25 Years Ago Today, Adrian Beltre Went From San Antonio to Los Angeles

Adrian Beltre at-bat in San Antonio in 1998. (Photo taken by Steve Parkhurst)

June 23, 2023

By Steve Parkhurst

Twenty-five years ago tonight, June 23, 1998, then Dodgers prospect Adrian Beltre made the improbable one-way trip from AA San Antonio to the big club in Los Angeles.

The next night, the steady march to Cooperstown for Beltre began in Dodger Stadium. Beltre hit the first pitch he saw as a major leaguer into left field for a double and an RBI. Beltre added another base hit that night in the Dodgers 6–5 win over the Angels.

Just 19 years old, but at the time everyone around baseball thought he was 20. Even at 19, he was a young 19, having just celebrated a birthday in early April. Beltre was the first Dodger to make the leap from AA to LA since Mariano Duncan did the same in 1985.

Beltre only played 64 games with the San Antonio Missions, but that limited sample size left an impression as he hit .321 with 13 home runs, 56 RBI, 21 doubles, and 20 stolen bases.

Before heading to Los Angeles, there was the matter of the game to be played that night in El Paso. In the case of Beltre, he did not play in that final game, though he stayed with the team until the final out.

Why Beltre did not play in that final game with San Antonio is a story for another day.

Well before the game, Missions manager Ron Roenicke was on the phone with new Dodgers General Manager Tommy Lasorda. Lasorda was telling Roenicke he wanted Beltre in Los Angeles, if he was healthy. Beltre missed 20 games during his AA stint, 10 days for an injury to the left ankle followed by 10 days for an injury to the right ankle.

There was a back and forth between the two men on the telephone. Beltre’s talent was not among the topics being debated.

As would be expected, what Lasorda wanted and what the Dodgers needed won out.

Ron Roenicke called Beltre into his office in El Paso’s Cohen Stadium. Hitting Coach Lance Parrish was in the office as well. Beltre had a bit of a dour look on his face, the result of something else in the works at the time. However, the news Beltre heard about the phone call with Lasorda quickly put the classic Beltre smile across his face.

Naysayers wondered aloud if it was too early or too soon to bring Beltre to the show.

In the immediacy of the moment, Jon Pont, the hitting coach for the El Paso Diablos was quote by Shana Newell for the El Paso Times, “He’s probably far and away the best defensive player at any position — ever.” Pont continued, “There are only two guys that I’ve seen at their position, that are as good as Beltre defensively — J.T. Snow and Todd Landry. Those are the type of guys who win you games with their gloves.”

Lasorda was always an advocate for Beltre. Shortly after Beltre’s promotion to Los Angeles, Earl Bloom quoted Lasorda in the Orange County Register, “If you bring them up and they do the job, do you still say it’s too early?”

Ralph Avila, who at the time oversaw the Dodgers’ Dominican Republic operations and was also one of the scouts who encouraged the Dodgers to sign Beltre in 1994, was quoted by Robert Kuwada for the Orange County Register, “If we didn’t think he was ready, he wouldn’t be here.” Avila added, “The reason he’s here is because we think he’s ready to be here.”

Fortunately, the confidence expressed by Dodgers leadership matched that of the principal: Adrian Beltre had no doubts at all about his ability to play at the highest level, but that it was the right time to test his assumption.

“I feel ready to play here, mentally and physically,” Kuwada quoted Beltre as saying at the time.

On his way out of town 25 years ago tonight, Beltre was quoted by Newell about how he did not want to be one of those players who got promoted to the big leagues only to be sent down soon thereafter for more seasoning.

“When I make it there, I want to stay there.”

Beltre stayed.

The potential first-year Hall of Fame inductee in 2024, retired from the game after the 2018 season having put the finishing touches on a career that spanned 21 seasons.

Beltre will stay in Cooperstown as well. Forever.

Steve Parkhurst is the author of a forthcoming biography about Adrian Beltre to be released in the fall of 2024.

Orel Hershiser of the San Antonio Dodgers

As you can see, I saw a picture of Orel Hershiser from his college days at Bowling Green State University, and I wanted to add the picture of Orel as a member of the San Antonio Dodgers. So I tweeted it.

And here is @OrelHershiser a few years later with the San Antonio #Dodgers pic.twitter.com/1NKV4CbHig

— Steve “Beto” Parkhurst (@SteveParkhurst) May 15, 2020

Well then, after that it got exciting. Orel Hershiser himself liked the tweet! It is not quite as great as 1988, but it is a nice runner-up.

