Adrian Beltre cruised into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Tuesday after receiving 385 of the 404 votes cast by the Baseball Writers Association of America for 95.1%, the 19th-highest percentage of all time.
Voters can remain anonymous, but at least one of the 19 voters who didn't vote for Beltre revealed himself to the world this week. And his reasoning for leaving Beltre off of his ballot is embarrassing to the whole voting process.
Tony Massarotti, a former Red Sox beat writer turned radio host, explained to his audience that he didn't vote for Beltre because the third baseman was never the best player on his team, citing Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez and Rafael Palmeiro as better players.
The only problem is that neither Rodriguez nor Palmeiro ever came close to playing with Beltre on the Texas Rangers.
Palmeiro last played for the Rangers in 2003 and retired from baseball after the 2005 season. In the twilight of his career, Rodriguez made a 28-game pitstop in Texas in 2009 after playing for four different teams. Rodriguez played the first 12 years of his career with Texas from 1991 to 2002 and retired before the 2011 season, the year Beltre signed with the Rangers.
105.3 The Fan's Shan, RJ and Bobby played the clip from Mazzarotti's show on Friday and were dumbfounded by the host's explanation.