Adrian Beltre is about to break yet another record.
The 36-year-old Rangers third baseman will play in his 2,528th career game Sunday, which will push him ahead of Julio Franco for the most games played by a native of the Dominican Republic.
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“I’m proud of it,” Beltre told The Dallas Morning News earlier this week. “I’m accomplishing things I never even thought about. It means I’ve been healthy and able to compete for a long time. But the numbers, I don’t think about the numbers. I just want to a win a World Series.”
Beltre, who is notably low-key, recently surpassed 400 home runs and hit for the cycle for the third time in his career.
“He doesn’t show it to people, but he’s proud and he should be proud,” Rangers short stop Elvis Andrus said. “The less attention he gets, the happier he is. He doesn’t play for the numbers, even when you have to take notice.”
According to baseball-reference.com, 629 players who were born in the Dominican Republic have reached the majors since Ozzie Virgil debuted in 1956.
“I’m not surprised he’s going to end up being the leader, but I’m surprised he’s doing it now," former Ranger and current Mariner Nelson Cruz said. "He’s still kind of young. Julio was, what, like 50 when he retired?
“Being from the Dominican is something we all have a lot of pride in,” added Cruz. “If you watched the WBC (the World Baseball Classic, won by the Dominicans in 2013), you saw how much pride we take in it. We all know one another. We all follow each other. And all the Latin players follow the other Latin players.”
Earlier this summer, Beltre made sure someone recorded Pedro Martinez's Baseball Hall of Fame acceptance speech so he could watch it. Martinez was just the second Dominican player to be inducted to the Hall of Fame, after Juan Marichal.
“We are proud and we have always been proud of representing the Dominican,” Beltre said. “Pedro’s speech made me proud. We all grew up playing the game with whatever we had, a baseball, a tennis ball, any kind of ball, a sock even. We find a way to play. I’ve never forgotten that we played just for the fun of it. I try to never forget to have fun.”