Doug McIntyre Signs Off for the Last Time

A man I consider to be legendary in the radio business signed off for the final time this morning after 22 years on KABC radio in Los Angeles.

In 2009, I was in Los Angeles for an extended weekend trip, which included some Dodgers baseball games. I arrived at LAX in the morning hours and after I got my rental car, I tuned the car radio to 790 and headed for Uncle Bill's Pancake House in Manhattan Beach, a staple for me when in Los Angeles. I tuned the car radio to 790 KABC because it was then the Dodgers radio home and there were chances to hear the legendary Vin Scully throughout the day, along with other Dodgers highlights, such as they were in 2009.

I had never heard of Doug McIntyre to that point, but as he talked and told stories, I could tell I was glad to have found him. In the days before the listening convenience provided by iHeartRadio, Tune In, and the plethora of other listening apps, listening to a Los Angeles radio station from Texas was not as easy as it is now, so I did not listen often, but I would tune in as I could.

McIntyre is and has been an amazing story teller, practically every day I have ever listened to him, I would hear him tell amazing stories and sometimes they would include historical references if that was helpful for his story. His is a first class mind for that sort of thing, and especially for talk radio.

I am glad that by a fluke I tuned back in to him just in time to hear his final two days of broadcasting this week with an interesting array of guests and topics. McIntyre was very appreciative to his listeners and that was very evident these last two days.

For me, as a talk radio listener since before I was a teenager when I got my first Emerson AM/FM/cassette tape clock radio, Doug McIntyre now moves on from radio and to whatever is next, and he joins in my memory names like Ricci Ware, Brad Messer, Carl Wigglesworth, Papa Joe Chevalier, Eliza Sonneland, Bruce Williams, and Mike Richards, who used to sign off every show with "And don't let anybody, steal your joy!" in his Texas twang.

Doug McIntyre signed off on his final show this morning referencing what he would be doing next, and he suggested that sleep would be on his list, since his show has run daily from 5am to 10am each morning. Playing off of the idea that he would get to sleep in and not have to wake up in the pre-dawn hours of the day any longer, he closed by saying, "From now on, I will be living on the sunny side of the street." And he closed out the show with a portion of Louis Armstrong performing On the Sunny Side of the Street.

And that was it. What a way to leave on ones own terms.

Thank you Doug McIntyre for your contribution to the medium.

Good Riddance Manny 2.0

The end of the season for the Los Angeles Dodgers means the end of Manny Machado’s career as a Dodger . . . What an incredibly dirty player, and a punk with a bad attitude, unworthy of the Dodgers uniform . . . Someone will overpay him in the offseason, fortunately it won’t be the Dodgers . . . Good riddance to bad rubbish.

The Dodgers Need a New Manager

Dave Roberts needs to be replaced as the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers . . . He has proven completely inept in managing big game decisions, with bullpen management being his biggest failing . . . Roberts, by all accounts is a really nice guy, but that does not a good baseball manager make . . . The numerous bad decisions Roberts made in the 2017 World Series could have been overlooked if he did not make the exact same mistakes in 2018 . . . Time to move on.

Dodgers Win The National League Pennant

The banner across the sports page of the San Antonio Express-News this morning.

Vin Scully, Babe Ruth and Baseball History

There will be many people who will say many more things about Vin Scully as he enters his last week as the Dodgers broadcaster, and most will say it all much more eloquently than I ever will. I wanted to relay one story while it was fresh on my mind, and while I cannot stop thinking about it.

I watched Vin's last broadcast from Dodger Stadium today. Vin was in fine form, telling some amazing stories. This man is a monument to the game of baseball. Sure, the game will outlive him, as it will outlive all of us, but one story really made me think about Vin Scully's long reach into baseball history.

Vin was telling a story about being at the Polo Grounds as a kid. I don't recall if he mentioned a year, but since he was born in 1927, it's safe to say he was a "kid" in the 1930s. He said that during the game, all of a sudden there was a ruckus out in the upper right field stands. So, being a kid, like all kids, he ran to the scene to check it out. There, was Babe Ruth. Retired from baseball, just there at the game. The Babe wasn't signing autographs that day. Instead, he was handing out business cards that contained his signature. Vin did not mention whether the card had anything else on it, or if it was just a white business card with a signature.

Vin finished the story by saying that he got one of the cards that day at the Polo Grounds.

What happened to the card? Vin said he has no idea, that he lost it somewhere along the way. Here is a man, retiring from the Dodgers broadcast booth after 67 years, and this man met Babe Ruth in the 1930s at the Polo Grounds. It's mind-boggling to think about, even as I write these words.

