A Reunion in Cooperstown: Beltré and Rawitch’s Journey from Dodgers to Hall of Fame
When Baseball Hall of Fame chairman Jane Forbes Clark introduced Adrián Beltré to the crowd in Cooperstown, N.Y., a man holding his plaque emerged from backstage.
President of the Baseball Hall of Fame Josh Rawitch held the plaque for the crowd to see, along with some help from Beltre and the two shared a moment that neither could have predicted when their careers crossed paths in Los Angeles back in 1998.
Beltré, a 19-year-old at the time, had just been called up by the Los Angeles Dodgers for his big league debut. Rawitch was the coordinator of advertising and special events for the club. They were both beginning a journey in a sport that would eventually reunite them 26 years later.
“He had so many big expectations on him that when he first came up, I don’t know that anybody would’ve imagined,” Rawitch told Dodgers Nation about predicting Beltré to be a Hall of Famer. “Certainly, the Dodgers had high hopes for him but then in 2004, you saw just how good he was and then he was gone.”
Beltré ended up signing with the Seattle Mariners as a free agent in Dec. 2004 after the best season of his career. He slugged 48 home runs and drove in 121 runs. He also set career-bests in 2004 with a .334 batting average, a .388 on-base percentage, a .629 slugging percentage, a 1.017 OPS, 200 hits, and 104 runs scored.
“We actually got a chance to talk about that this past weekend,” said Rawitch. I talked to him about how much different the Dodgers would be and how different Texas would be had he never gone. He said he never wanted to leave L.A. He’d always thought he would be there forever but it all worked in the end.
“Here we both are.”
Beltré became the first player Rawitch had the honor of inducting into the Hall of Fame who came up through the organization he once worked with.
“I was probably one of the two main people working with him in 2003 and 2004. I told him this weekend, I remember when his kids were born. I remember him coming up to me in ’04 right after his daughter was born and saying something to the effect of, ‘Baseball used to be the only thing going on in my life and now I’m able to process it differently so if I have a bad game, I come home and see this baby and the baby doesn’t care if I had a bad game.’
“I remember when I had that exact same feeling for the first time with my kids and I heard him in my head saying that to me. It’s cool to be able to watch him grow up and his family grow up.”
While the two didn’t keep in touch regularly after Beltré left the Dodgers, they would say hello whenever their paths crossed over the years. That all changes now that they are part of the same family. In fact, they spoke over the phone just before Rawitch’s interview with Dodgers Nation.
“I imagine we will stay in touch for years and years to come,” Rawitch said. “I know his family had an amazing time here this weekend and they said they’re planning on coming back every year. I have no doubt that we’ll continue to see him a lot and spend time with him and his family.”
Photo Credit: Gregory Fisher-USA TODAY Sports
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