{"id":305831,"date":"2026-07-26T06:22:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T06:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305831\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T06:22:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T06:22:18","slug":"carlos-beltran-overcame-slow-mets-start-to-get-on-hall-of-fame-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/305831\/","title":{"rendered":"Carlos Beltran overcame slow Mets start to get on Hall of Fame path"},"content":{"rendered":"

COOPERSTOWN \u2014 Carlos Beltr\u00e1n will become just the third player to represent the Mets<\/a> in the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday, joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza in the small but mighty group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Before Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s six years in Queens, he began his career in Kansas City after being drafted out of high school in the second round of the 1995 draft. <\/p>\n

At his pre-induction press conference in Cooperstown on Saturday, he opened up about the reception he got in each city.<\/p>\n

Beltr\u00e1n would get another taste of New York when he went to the Yankees for two years in the twilight of his illustrious career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t understand the process, sometimes it could be overwhelming. For me, it was,\u201d Beltr\u00e1n said. \u201cComing from Kansas City, playing in New York, at the beginning, I didn\u2019t understand why the fans were getting on me, while I played in Kansas City and never got booed. So all of a sudden, I\u2019m in New York, they boo me the whole month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018Oh my God, I just signed here for seven years and these people, they have no patience with me,\u2019 \u201d Beltr\u00e1n continued to laughter. \u201c[New York is] a city where the fanbase supports their team, but at the same time, they expect excellence out of the players, and they understand the game \u2026 they know how much money you\u2019re making, so they want you to earn every single penny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CarlosCarlos Beltran with Jose Reyes of the New York Mets celebrates after hitting a solo home run in the seventh inning against the St. Louis Cardinals during Game 4 of the NLCS at Busch Stadium on October 15, 2006 in St. Louis, Missouri. Getty Images<\/p>\n

One of the most significant memories from Beltr\u00e1n\u2019s early career came alongside perhaps the most legendary Royal in 1999, when George Brett got his moment in Cooperstown with his induction alongside Nolan Ryan and Orlando Cepeda.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c[1999] was my first full year in the big leagues. I haven\u2019t been able to show what I\u2019m capable of,\u201d Beltr\u00e1n said. \u201cI was so excited to come [to Cooperstown] because not only were we supporting George Brett, I was going to be able to meet Orlando Cepeda, who was inducted that year also.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDelivering insights on all things Amazin\u2019s\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Mets by Mike Puma, exclusively on Sports+\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a baseball, and I\u2019m approaching Cepeda for him to sign my baseball, and George said to Cepeda, \u2018Cepeda, I\u2019ve introduced you to the next Hall of Famer from Puerto Rico. His name is Carlos Beltr\u00e1n.\u2019 And I\u2019m going like, what is he doing? I haven\u2019t played a game, and you\u2019re introducing me as a Hall of Famer. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a good statement, George, and George said, \u2018Well Carlos, everything is possible in life. If you play hard and if you continue to play good and you continue to develop yourself, this is an opportunity.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HallHall of Fame Inductee Carlos Beltran answers questions during the media press conference at the Clarke Sports Center in Cooperstown, NY on July 25, 2026. Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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Needless to say, Beltr\u00e1n did nothing but seize that very opportunity, especially as a five-time All-Star with the Mets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI end up getting to the Hall of Fame, but I fail 72 percent of the time,\u201d Beltr\u00e1n said. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of pain, but at the end of the day, I have to say that New York is a great place \u2026 most of the most meaningful relationships I built in the game, I did it wearing the Mets uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COOPERSTOWN \u2014 Carlos Beltr\u00e1n will become just the third player to represent the Mets in the Baseball Hall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33324,41542,20,9,11,320,10,319],"class_list":["post-305831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-baseball-hall-of-fame","tag-carlos-beltran","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-mets","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}