Baseball cannot escape itself.

It is fun to think back on the great Dodgers (Brooklyn) and Yankees rivalry and think about all the great teams and the great games that Vin saw and got to broadcast. But I am still struck by the fact that as a little red-headed boy back in New York in the 1930s, Babe Ruth had a card with his signature on it, and he handed it to that little boy, who close to 80 years later would be telling that story during a Major League Baseball game.

Dodgers 2013: Ugh, Not Again

The Dodgers season is about to start, and it is time for a frank assessment.

This team is going to be bad. They did nothing significant in the places that matter to get better than they were last year. I do not see a chemistry with the team like we should see with teams that are planning to compete.

Ned Colletti needs to be fired.

Don Mattingly needs to be fired.

Mark McGwire...I guess we have to give him some time before we call for his firing, but choosing him as the hitting coach strikes me as a terrible decision. McGwire, who as best we can tell was juiced for about 80% of his career, either went 450 feet or popped up. He never hit for average. I just do not see how he helps this team make better contact.

These are nice guys, yes. That's fine. Nice guys do not always win. Just because the Dodgers employ them, does not mean they deserve loyalty from everyone forever.

I saw Eric Karros, Mike Piazza, Paul Konerko and Adrian Beltre among countless others in the minor leagues, when they played AA-ball in San Antonio. I was loyal to them until the day they each left the Dodgers. Being a loyal fan is no longer rewarded the way it was in the past.

Don Mattingly is, in my opinion, a terrible game manager. I hear the arguments that he is a "players manager" so be it. The guy bunts way too much, he makes questionable bullpen choices and he yanks starting pitchers way too early.

In Don's defense, he has been given crap to work with. That's on Ned Colletti. As long as this guy is pulling the strings and writing the checks and contracts, I think he only handicaps the Dodgers that much longer into the future.

So, 2013 is about to begin. The fans will root. Vin Scully, who could put a great voice to reading the phone book, will call another great season. But, this Dodgers team will be bad. How much longer will the Dodgers accept it? Will they make excuses for injuries or "this group hasn't been together long enough?" Time will tell.

For me, 2014 cannot get here soon enough.

Baseball Notes - Melky, Mills and the Lastros

Two stories are really bothering me this morning.

First, this thing with Melky Cabrera of the Frisco Giants has gotten weirder with this revelation about his fake website and the ways he tried to cover-up the use of steroids. I have been hearing people put forth the idea that the teams need to take a greater responsibility. I agree with this. And as such, the way teams should "take responsibility" is by vacating wins when a player tests positive for steroids.

How many of the Frisco Giants wins this year came with Melky in the lineup? We're in August. If you argue that Melky has been juiced-up the entire season, that's four and a half months. Every one of those games won should have been vacated last week when MLB suspended Melky. The teams need to take responsibility. Frisco is still in contention in the NL West, so aside from losing Melky for the rest of the regular season, they really haven't paid a price. This is wrong. Once the teams start taking ownership of solving the problem of steroids in baseball, I think this is going to be a huge problem and a black eye.

Second, the Houston Lastros disgraced themselves Saturday night by firing manager Brad Mills. For Mills' part, he parted ways with class. I'm not a Lastros fan, but being in Houston, I hear his radio show on occasion and I read about him in the little local paper. Brad Mills is a good guy. He had come from the Red Sox system, and he can recover from that. I hope someone picks up Brad Mills and puts him to work right away. Memo to my Dodgers: Make the call, there's a place in the system for Brad Mills.

As for the Lastros, you're a freaking joke. You gave this guy a team full of AA talent, at best, and you expected him to compete? Did you really need to make this crucial change in mid-August? Are you thinking you're going to compete next year in the AL West, and therefore you wanted to get a new manager in place? This is all laughable.

A Great Dodgers Highlight

The Dodgers re-tweeted me tonight. That was awesome.

View from Kemp's 9th HR RT @steveparkhurst: @dodgers I didn't see who dropped the Kemp HR, but it was hit right here. twitter.com/SteveParkhurst…

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) April 22, 2012

California Declares War on Suburbia

Planners want to herd millions into densely packed urban corridors. It won't save the planet but will make traffic even worse.

Wendell Cox penned this very interesting piece in the Saturday Wall Street Journal. Basically, this is what happens when planners and radical environmentalists take control. Other 49 states: take heed.

It's Almost Here

Dodgers pitchers & catchers report to camp on Feb 21, the rest of the squad reports on Feb 27, with the first full team workout on Feb 28.