COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Carlos Beltr\u00e1n was destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame even before he played a full season in the major leagues. At least that\u2019s what Kansas City Royals great George Brett thought.<\/p>\n
On the eve of his induction, Beltr\u00e1n recounted a story from 1999 when the Royals visited Cooperstown and Brett introduced him to Hall of Famer \u2014 and fellow Puerto Rican \u2014 Orlando Cepeda.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a baseball and I\u2019m approaching Cepeda for him to sign my baseball, and George said, \u2018Let me introduce you to the next Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico. His name is Carlos Beltr\u00e1n,\u2019\u201d the nine-time All-Star outfielder said Saturday. \u201cAnd I\u2019m going like, what is he doing? I haven\u2019t played a game and you\u2019re introducing me as a Hall of Famer. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge said, `Well, Carlos, everything is possible in life. If you play hard and if you continue to play good and if you continue to develop yourself, this is an opportunity and this is a chance that you could be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty-seven years later, Brett\u2019s prediction came true. Beltr\u00e1n will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Sunday alongside Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent, just as Brett and Cepeda were enshrined together as part of the 1999 class.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever went through my mind,\u201d Beltr\u00e1n said. \u201cBut I did imagine myself as a baseball player. I did imagine myself as a professional baseball player. I come from a very humble family. I got to see my parents doing a lot of work to push us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beltr\u00e1n was the 1999 AL Rookie of the Year with Kansas City and went on to play 20 years in the majors, including seven seasons apiece with both the Royals and New York Mets. He made the Hall in his fourth year of eligibility on the Baseball Writers’ Association of America ballot, securing 84.2% of the vote.<\/p>\n
Joining him from the BBWAA ballot is former Atlanta Braves center fielder Andruw Jones, who reached 78.4% in his ninth year. Jones nearly dropped off the ballot after his 2018 debut, when he received only 7.3% of the vote \u2014 just above the 5% threshold to get another try.<\/p>\n
For Jones, the induction represents the culmination of a patient climb that was supported by his defensive brilliance in center field, where he won 10 straight Gold Gloves from 1998-2007.<\/p>\n
And like Beltr\u00e1n, Jones\u2019 fondest baseball memory came when he was young.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust getting that call to make it to the major leagues in \u201996. Getting on that plane, flying into Philadelphia and walking into the clubhouse and seeing all these guys that you watch on TV who won the World Series in \u201895 and trying to win another one in \u201996,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was the best moment of my career, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beltr\u00e1n and Jones weren\u2019t elected to the Hall immediately during their BBWAA eligibility, but their call eventually came. For Kent, it never did.<\/p>\n
A five-time All-Star second baseman, the 2000 NL MVP fell off the BBWAA ballot in 2023 after exhausting his 10 years of eligibility and falling well short each time of the 75% needed for induction. He was elected by a much smaller panel in December 2025, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.<\/p>\n
Though his path was different, after speaking with other Hall of Famers this weekend, Kent now knows he belongs just the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m walking around, talking to guys and I\u2019m getting hugs and I\u2019m getting, \u2018Congratulations,\u2019 and I\u2019m getting, \u2018You should have been in a long time ago,\u2019 and all those things,\u201d Kent said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m seeing in their eyes that they\u2019re not saying it just to be nice to me because they want something from me, or they\u2019re just trying to be nice because the cameras are on and it was real. And that\u2019s probably the first time I was able to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mlb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) \u2014 Carlos Beltr\u00e1n was destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame even before he played a full season in the major leagues. At least that\u2019s what Kansas City Royals great George Brett thought. On the eve of his induction, Beltr\u00e1n recounted a story from 1999 when the Royals visited Cooperstown and Brett … Continue reading Carlos Beltr\u00e1n, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent reflect on Hall of Fame road ahead of induction<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1527982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-28 05:27:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1527982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1527983,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1527982\/revisions\/1527983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1527982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1527982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1527982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}