Adrian Beltré, Todd Helton, Jim Leyland and Joe Mauer are the newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Each of these players was inducted in front of an audience of 28,000 at the Hall in Cooperstown, NY.
Adrian Beltré played for the Dodgers, Mariners, Red Sox and Rangers. I saw him play in person at Busch Stadium II in the early 2000s and then watched him again play for the Rangers in the 2011 World Series. I did not score tickets for the games but watched him on TV from home and saw him hit .300 with two home runs in the seven game series. My beloved Cardinals won that series 4-3. Click here to view Beltré's induction speech.
Todd Helton played his entire career with the Rockies and I was fortunate enough to see him play against the Cardinals a couple of times. First at Busch II and the second time at Busch III later in his career. For so many years the Rockies struggled and they were not one of my top choices when I got tickets for Cardinal games. But, I saw him in 2000 (arguably the best year of his career) on a Saturday afternoon in April. I don't remember him having a good day, but in looking the game up on the Internet he did drive in a run on a sacrifice fly. I also saw him later in his career in I believe it was 2011. I don't remember him doing anything special that day, but he always played a great third base as evidenced by his three Gold Gloves. You may click here to view Helton's induction speech.
Jim Leyland managed the Pirates, Marlins, Rockies and Tigers. He was always one of my favorites and I was privileged to see him manage on many occasions with the Pirates. Leyland won three divisional championships while in Pittsburgh but lost to the Atlanta Braves in 90, 91 & 92. Those were some great Braves teams led by an always awesome pitching staff. After the Pirates, Leyland managed the then Florida Marlins to a World Series Championship in 1997. He led the Marlins to a seven game win over the then Cleveland Indians. The following year the Marlins were terrible winning only 54 games after the team's ownership traded away all of the club's talent. Leyland left and went to Colorado in 1999 where he managed for one year. Interestingly enough, Leyland managed Todd Helton while he was in Denver. After his Rockies gig, Leyland went to work for the St. Louis Cardinals as a special scout at the request of fellow Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa. Leyland then went back to managing in 2006 guiding the Tigers to the World Series before losing to the Cardinals. Later in 2011, 2012 & 2013 the Tigers made the post-season. In 2012 The Tigers under Leyland's guidance made it to the World Series again, only to be swept by the Giants. Please click here to view Leyland's induction speech into the Hall.
Joe Mauer, because he played in the American League, was one of those guys I didn't follow that closely. I only saw him play in person one time on June 16, 2015. I still have the ticket stub to the game hanging on my "wall of tickets". In that Tuesday afternoon game Mauer went 0-4 and played 1B. To be honest I was surprised when he was elected to the Hall of Fame. But, he was the top catcher in the American League for over a decade and won the MVP award in 2009. He had a career lifetime batting average of .306 and a WAR of 55.2. Mauer also played on six American League All-Star teams and won five Silver Slugger awards. When viewed against the numbers of other HOF catchers, Mauer is extremely deserving of his selection to the Hall of Fame. You may follow this link to see Mauer's induction speech into the Hall of Fame.
All of the induction speeches were good and each is worth watching. Congratulations once again to Mr. Helton, Mr. Beltré, Mr. Leyland and Mr. Mauer!
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