'Better Person Than Player.' Former Texas Rangers Catcher Praises Adrián Beltré's HOF Election
A.J. Pierzynski played just one season with the Texas Rangers and Adrián Beltré. However, it only took one season for the newly elected Baseball Hall of Famer to become one of the veteran catcher’s favorite people.
Pierzynski spent some time with Shan and RJ on 105.3 The Fan last week and admitted that when talking about Beltré, you have to separate the player and the person.
“We’ll start with his game, and then we’ll go to the person,” he said. “We’ll start with the lesser of the two.”
To Pierzynski, there was no question Beltré deserved his first-ballot selection for the Hall of Fame. He rattled off Beltré’s career numbers, including 3,166 hits, .286 batting average, 477 home runs and 1,707 RBI.
Pierzynski saw all that skill up close when he played alongside him in 2013, his lone season in Texas.
“He was probably the best third baseman I ever played with,” he said. “He was just an incredible player that could do it all.”
Before joining Texas, Pierzynski played with Minnesota, the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago White Sox. So he had plenty of experience playing against Beltré.
But in one year, Beltré went from being one of the toughest players Pierzynski ever went up against to being one of his favorite teammates.
It started with Beltré’s leadership.
“He commanded the locker room better than anyone I was ever around,” Pierzynski said. “He could relate to anybody, anything, any situation. He was friends with everybody. He always had a smile on his face.”
Pierzynski talked about Beltré’s sense of humor and how a funny line from him could go a long way with a player who was going through a slump. But he also said that Beltré understood when to give a player a “kick in the butt” when they needed it.
While with the Rangers, Pierzynski’s son played baseball with Beltré’s son, AJ, who is a top prospect in his own right.
A decade later, Pierzynski said Beltré is right where he should be.
“He’s a better person than a player, and he’s a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame player,” Pierzynski said. So use your imagination about what kind of person he is.”
Beltré will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on July 21, along with Joe Mauer, Todd Helton, and former manager Jim Leyland.
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