We are the keepers of the milestones, and so we are the ones who get to dutifully tell Carlos Beltran every time he reaches one, surpasses one, climbs ever higher into the pantheon of great players of his generation.
Monday night, it was an eighth-inning home run that broke open a tie and won a game for the Yankees. That was the 999th extra-base hit of Beltran’s career. Tuesday night, first inning, it was a two-run shot that gave the Yankees an early lead on the way to a 6-3 win over the Angels. And that was extra-base hit No. 1,000 for his career.
“If you’re able to play a long time,” Beltran said, “you’ll be able to reach certain milestones.”
Yes, that’s true. But so is this: There have been almost 19,000 people who have played major league baseball going back to 1869. Thirty-eight of them have ever gotten a thousand extra-base hits. Mickey Mantle didn’t. Willie Stargell didn’t. Joe DiMaggio, Duke Snider, Hank Greenberg: None of them did it.
“I don’t come to the ballpark and think about these things,” Beltran said.
But we do. Lately, there seems to be a little momentum building for what should already be apparent: What we are seeing when we watch Beltran in what is supposed to be the twilight of his career is, in fact, and indeed the twilight of a Hall of Fame career.
Here’s one for you: There are now seven players in history — and, again, history includes almost 18,900 of them — who have, in their careers, assembled 1,000 extra-base hits, 1,000 walks, and 300 stolen bases, meaning they embody everything you could want in a big-league offensive player (power, a good eye and speed).
Willie Mays.
Ty Cobb.
Alex Rodriguez.
Barry Bonds.
Tris Speaker.
Craig Biggio.
And Carlos Beltran. Four of those players are already in the Hall of Fame. One of them ought to be joining them there, and with a less-than-extended stay in purgatory waiting, too.
“I have been able to overcome things,” Beltran said, shrugging his shoulders. “I’ve been able to get back into shape. This is what I love to do. And it’s what I’ve done all my life.”
While the Yankees have enjoyed a little splurge of offense the past two nights, scoring 10 runs over the space of five innings across two games, it remains a remarkable thing to see what Beltran has been able to do this season at age 39. He has a .272/.301/.549 slash line and 15 home runs now, someone on pace for 40-plus at a time when bat speed is supposed to be an issue.
And he has almost always been a player whose most special moments lie in the summer months, in June and July and August, when the weather warms for good and he can really let loose. All of that, of course, is prelude for October, where he’s always seized autumnal opportunities when given the chance.
Two straight wins can get Yankees fans (and Yankees players) dreaming of great things burgeoning here — “We have a chance to be really good,” Beltran said — although the bigger picture insists something else: that the Yankees can use Beltran as one of the more valuable deadline chips.
Already in his career, Beltran has helped spark the turnaround of one New York franchise. The Mets are still waiting for the best of Zack Wheeler, swapped for Beltran five years ago, but making that deal was the first step the Mets needed to take in building back up again piece by piece, block by block.
It isn’t so hard to imagine the Yankees seeking a similar course come late July. And that if Beltran continues to play as well as he has, that he might yield a far greater bounty than anyone could have believed a 39-year-old outfielder possibly could have at the start of the season.
If they don’t do that?
Well, there are still plenty of lists Beltran can climb, and he is still a pleasure to watch, after all these years, after all these steps he’s already taken toward Cooperstown. That wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize, actually.
