the almost daily dodger - adrian beltre (again)

yes, i've featured adrian beltre as the "almost daily dodger" in a post before, but with his formal induction into the hall of fame happening tomorrow, i ask that you indulge my duplicity.

over the last few months i've added a couple of beltre cards worth showing - his 1999 topps gallery card

and one of his variant 1999 topps tek cards

beltre was the apprentice to bobby bonilla, i guess, back in 1998 when he first came up to the big leagues. by the end of the season, however, beltre had appeared in more games as the dodger third baseman than bobby bo.

as for the tek card, i had thought at first glance that the design had something to do with jackie robinson, but it's actually a sort of stat line design - beltre had 42 career hits heading into the 1999 season. he would get 907 more with the dodgers before heading to the american league and finishing his career with 3,166 hits. he will go into the hall tomorrow as a ranger, but he will always be a dodger to me.