Sun-splashed and spirited crowd watching, Beltrán, Andruw, Kent enshrined in Hall

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- Baseball’s international influence was on display on Sunday in upstate New York. Fans from Braves Country sported white hats with a red No. 25 on them. The blue-and-white colors of Curaçao dotted the crowd. And a Puerto Rican party broke out during the ceremony as residents from the island clapped and chanted on the sun-splashed field behind the Clark Sports Center.

They all came out to honor the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2026: Carlos Beltrán, Andruw Jones and Jeff Kent.

A record 60 Hall of Famers filled the stage, counting the three newcomers among them. Fifty-seven previously inducted immortals -- from the Class of 1972’s Sandy Koufax to last year’s three living honorees CC Sabathia, Ichiro Suzuki and Billy Wagner -- returned to Cooperstown to celebrate their new brethren. The three new members bring the Hall’s count to 354, of which 281 are players.

Beltrán and Jones are just the third and fourth center fielders elected by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America in nearly half a century. Since Duke Snider went in with the Class of 1980, only Kirby Puckett (2001) and Ken Griffey Jr. (2016) were counted as center fielders elected by the BBWAA until this year.

Kent, who was elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee at the Winter Meetings last December, is the first second baseman to join the Hall since another Astro: Craig Biggio in 2015.

CARLOS BELTRÁN

After the reading of his plaque, Beltrán stood for photos with others on either side of the stage. To fill the silence, fans in red, white and blue Puerto Rico jerseys waved flags, clapping and chanting as if it was a block party.

“I love it. I love it,” Beltrán said afterward, reflecting on the day. “We're proud, man. We're proud people. And we're a little island in the Caribbean, but full of passion, full of love, full of people with big hearts.”

The sixth Puerto Rican elected to the Hall of Fame, Beltrán reflected on those who preceded him.

“When I was growing up in Manati, Puerto Rico, many of these guys were teaching me the game of baseball,” he said, gesturing to the Hall of Famers behind him. “I know some of you guys opened a lot of doors and went through a lot of situations in your careers, that my generation was able to walk through those doors because you opened a path for us. So, I just want to say thank you for making this game better. I feel very blessed, and I hope our generation has done the same for the ones that are already playing the game. When I think about the game itself, I always say that every generation has a responsibility to continue to make the game better.”

Beltrán took a moment to speak in Spanish to his parents, sitting in the front row, pausing to collect himself as the emotions rose up within him. “To Puerto Rico,” he said in Spanish, pulling a small Puerto Rican flag from his jacket pocket and waving it in the air. He thanked all the people who made the trip to Cooperstown -- 150 of them his friends and family -- for this day.

In reflecting on his career, Beltrán started with Kansas City, the team that drafted him and where he won the AL Rookie of the Year in 1999. Traded to Houston in 2004, he had an incredible postseason -- alongside Kent. He skipped over his Mets chapter, looking back on his time with the Giants, Cardinals, Yankees and Rangers.

But then he came back to New York.

“When people ask me why I chose [a Mets cap for his plaque], I have to say this, it’s simple: Every organization shapes your career. New York shaped my life,” he said. “It was here where I experienced my greatest success and some of my greatest challenges. Playing for the Mets made me a better man and a better leader.”

Now that plaque -- the third in the Hall with a Mets logo on it, joining Tom Seaver and Mike Piazza -- will hang in the gallery forever. In it, Beltrán sees all those who helped him get to this day.

• HOF players and managers, broken down by team

“Next to this plaque, I see a God who never stopped showing me grace throughout my career,” he said. “I see my parents, who gave me their best. I see my brothers, my family, my whole family. I see my children. When I see this plaque, I see you, Jessica, who never stopped believing in me. I see my coaches, I see my teammates, I see my fans, my Little League coaches. I see the students of the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy in Puerto Rico, pursuing their dreams through education and baseball. I see my island, Puerto Rico.”

ANDRUW JONES

One year after the Hall welcomed its first Japanese-born player, Jones is the first native of Curaçao, part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to be inducted.

