Larry Brown Sports

Adrian Beltre does not like it when people come into his territory when he is calling for a fly ball. If you didn’t know that prior to the Texas Rangers’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday night, you do now.

As you can see from the GIF above that was posted on Reddit, Beltre was camped under a pop fly when shortstop Elvis Andrus came drifting over and looked like he was thinking about making the play. Beltre waved his arms like a madman and told Andrus to get the hell out of there. After Beltre secured the ball, he gave his teammate the death stare.

It looked like Andrus was smiling as he jogged away, but Beltre didn’t appear to be messing around. The two players were able to avoid a collision, but that wasn’t enough for Adrian. Next time, Elvis better stay out of his wheelhouse and let him do his thing.

Eric Gagne recently wrote an autobiography, and on Wednesday we found out that it contains at least one bombshell piece of information. In the book, “Game Over: The Story of Gagne,” the former closer calls most of his former Dodgers teammates cheaters by estimating that a whopping 80 percent of them used human growth hormone.

One of his former teammates, Adrian Beltre, wishes Gagne had been more specific.

“He should have named names,” Beltre said Thursday according to the Dallas Morning News. “I don’t know what you want me to tell you … For him to say something like that, he should have come out with names instead of a percentage.”

Beltre and Gagne were teammates from 1999-2004. The 2004 season was by far Beltre’s most productive offensively. He hit 48 homers and drove in 121 runs that season. He has belted 35 homers this year — the second-highest total of his career — and has never driven in more than 105 runs in a season aside from 2004.

Based on the numbers Beltre had when he played with Gagne, he would probably be a lock for the 80 percent who used performance-enhancing drugs for people who believe Gagne’s theory. If he truly did not use steroids during those seasons, you can understand why Beltre would be upset that Gagne didn’t name names. Unless you think Gagne is full of it, Beltre 2004 numbers make him a prime suspect.

Adrian Beltre left Tuesday night’s Red Sox-Rangers game in the eighth inning after being hit in the head by noted headhunter Vicente Padilla. The Rangers third baseman was tested for a concussion but everything reportedly was normal. Doctors say he only has a contusion.

Beltre is pretty lucky that’s all he escaped with, though there is no word if he’ll miss Wednesday’s rubber match. He was able to speak to reporters after the game and told them he didn’t think the 0-2 pitch that hit him was intentional.

“I don’t think he was trying to hit me,” Beltre said after the game, according to ESPN Dallas. “I don’t think in that situation, 1-1, eighth inning, man on third he was trying to hit me. I looked at the video and the catcher was setting up away, so he maybe he was trying to throw it a little harder than he normally throws it and it got away from him.”

The ball went flying after it bounced off his helmet. It looked really bad. But like Beltre said, given the situation, Padilla likely wasn’t targeting him, even though he’s never been afraid to throw some chin music.

Cue the cries for instant replay. Those of you who were watching Game 1 of the World Series on Fox Wednesday night got to experience their new “Hot Spot” infrared camera. While the concept is pretty strange, it did further prove that a blown call helped the Cardinals secure a 3-2 victory over the Rangers.

With one out in the ninth and trailing by a run, Adrian Beltre hit a ground ball to third and was thrown out. However, Beltre reacted like the ball had hit him off the foot and then chopped down to third, and replays revealed that it had. The “Hot Spot” camera clearly showed a heat mark where the ball had struck Beltre in the toe. Check out this picture that Big League Stew shared with us:

That is certainly a tough call for the home plate umpire to make considering how crisply the ball rolled to the third baseman, but it supports those like Jack McKeon who believe full instant replay would help the game of baseball.  In a one-run World Series game, that missed call is huge.  You can tell the ball hit Beltre’s foot even without the whacky infrared camera shot.  Bad call or no bad call: Cardinals 1, Rangers 0.

For everyone who thinks we watch the games to see how our teams will play, or to witness world class athletes perform, you’re wrong; we watch for the sole purpose of seeing moments like this. Other people’s failures, such as this cameraman biting the dust trying to follow Adrian Beltre as he rounded third, that makes our day. I’ll be disappointed if Southwest doesn’t turn this into a “Wanna get away?” commercial.

Thanks to SB Nation for the GIF

Compared to the National League All-Star team, the fans did a poor job voting on the American League team. Most of the reasonable complaints regarding snubs are from the AL team. We already gave you the All-Star Game snubs from the National League.

Here are the American League All-Star team snubs:

Jhonny Peralta over Derek Jeter at SS

This is a no-brainer. The fans vomited on themselves with this one, probably because a) Jeter is so popular and b) most of them don’t know who Peralta is. Asdrubal Cabrera made the team as the backup shortstop and he should be starting. Peralta should be the backup.

Paul Konerko over Michael Young as 1B/INF

Paul Konerko being left off the team is the biggest snub of MLB. He has a .954 OPS which is fourth-best in the entire AL. It’s a joke that he’s not on the team and it’s criminal that Ron Washington stuck him in the fan vote. Instead of carrying three catchers, Washington should have put Konerko on the team over either Martin or Wieters. At the least, he should be there over Young who is good but can’t mash the way Konerko can.

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The Rangers and free agent Adrian Beltre are reportedly close to finalizing a deal to bring the All-Star third baseman to Texas. The deal is said to be worth between $90 and $96 million over six years.

Adrian Beltre first broke into the league with the Dodgers as a teenager. He developed into one of the best young players in the game and peaked in 2004 when he hit .334 with 48 home runs, 32 doubles, and 121 RBIs. It just so happened that that was the final year of his contract with the Dodgers, and he used the monster year to cash in as a free agent.

Beltre headed to the Pacific Northwest to join the Mariners on a five-year $64 million deal. He dropped off in most offensive categories averaging 21 home runs, 34 doubles 79 RBI, and a .261 average with Seattle. The numbers were not bad, but not worth the kind of money he was given. However, you can’t knock his defense — Beltre was in the discussion for the Gold Glove every year and won it in 2007 and 2008.

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