Most of you know I collect Adrian Beltre. Why is simple. He was the great third baseman the Dodgers let get away.
After Ron Cey, I thought I would never love a third baseman again. Then along came Senor Beltre.
The man had everything one wants in a player for one's team. He fielded his position very well, he hit mammoth home runs, and he had a fun personality. Best of all, he was just starting out, and I was looking forward to him having a long career in Dodger blue.
Beltre would only play in LA for seven seasons, but I loved watching him for every one of those seven.
Know what else I love? Adrian hails from the era of the shiny card and multiple card companies creating a wide variety of product to enjoy.
Above is the offering from 2003 DonRuss Estrellas. The backside is all in espanol.
Below are a couple of 2005 DonRuss Production Line inserts. The cool thing here is the cards are limited to the statistical number each athlete produced.
The batting average card is numbered 102/334 and the OPS card is 454/1017.
The Dodgers unleashed Adrian on the field, and now he's unleashed 3,000 hits on the major leagues' pitchers.
The Bowman card below touts Beltre as the Dodgers' top prospect and a possible rookie of the year. He didn't win the ROY, but he won a Silver Slugger award and was the NL leader in home runs in his last year with LA.
Below from 2005 Playoff Prestige, numbered 36/100
Finally, Beltre is beautifully drenched in mirror blue on a 2005 DonRuss Longball Leaders insert, numbered 1359/1500.
Congrats and aloha, Adrian!
I feel your pain. The Red Sox never should have let him go either.
ReplyDeleteThat Stadium Club card at the top of the post is amazing! Such a great picture. I have never really been a player collector, but if I was, Adrian would definitely be one of the guys I would collect. He was one of the few bright spots for the Mariners during his five seasons with the club.
ReplyDeleteThat Stadium Club card has been a favorite of mine since I first laid eyes on it
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