Jaffe: Adrian Beltre surpasses Rod Carew to become Latin American hit king
From SABR member Jay Jaffe at FanGraphs on April 5, 2018:
With over 3,000 hits and his status as one of the greatest defensive third basemen in history, Adrian Beltre is already a lock for Cooperstown. On Thursday, he claimed a particularly cool slice of history. With his double off A’s starter Daniel Mengden, he collected hit number 3,054, surpassing Hall of Famer Rod Carew, whom he had tied on Tuesday night, for the most hits of any player born in Latin America.
Here’s the record-setting hit, whose significance was acknowledged by the Rangers’ broadcasters a few moments after the clip.
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At some point later this season, Beltre will likely overtake Ichiro Suzuki, now a 44-year-old reserve, as the all-time leader in hits for a player born outside of the United States.
Note that I’ve included Puerto Rico-born players here. Puerto Rico is an unincorporated US territory, and its citizens are US citizens, but the Caribbean island is also considered part of Latin America, and its ballplayers have long been recognized and celebrated within that context, particularly during and after the career of the iconic Clemente.
Read the full article here: https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/adrian-beltre-becomes-the-latin-american-hit-king/
Originally published: April 5, 2018. Last Updated: April 5, 2018.