ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Adrian Beltré will throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the All-Star Game at the home of his final team, the Texas Rangers, five days before his induction as a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Beltré will be accompanied by three other former Rangers in the Hall of Fame, pitchers Fergie Jenkins and Nolan Ryan and catcher Iván Rodríguez, at Globe Life Field on Tuesday night. Beltré is set to be enshrined in Cooperstown on Sunday.
The 45-year-old Beltré played the final eight of his 21 seasons with the Rangers and made his only World Series appearance in his first year in Texas in 2011.
A four-time All-Star who won five Gold Gloves, Beltré finished with 3,166 hits and 477 home runs. His 2,759 games played at third base are fewer than only Brooks Robinson’s total. He hit for the cycle three times, the last at age 36.
The 3,000th career hit for Beltré came in a home game on July 30, 2017, only minutes after Rodríguez had finished his Hall of Fame induction speech in Cooperstown.
Rodríguez and Beltré are All-Star ambassadors this week, and Beltré was the manager of the American League team in the Futures Game over the weekend.
Beltré is about to join Rodríguez and the strikeout king Ryan as the only members of the hall wearing Rangers caps on their plaques. Jenkins’ plaque features a Chicago Cubs cap.
___
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB
