an adrian beltre trifecta. no, make that a quadfecta.

we are 5 months away from adrian beltre's 40th birthday. i do not know if he will return for another season in 2019, but i do know that i consider his leaving the dodgers via free agency to have been a big mistake.  a mistake on the part of the dodgers, i mean.  he was coming off of a career year in 2004, and the dodgers were in a situation of potentially overpaying for that one phenomenal year, so i get it.  however, until justin turner came along, there seemed to have been a revolving door at third base, and with beltre's 2217 hits and 330 home runs as a non-dodger, the knife has been twisted quite a bit.

i used one of those various ebay coupons that popped up over the summer to finally land a 1997 bowman beltre card for a decent price.

the addition of this card means that i can show off a couple more cards to qualify for the trifecta.

this is a 2004 upper deck relic card of the dominican republic native

and this is a 1999 topps gallery autograph

then i recalled that i had a beltre patch card in my collection!

this is a 2001 leaf certified materials fabric of the game jersey number relic

logoman!

2001 leaf certified materials fotg is my all-time favorite relic set, and the die-cut jersey numbers parallels are awesome.  i also have a steve garvey and a don drysdale card from this subset.

if beltre does return in 2019, he stands a chance to pass a few more folks on the all-time hit leaderboard, perhaps even passing willie mays for 12th all-time, and he can also make a run at the top ten in total bases as well.  it's too bad that he won't be going in to the hall of fame as a dodger.