July 21 (UPI) — Three star players and a World Series-winning manager, whose pasts and paths to the big leagues were completely different, were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, on Sunday.
Adrian Beltré, Todd Helton, Joe Mauer and manager Jim Leyland were the latest members to enter the heralded hall in what was an emotional outdoor ceremony.
Mauer, a No. 1 pick in the 2001 MLB Draft, spent all 15 of his major league seasons mostly as a catcher with his hometown Minnesota Twins. He was the 2009 AL Most Valuable Player, a three-time batting champion and six-time MLB All-Star.
While wildly popular with Twins fans, his celebrity reached beyond the baseball field to TV commercials and endorsements, somewhat rare for a catcher.
“For as long as I can remember, the game of baseball has been a central part of my life and the life of my family,” Mauer said while looking at his family in the crowd.
Mauer, 41, credited his parents for coaching his Little League teams and taking him to and from countless baseball games, where sportsmanship and improving were constant topics of conversation.
“And our dinner table talks were more of the same,” he said. “In our home, baseball was a family affair.”
Even at the end of career, Mauer said he still had deep support from his family. His grandfather, whose eyesight was failing, would stand close to the TV in a batting stance going through every pitch of the hall of famer’s at bat.
“As if he was swinging alongside me,” Mauer said, his voice breaking with emotion.
“I hope they are both looking down this afternoon with pride,” he said of his grandparents, “knowing that all their time and hard work helped me get to this podium.”
Mauer called his mother the “ultimate example of humidity,” and credited his brothers with giving him a “thick skin” when they were his first baseball teammates.
“There’s so many people that have had a huge impact on me and helped me reach this point,” he said before the ceremony. “You want to try to articulate that as best as possible and thank these people.”
Helton, 50, played his entire 17-year career with the Colorado Rockies and was drafted by the team in just its fifth year in existence in 1995.
Helton credited his family for his success and thanked his wife for being there on the day he got the call saying he had been drafted, and on the day he got the call saying he had been elected to the Hall of Fame. He thanked his daughters, seated alongside his wife in the crowd.
“I have actually seen and learned so much about myself in raising you as your dad,” Helton said of his girls. “You both mean the world to me.”
He also thanked his mother for her support and acknowledged his father, who died in 2015.
“This would have meant as much if not more to him than it does me,” Helton said of his father. “When I was young, my dad taught me how to swing a bat and pitch a ball. But most importantly, beyond the relentless coaching, my dad made me believe I could stand up here today.”
Helton was a five-time All-Star, four-time Silver Slugger, and three-time Gold Glove Award winner. He held the Rockies’ club records for hits with 2,519, home runs with 369, and various others.
“The awards that have come to me from baseball are beyond the wildest dreams of a young rookie coming out of the University of Tennessee,” Helton said during his speech. “I know I’m a lucky man.”
Sporting an orange University of Tennessee pin on his lapel, Helton said he is still asked if he was the quarterback at the university before he was drafted by the Rockies.
“Yes,” Helton said. “But I’ve played a little baseball since!”
Beltré was born in the Dominican Republic and drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1998, just two months after turning 19. He played for 21 years with the Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers.
Beltré became known as a symbol of consistency at third base for all four teams. He was also a model of durability, continuing to play into his late 30s, and had 3,166 career hits, putting him among the most elite hitters in the game and earning him the reputation as the greatest third basemen ever.
Beltré ended his career with five Gold Glove Awards, two Platinum Glove Awards, four All-Star Game selections and four Silver Slugger Awards. He also hit 477 home.
“The best part was: I loved it. I loved baseball,” he said. “And I had so much fun playing the game.”
Beltré, 45, spent weeks leading up to the induction ceremony writing a bilingual acceptance speech. Supporters in the crowd blew traditional Latin horns called vuvuzela as he took the stage.
“And please bear with me,” joked Beltré, who speaks excellent English. “My English is getting worse every day. So I’m going to butcher some names and pronounce some words, so please have fun with it.”
Beltré said it was an honor to be on the podium with “so much talent behind me,” referring to his fellow hall of famers assembled on the dais behind the podium.
“My path to Cooperstown has been shaped by the people who spent time teaching me every step of the way,” he said. “With their help, I continued to learn and improve to make my way here.”
Beltré recounted joining his first baseball team at the age of 13 in the Dominican Republican, spending money he had left over from his birthday to pay the signup fee. He told his father he would play second base, and within a matter of weeks earned the starting job at that position and stayed there until the team’s third baseman wanted to play second.
“I immediately fell in love with that position” Beltré said, where he would remain for the remainder of his now Hall of Fame career. “I loved every challenge of playing third base. I was hooked.”
While his defense was stellar and his bat always a danger to opposing pitchers, Beltré was known for being a bit of a comic with his antics and practical jokes both on the field and in the clubhouse.
He was famously ejected once for being told by an umpire to move into the plastic on-deck circle, which was farther away from the plate. Instead, Beltré picked up the on-deck circle and moved it to where he was standing so he could get a better look at the pitches being thrown to the hitter ahead of him in the lineup.
“Part of me was just trying to have fun, enjoy the game,” Beltré said. “I think that was one of the main reasons why I played for so long and why I got to actually enjoy what I did, understanding this was not a job. It was just a game that we get paid to play. We have so much passion. I love the game. Why not enjoy it? I was trying just to do whatever I could to be happy and enjoy the game.”
Leyland, 79, managed 22 years and led the 1999 Florida Marlins to a World Series title. He led the Detroit Tigers to the Fall Classic twice, won six division titles in Detroit and Pittsburgh, and earned three Manager of the Year Awards.
But there was no indication in the early days of his baseball career that he would be standing on the podium in Cooperstown on induction day in 2024. Following a playing career that ended with him as a backup Double-A catcher, Leyland spent 18 years coaching and managing in the minors before getting a shot at a big league job, and drew on that experience when writing Sunday’s Hall of Fame acceptance speech.
“The thing that I’m probably happiest about,” Leyland said before his acceptance speech, “is that it’s a good message to all the guys that maybe weren’t big league players, that are in the minor leagues now, that there is a chance. I was one of those guys. I never thought I’d ever get a chance.
Leyland, with 60 years in baseball, encouraged players not to give up on their dreams and recounted a conversation he had with his wife when he found out had been elected.
“I said, ‘Katie, could you believe in your wildest dreams that I’d be going to the Hall of the Fame?'” Leyland asked.
“Jim, you’re not in my wildest dreams,” his wife responded.
