his teammates, his teammates were committing jokes on him. While a Mariner he took a bad hop into the groin, and Beltré doesn’t wear a cup, and after he got back from the DL, Ken Griffey Jr. had his walk up song changed to the Nutcracker Suite.
In 2011, Beltre joined the Texas Rangers, and the team seemed to suit him. He got along with his teammates and the bench became a place of shenanigans; especially between he and Elvis Andrus.
He would even play around with his friends on other teams like Felix Fernandez. He would shake his head on a ball like he was shaming a bad puppy. They spent an entire game talking good natured trash to each other.
Adrian Beltre spent a lot of his off season helping his community out, whether it was his home country of the Dominican Republic or to the great game of baseball itself and its future.
I think that as a player, Beltre is inspiring. Baseball is a game and while you should play your best, you should enjoy it. He brought a very unique blend of talent, skill, and personality to the diamond. I loved his knee dropping home runs. I loved him using the rake to defend himself from the Gatorade bucket, and I love watching him scowl while his head is being rubbed for good luck.
We chose the name Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger because it was this non-sequitur way of talking trash to the other team. It was fun and innocent. We think that Adrián Beltré understands the Rabble Rabble Cheeseburger philosophy. Work hard and play hard at the same time. And for the love of Babe Ruth, have fun!
Thank you Adrián Beltré.
