The National Baseball Hall of Fame welcomed Jeff Kent, Andruw Jones and Carlos Beltrán on Sunday in Cooperstown, New York.
The Clark Sports Center was home to more than 60 Hall of Famers. They came to watch the newest members of the Hall hold their plaques and deliver emotional speeches.
Beltrán, who turned down an opportunity to manage the New York Mets this summer, but would love to have the job if offered again, spoke for 30 minutes about what his induction means to him.
He grew up in Puerto Rico, and believed one day that he’d become a professional baseball player, but never, ever, did he imagine that he’d be a Hall of Famer.
Beltrán and Jones are just the third and fourth center fielders elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in nearly half a century. Since Duke Snider went in with the Class of 1980, only Kirby Puckett (2001) and Ken Griffey Jr. (2016) were counted as center fielders elected by the BBWAA until this year.
Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee at the Winter Meetings last December, is the first second baseman to join the Hall since another Astro: Craig Biggio in 2015.
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