Another Dodger is going to the HOF

 

The Hall of Fame announced its 2024 class this evening (once upon a time this was held much earlier in the day) and thanks to the constant vote tracking online, there wasn't much of a surprise about who was selected. The most I heard about this class in the lead-up is whether Billy Wagner will make it (He didn't).

 

Wagner didn't play for the Dodgers. Neither did official HOF selections Joe Mauer or Todd Helton. I'm looking for Dodgers to get in the HOF, pretty much all I care about when it comes to HOF votes.

 

Fortunately, there is one who got in easily this year, Adrian Beltre. He won't get a Dodger hat on his plaque, but he played for them first and for more years than all but one team and even then it's just one additional year. I'm not irked by this as much as when Mike Piazza went in as a Met in 2016 (even "irked" is too strong a word, heck, "mildly miffed" is too strong). The key thing is, just like with Piazza, the Dodgers are the ones who found him and grew him into a star. Beltre and Piazza are the Dodgers' gifts to other teams, as painful as that was. You're welcome, Mets and Rangers.

 

If it were up to my collection, Beltre would be appear as a Dodger in the HOF easily. For the first time since Piazza was inducted, a player in the top 10 of my collection in terms of the most cards is entering the Hall. Beltre is exactly 10th with 362 cards, according to TCDB (I probably have a handful more).

 

Out of those cards, here is the breakdown:

 

San Bernardino Stampede: 1

Vero Beach Dodgers: 2

Boston Red Sox: 2 (His cards somehow eluded me in 2011) 

Seattle Mariners: 17

Texas Rangers: 31

L.A. Dodgers: 309

 It's interesting that Beltre was a Dodger when I totally wasn't collecting cards. In fact, my first year back in collecting modern cards -- 2006 -- was Beltre's first year as appearing in a Mariners uniform on cards. I didn't time that very well.

I pulled some of my favorite Beltre cards for this post but then realized I did a Favorite Beltre Card tribute when he retired a little over five years ago. Oops.

So, to avoid repeating myself -- and to avoid spending time pulling different cards -- I'll just show the cards that I didn't show back then.

 

2000 Topps: Beltre had a pretty good run of Topps flagship cards between 1999-2003. Beltre's power jumps off his cards.

2001 Topps Stadium Club: I've shown this card a couple of times, it's got to be Beltre's most unique card photo.

2014 Topps Super Veterans insert: Topps' tribute to the 1983 Super Veterans subset was one of the few things I liked about 2014 flagship. Seeing Beltre as a Dodger in a modern set again was special.

 

2003 SPx: I think the 2003 SPx set is futuristic in a good way. And I don't care one bit that it's 100-percent horizontal.

 

Various Donruss/Playoff relics from 2005: I showed the shoe relic card at the top on the earlier Beltre tribute post. The others are pretty cool, too, as the Donruss-Playoff brand went nuts in 2005 with wild cards before eventually imploding.

Some various snazzy parallel cards, most of which I've shown before.

 

Beltre continues a brief stretch of Dodgers to have made the Hall recently. Last year it was Fred McGriff and in 2022 it was Gil Hodges (yay!). It's the longest run since Maddux-Pedro Martinez-Piazza in 2014-16!

I won't look for a Beltre card to add in recognition of his Hall selection, I know better not to hunt for new Hall of Famers at the point of impact. But my search for Beltre cards is always in motion and will not stop just because Beltre -- really one of my favorite Dodger infielders off all-time -- has reached his final baseball destination.

 

Congrats. (wow, he looks old here).