Carlos Beltran has officially snubbed the Kansas City Royals.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced Tuesday that Beltran’s plaque will feature him wearing a New York Mets hat.
That means that the kid who came into professional baseball as a second-round pick by the Royals in 1995, the kid who learned from George Brett, will be immortalized with a Mets logo atop his head, not a K.C.
The reality is that, by the numbers, it was a really close call.
He played seven seasons apiece for the Royals and the Mets.
He played 839 games with the Mets, 795 with the Royals.
Beltran had 123 home runs with K.C. then hit 149 for New York.
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He had 516 RBI with the Royals, then 559 with the Mets.
Beltran stole more with the Royals, 164 to 100 with the Mets.
His .287 average with K.C. was slightly higher, relative to .280 with the Mets. But it was an .869 OPS with the Mets, compared to .835 with the Royals.
Beltran won Rookie of the Year with the Royals.
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He made four All-Star Games with the Mets, compared to just one with the Royals (although he somehow missed an All-Star Game in K.C. in a season he finished ninth in MVP voting).
Beltran also spent time with the Astros, Yankees, Cardinals, Rangers and Giants.
Players are allowed to go in with no logo on their hat. Nobody has gone in while somehow incorporating two logos.
If there had ever been a case for some kind of double logo, Beltran would’ve been it.
Instead, the Royals get left out.
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