Aside from his playful demeanor and metronome-like greatness over the years, one of the things most associated with Adrian Beltre is his aversion to being touched on the head. Teammates never let that stop them from doing it anyway.
Well, is it any small wonder that the day Beltre was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a former teammate touched Beltre's head?
David Ortiz, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame himself, decided to trigger Beltre's infamous pet peeve right before the former five-time Gold Glover was set to take the podium on Sunday and speak at the induction ceremony.
Adrian Beltre thought his days of getting touched on the head were over, but Big Papi had other ideas 😭 pic.twitter.com/wn6DOl1cyH
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) July 21, 2024
Beltre gave Ortiz a look, then chuckled.
“That never relaxes me,” Beltré told The Associated Press. “(But) it was a little cute to go back to my playing days. …It’s just part of being in this fraternity. Even though I don’t love it, I don’t like it, but it felt like I’m open to people to be able to play around with me. I always like that.”
Ortiz is just the latest in a long line of teammates to bop Beltre on the noggin. Perhaps most memorably, former Rangers teammate Elvis Andrus attempted to tap Beltre on the head during a mound visit in 2013, only to watch as the latter hurled his glove at him.
So, why doesn't Beltre like having his head touched?
"I don't like it," Beltre told reporters back in 2017. "I never liked it. I was hoping by now that I'd get used to it since so many annoying people [are] always trying to touch it."
"Even in my home, my kids want to touch my head. I don't like it ... It's a weird feeling."
In a 2019 interview with Fox Sports, Beltre explained that he told former Seattle Mariners teammate Felix Hernandez that he didn't like his head being touched. Beltre then said that that was "not a good idea" because it made Hernandez touch his head more frequently—and even prompted the 2010 American League Cy Young Award winner to implore Beltre's Boston Red Sox teammates to do the same.
Some things never changed about Beltre during his baseball career, like his propensity to have fun on the diamond and his remarkable longevity during a career that saw him rap out over 3,000 career hits while establishing himself as one of the greatest defensive third basemen ever.
Beltre is retired and among baseball's immortals now, but that still doesn't mean you get to touch his head.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as David Ortiz Triggered Adrian Beltre's Pet Peeve One Last Time at Baseball Hall of Fame Induction.
