It happened again on Monday.
This time, it was the eighth inning of a 5-3 win over the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks. The final (and ultimately unnecessary) run was scored by Adrián Beltré, who got a good read on a Robinson Chirinos single to left-center field, hitting the third base bag almost simultaneously as the ball landed just out of the reach of the outfielders, and heeding the windmill-armed signal from Tony Beasley to head home.
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Two steps later, Beltré’s back straightened almost imperceptibly, his gait slowed as he tried to mask yet another limp, yet another betrayal by his left hamstring. He slowed to a walk after he crossed home plate, meeting the smiles and high fives with a grim and resigned expression. When the top of the ninth arrived, Jurickson Profar stood by third base. Beltré, we were told after the game, would be evaluated on Tuesday.
In a season when the Rangers were contending, there would have been more pressure on the team to give an update on Wednesday. But the Rangers are in last place, more than twenty games out of first, and nearly that far out of a Wild Card spot. If Adrián Beltré wants to take an extra day before he talks about his third hamstring injury of the year, what’s it going to hurt?
Finally, after the day off on Wednesday, Beltré spoke on Thursday, confirming that it was a grade-2 strain. For most mortals, that means 4-8 weeks before it is fully recovered. For Beltré? It’s still questionable whether he will hit the disabled list or not.
“That’s the question right now,” Beltré admitted. “We’re going to wait a couple of days and pay attention to that. I think medically, it’s a grade 2, but physically, I don’t feel that bad. So we’re going to wait a couple of days to make a decision on that.”
Beltré was asked if being at this stage in his career is a factor in how he deals with the disappointment of being injured again. In his usual mischievous way, he let a solitary “Yes” hang in the air for a few seconds of awkward silence before the follow-up question of “How so?” broke the spell and revealed a smile hiding behind the feigned stoicism.
“Oh, you want me to elaborate on that?”
We do and we don’t, Adrián.
“Because that brings the question of ‘Is this going to keep happening more often? Is it worth fighting back? Is it a sign that maybe it’s time to get close to, you know, saying goodbye to you guys? But again, it’s something I’ve been dealing with all my career, since I was 20 years old. It’s not a new injury that just appeared; this is something I’ve been dealing with since I was 20 years old, so it’s nothing new.”
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When the topic turns to the fairness of life, the steering wheel usually finds itself in the grip of two sets of competing hands: Idealism and Stoicism
Idealism believes that change is not only possible but necessary. Idealism can sometimes wrestle the human race into something beautiful. After all, what is “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal,” if not an idealistic parsing of the words “same” and “equal”? Neither you nor I were created the same as Adrián Beltré, and yet that statement dares to declare us equals. But left unchecked, idealism can lead to perpetual dissatisfaction, weariness that there will always be another problem of unfairness that must be addressed.
Stoicism, on the other hand, can be useful. It can allow you to accept your limitations, focusing your efforts on the task in front of you, putting in the “grunt work” without longing for something more glamorous. But just like idealism, if it takes full control of the wheel, it can crash into the ditch of Fatalism: “giving up” disguised as “just being realistic.” If you believe that nothing can be changed, you’ll never try.
Why the philosophical left-hand turn? It was either that or spending a few paragraphs complaining about how unfair it is that — if this is Beltré’s last season — both he and fans (of the Rangers and of baseball in general) are being robbed of so much of it.
Idealism believes that Beltré will not only return this season, but come back for long enough to win a World Series with the Rangers. Fatalism would tell him to not even bother: the team is too far away from contention, and the hamstrings aren’t going to Benjamin Button themselves.
Somewhere in between, Adrián Beltre is getting treatment, working out, and weighing the decisions at hand, both for this week and for the rest of his life.
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Nomar Mazara returned to the active roster and to the lineup in advance of Thursday night’s game. To make room for him, Willie Calhoun was optioned back to Round Rock. Here are Jeff Banister’s comments on the demotion:
“Very encouraged with what we saw from Willie. We liked the offensive side of it, he kind of settled in, he was able to use left field, he had a couple of nice pinch-hits, the at-bats were very competitive. We were very encouraged with how he played in the outfield. He had one play that got away from him a little bit, but other than that, he played a nice, routine defense. Tracked a number of baseballs down that in Spring Training, we had a little concern with, but all in all, I thought it was a good experience for him to be up here. He’ll be back. If not earlier, he’ll be back in September.”
Asked if Calhoun handled the news well, Banister smiled.
“Yeah,” he said decisively. “It was — you know what, listen. I expect, when I tell a young kid that he’s going back, that there’s — yeah, they’re supposed to have a little bit of emotion. This is where you want to be. I’d have to question about a player that was really happy about going back. This is where everybody desires to be.”
As for Mazara, he’s happy to be back, of course.
“Finally, I get to play again,” he said before Thursday’s game. “It was a long three weeks. It was not a good feeling watching the boys out there playing … when you see games like, 10-plus hits, you say ‘Man, I want to be there.’ You never want a night to end when you’re having a game like that with a lot of runs. It was a bad feeling, but thank God I’m healthy again, and I can go out there and ball out.”
Asked if the thumb was 100%, he smiled and hesitated.
“Strong enough.”
