From the Hall of Fame Weekend: Where is the Beltran Highlight?

Cooperstown -- Tomorrow is coronation day for Carlos Beltran, who will enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Mets cap, making him, according to Hall statistics, one of three Mets so enshrined. But in touring the Hall’s museum this weekend, you have to wonder how committed the Hall is to preserving Beltran’s memory as a Metrpolitan.

An exhibit at the museum highighting the three inductees – Jeff Kent and Andruw Jones are the other two – has a brief (roughly one minute) video introducing thee three, including some action video: Kent hitting a home run as a Giant, Jones getting a key hit as a Brave and Beltran swatting a dinger – as an Astro?

Which begs the question of whether, if Beltran is to be remembered as a Met, shouldn’t the video show a highlight from his time in Flushing? And if they couldn’t find one (and, no, we wouldn’t resurrect his battle with Adam Wainwright in the NLCS), does the Hall’s video selection subtly raise the question of whether Beltran should really be deemed a Hall of Fame Met? Are they saying that while he spent a large part of his career with the Mets, he did nothing memorable for the team?

There are plenty of Hall of Famers who played for the Mets but who, understandably, are better classified as representing a different team: players who joined the Mets at the tail end of their illustrious careers (Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Warren Spahn, Richie Ashburn); ones who clearly made their names with a different team (Pedro Martinez, Robbie Alomar); and at least one – Gary Carter – for whom there was some disagreement over whether his plaque should depict the interlocking N and Y or the red, white and blue M.

Apparently, a key yardstick is which team the immortal played the most season for. That is what tipped the scales for Montreal in Carter’s case. And with Beltran, it is sort of a tossup: he spent six seasons with both the Mets and his first team, the Kansas City Royals. But again: if this weekend is all about memories, shouldn’t the Beltran memory come with him in pinstripes?

What do you think?