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ARLINGTON, Texas -- Hall of Fame third baseman Adrian Beltré now has a statue in Arlington to go with his bust in Cooperstown. The Texas Rangers unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of the first-ballot Hall of Famer on Friday, one with him posed hitting a home run with his right knee on the ground like he did so often in his career. Beltré is the third player to have a statue outside the team's stadium, joining two other Hall of Famers, strikeout king Nolan Ryan and 14-time All-Star catcher Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez. Beltré spent the last eight of his 21 big league seasons with Texas, the team he played with the longest. He retired after the 2018 season, had his No. 29 jersey retired by the Rangers the following year and was enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame last summer. "It's difficult to comprehend like everything that has happened in the last couple years to me," Beltré said. "A kid from what I came from, and being able to have what I have is just, I'm thankful that God has allowed me to have this life, because I'm a lucky man, that's for sure." The statue is situated where it appears that Beltré is glancing toward the old ballpark that still stands across the street. It was there that he became the first player from the Dominican Republic to reach 3,000 career hits on July 30, 2017, two years after hitting his 400th homer. That is also where he had all three of his MLB record-tying three career cycles, one as a visitor with Seattle in 2008, and two more with the Rangers, on Aug. 24, 2012, and Aug. 3, 2015. "It's just mind-boggling, because this is something that I never even thought about," he said of the latest honor. With the knee-down position, the statue is low enough that fans going by can easily rub the top of the head - one of the things that the four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner never liked teammates doing to him as a player. "It's not a happy thought for me, but I have to deal with it," Beltré said. "At least it's over the helmet." At the end of the dedication ceremony, the first person to rub the statue's head was former teammate Elvis Andrus, like he did many times when they played together for eight seasons. Beltré hit .286 with 477 homers and 1,707 RBI in 2,933 games with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1998-2004), Seattle (2005-09), Boston (2010) and Texas (2011-18). He hit .304 with 199 homers and 699 RBI in his 1,098 games with the Rangers, and made his only World Series appearance with them in 2011. The dedication came before the opener of a three-game series against the Cleveland Guardians. The Rangers on Saturday will present Beltré with a smaller version of his bronze statue, and he will catch a ceremonial first pitch thrown by Mike Tabor, the Texas artist who sculpted it. The first 20,000 fans entering the ballpark before that game will get replica versions. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy and many of the current players were outside for the dedication ceremony. Andrus was among a group of former teammates that included Ian Kinsler, Derek Holland, Shin-Soo Choo, David Murphy and Darren Oliver. "Just to watch his growth as a player starting in L.A., I got to see him get better and better," said Bochy, who was managing the San Diego Padres in the NL West when Beltré was with the Dodgers. "What a career."
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