El Profe: Shooting for the Stars

Never too high, never too low.

Rock solid. Steady.

Proud yet humble.

A student turned master of the game.

All apt descriptions of Carlos Beltrán, who announced his retirement this past Monday.

Greatness was always in Carlos Beltrán’s destiny. From his teenage days playing in Puerto Rico to his early years in Kansas City and over the course of 20 seasons, we witnessed an amazing talent who finally realized one of his career goals in winning the World Series with the Astros.

And when I witnessed the tears of joy rolling down his cheek, I could not have been happier for Beltrán. Honestly, I shed a few tears myself, as a fellow boricua — and as someone who admired him for consciously making the decision to embody the spirit of Roberto Clemente as an advocate for Latinos in baseball and as a humanitarian actively seeking to aid others in their time of need, made clear in Houston and Puerto Rico.

The wisdom of the great

The steadiness of Beltrán is that of a man who has learned a secret to success in baseball and life. That is evident in the story of Chi Chi Rodríguez’s advice, with which Beltrán opened his article in The Players’ Tribune announcing his retirement. In it, he mentioned that Rodríguez had encouraged him to surround himself with successful people and to be unafraid to ask them for help.

That acknowledgment pleased Rodríguez.

“I was surprised to know that Carlos took my advice to heart,” Chi Chi wrote back after I sent him a couple of questions by email earlier this week.

“Then again, I should have expected it. Why? Because I saw in Carlos what I had seen in Roberto so many years before.

“What? Inner Peace.”

Rodríguez is a Hall of Famer in his own right, an 82-year-old golfing legend who still loves to play nine holes with his buddies, including those in baseball, like Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez. But his appreciation of Beltrán emphasizes those elements beyond the playing of the game. It’s about Beltrán’s approach to sport and life.

My personal observations of Beltrán in action at spring training this season provided insight beyond the words he spoke in our sit-down interview. That interaction helped me further comprehend Carlos’ personalidad, his way of being, the power of his journey.

Adjusting on the fly

La Vida Baseball launched on March 1. We were a start-up with big ambitions. After all, when you partner with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum — the gold standard in sports museums — you’re looking to slug it out of the park.

Our aim has been to be a platform where baseball fans could engage authentic content from a Latino perspective. A space where Latino ballplayers felt comfortable sharing their experience, in English or Spanish, confident in our commitment to honor their words and our shared culture of Latino baseball. And to give fanáticos a place where they could enjoy stories and videos about the Americas’ game — whether they called it baseball, béisbol, pelota or something in between.

Coming to La Vida Baseball as a history professor, I had my own learning curve. The pace of digital media production and publishing is quite different than academic publishing.

Planning, lots of planning.

Always have a plan and always plan to adjust. That was a pivotal early lesson, whether in the field or in the office. That was on full display each time we went to the ballpark to interview players. You can’t control the weather, you can’t control what happened in last night’s game. All you can do is come with a plan, be ready, and adjust — kind of like hitting. 

Breaking into The Show

First stop on our La Vida Baseball inaugural campaign was West Palm Beach, a sort of homecoming for me, having grown up in south Florida.

West Palm Beach was inaugurating a complex as the new spring training home of two big league teams. We weren’t here to talk with Bryce Harper and the Washington Nationals, however. We were here to catch a trio of Latino Astros — you know them quite well by now: José Altuve, Carlos Correa and Beltrán.

Little did we know then that the Houston Astros would make baseball history, winning their first World Series championship. The Astros’ story evolved into an impressive arc, from a strong start in April and May to an 11-17 August swoon that began before Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Houston. Amid the flooding and devastation, the Astros righted their course, winning 20 of 28 games in September. Somewhere, a screenwriter would have been jealous of the script.

Theirs was not just a feel-good story, it was a do-right-in-a-time-of-need story.

For even more significantly, the Astros organization played a vital role in bringing joy and comfort to those devastated by hurricanes Harvey in Houston and María in Puerto Rico. In both places, the Astros players and their front office took a prominent role in bringing aid to those in need, speaking directly to their fans, neighbors and fellow compatriots about how much they cared, and using their platform to bring attention to those struggling, not just the action on the field.

Trying to catch an Astro

This is not to say everything went according to plan, as hardly anything does in the world of newsgathering.

Our West Palm Beach strategy to catch the trio of Astros stars worked, mostly.

Carlos Correa was a gamer, agreeing to do a quick sit-down interview, even though he had had wisdom tooth surgery a few days earlier. We did a version of our 5 Cuts, asking Correa a few cultural questions about what he likes to eat, his favorite music and so on.

Then came Beltrán. He agreed to do the interview, only after some cajoling. But he was great, especially when I asked him about what it meant to him to have won the Roberto Clemente Award in 2013, and also about his place among the pantheon of Puerto Rican sluggers — which includes Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, two-time MVP Juan “Igor” González and Carlos Delgado, the island’s home run king with 473 career dingers.

Afterwards, my producer, trying to read Beltrán’s body language, asked: Was Beltrán into that interview at all?

The question made me chuckle in reply: Man, you got to know Carlos Beltrán, even-keel as they come. And I got him to even smile and laugh a few times. Beltrán was great.

Steady navigator

 What you need to know about the kind of teammate Beltrán is was on display in March during the World Baseball Classic. When Team Puerto Rico decided to become Los Rubios (The Blonds), Beltrán joined the fun by bleaching his beard.

Sure, he kind of looked like a comic-book villain with his piercing eyes, his serious demeanor and that blond beard, but he did it for the team. Everyone on Los Rubios loved Beltrán all the more for playing along, and a galvanized Puerto Rican team stormed its way to a WBC silver medal, losing to Team USA, 8-0, in front of a raucous crowd at Dodger Stadium.

One could sense in the Astros’ spring training clubhouse that Beltrán was a difference-maker. Houston brass had signed Beltrán last December for more than his bat, although certainly the front office was hoping for a performance on the level of 2016, when he hit .295 and belted 29 home runs with the Yankees and Rangers.

The 40-year-old veteran did not approach those numbers this season. But he provided something else that the Astros found well worth their $16 million investment — the type of leader who had both the confidence to keep a level head when everything and everyone seemed ready to lose theirs, and the ability to laugh at himself when teammates held a mock funeral for his glove. He exemplified the kind of balance needed in a season that, if all goes well, can last into November.

Walking into the Astros’ sparkling new clubhouse in West Palm Beach, it was also obvious that manager A.J. Hinch had a plan. He bookended Correa’s locker with Altuve’s and Beltrán’s.

Watching the two Puerto Ricans, Correa and Beltrán, hug on the field while holding a Puerto Rican flag after the Astros clinched the World Series title at Dodger Stadium, it was clear that this particular part of the Astros’ plan had worked to perfection.

Mission accomplished: The two Carlos, mentor and mentee, had helped the Astros raise a World Series trophy.

So, thank you, Carlos Beltrán. For reminding us about the joy of the game — and that there is crying in baseball.

Featured Image: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images Sport