at least there is one final tribute, finally

both joe mauer and adrian beltre announced their retirements before any 2019 baseball cards hit the shelves.  i dutifully reviewed the checklists for series 1 when it was published, hoping for a final tribute card for each of these personal favorites. i was disappointed when i saw their names only in insert sets.  beltre, at least, received a 1984 style insert (among many other inserts) with total career stats on the back (but only line-by-line starting with 2004).  mauer had nothing but relics, manu-relics, and the uniform evolution insert to his name.

then 2019 donruss came along with its checklist and lo and behold adrian beltre was included among the common base card receiving folk.  i finally snagged a copy:

the stats on the back are complete, but not presented yearly

i'll take it though.  

i bought in to beltre very early on as a dodger fan who had tired of the revolving door that existed at third base since the penguin's departure.  beltre was solid, but waited until his walk year to really showcase his premier offensive talent, putting the dodgers in a tough position. four years previously, the dodgers had gambled on potential with darren dreifort, re-signing him to a huge 5-year, 55-million dollar contract after a few underachieving seasons, and they lost. beltre had shown more than potential, but the dodgers chose to not beat seattle's 5-year, 64-million dollar offer, and so the revolving door continued for another decade or so.  thank goodness for justin turner today, but it was tough watching beltre continue to play great defense and hit home runs from one knee while wearing american league uniforms those past 14 years.

panini even gave beltre the variant treatment, and here is the blue jersey version now

it takes me back to the davey johnson dodger era a bit.

heritage has come and gone with no beltre or mauer, so now it's up to series 2 (unlikely) to right this wrong.  i suppose a veteran sp card in update (as was done with chipper jones in 2013) could happen. more likely, however, are cards in 2019 archives.  no matter what, i'll be checking checklists to see.