When it was announced on Tuesday that former Dodger great Adrián Beltré was one of three who had achieved baseball immortality by being voted in to the National Baseball Hall of Fame (along with former MLB manager Jim Leyland), it undoubtedly put a smile on the face of every Dodgers fan blessed to have watched the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native, who the Dodgers signed as an amateur free agent in 1994 as a 15-year-old, play during the first seven seasons of his remarkable 21-year MLB career.

“If you’re a first-ballot Hall of Famer, think about the names you’re associated with that were first-ballot Hall of Famers,” said MLB Network Radio’s Eduardo Perez following Tuesday’s announcement. “From (Derek) Jeter to (Babe) Ruth, from (Willie) Mays. I mean, you can keep going. To (Greg) Maddox. Those are, I mean, there’s a difference, there’s a pride.

“It’s not just a pride factor. It’s a… wow. This is a you changed the game; you changed people’s lives when you played the game as, you know, as a fan, as a community,” Perez continued. “And those are the guys that, you know, rightfully deservedly, are those first-ballot Hall of Famers.”

But there’s hitch in our get-along. Although the first seven seasons of Beltré’s 21-year (now) Hall of Fame career were with the Dodgers where he posted an excellent .274/.332/.463/.794 slash line with 147 home runs and 510 RBI, his best seasons were the eight that he spent with the Texas Rangers where he posted an insane .304/.357/.509/.865 slash line with 199 home runs and 699 RBI. For good measure, during his one season with the Boston Red Sox in 2010, Beltré slashed .321/.365/.553/.919 with 28 home runs, 102 RBI, and an MLB-best 49 doubles as a 31-year-old. As such, one has to believe that the extremely popular former Dodger will not be sporting a Dodgers cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Ouch.

In the simplest of terms, not resigning Adrián Beltré as a free agent after his outstanding 2004 season during which he slashed .334/.388/.629/.1.017 with an MLB-best 48 home runs and 121 RBI is arguably the single worst decision made by (then) Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and (then) Dodgers general manager Paul DePodesta, and ranks right up there as one of the worst decisions in MLB history.

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