“There is no easy way to get here from the small island of Curaçao, more than 2,000 miles away, but today Cooperstown and Curaçao are forever joined together,” he said. “Being the first Hall of Famer from my island is an incredible moment.”

Born on the 171-square-mile island north of Venezuela on April 23, 1977 -- one day before Beltrán -- Jones’ countdown to stardom seemed to begin almost immediately. He got his first glove at age 3, was playing internationally by age 11 and joined a team of 16- and 18-year-olds coached by his father, Henry, when he was just 13.

“Because he played center field, I wanted to be a center fielder,” Jones said about his father. “And he passed down every bit of knowledge of the game to me, like how to read balls off the bat. He hit me fly balls from foul pole to foul pole in Curaçao so I can track balls down -- because the ocean breeze makes tracking fly balls very difficult on the island.”

Jones’ mother, Carmen, was in attendance, sitting next to his children, including D-backs prospect Druw.

“To my biggest fan, Carmen Jones,” Andruw said. “Thank you for being an amazing mom and raising me the right way. You taught me how to be humble, you taught me so many things in life. I know you didn’t like when I struck out, but it happened. I had to face so many guys behind me, and some of them embarrassed me a lot.”

Jones’ induction punctuates the Braves’ 14 consecutive division titles from 1991-2005, putting him alongside teammates Greg Maddux (Class of 2014), Tom Glavine (2014), John Smoltz (2015), Chipper Jones (2018) and Fred McGriff (2023), plus manager Bobby Cox (2014) and general manager John Schuerholz (2017), in the Hall of Fame. Jones, naturally, sports a Braves cap on his plaque.

“Nobody in the Braves’ organization had a bigger impact on me than Bobby Cox,” Jones said. “He put a 19-year-old in the World Series lineup and believed in me. Bobby had confidence in me and helped me become the best player I could’ve been. He commanded respect, created a winning culture: You play hard, you play to win and you always give an honest effort. Simple rules to play the game.”

As for his place in the Hall of Fame, Jones called out one person in particular behind him.

“Larry Wayne Jones -- some call him Chipper -- Chipper pushed for my induction for many years,” Andruw said. “The Jones boys are in Cooperstown now.”

JEFF KENT

A fiery competitor throughout his career, Kent wasn’t one for showing his emotions. But he showed them this afternoon and throughout the weekend. In a retrospective video shown before Kent took the dais, Dusty Baker, his manager in San Francisco, said he was looking for two things: to see Kent smile or to see him cry.

“Dusty knows me too well, probably better than my dad does,” Kent said. “I’ll try not to cry now, but it’s coming. No doubt.”

To be sure, Baker got to see both reactions. While Kent kept it together for the most part, there were emotional pauses -- like when he talked about his pickup truck.

“When I was 16 years old, I was racing motorcycles and driving my great-grandparents’ old Plymouth Volaré, and my dad knew motorcycles weren’t taking me anywhere, so he made me a bet,” Kent explained. “He knew that if I were to earn a college scholarship, he would buy me a pickup truck. [Getting] that truck meant everything to me, so I quit racing and focused on school and baseball and won that baseball scholarship, ’cause I got that truck.”

Sitting in the audience, his father, Alan, smiled and gave a thumbs-up.

“That truck is still with me. It sits in my garage as a simple reminder that some of the simplest things” -- and here, Kent paused, exhaling as the emotions hit him -- “the simplest things can change the entire direction of your life.”

Reaching the Hall of Fame has made Kent reflect not just on his career -- “This is special to see family and friends and fans that have come from so far to listen to us give our eulogy, if you will, of our baseball careers while we’re still living,” he joked -- but on his place in it.

“When my wife and I had a chance to visit the Hall of Fame Museum just a few months ago, I finally realized the weight that this game carries,” Kent said. “The halls are filled with stories that you can’t experience anywhere else. And to know that I get to be a part of that history, standing alongside the legends that I grew up watching, I’ve used the word and I still don’t understand it, but ‘overwhelming’ doesn’t even begin to describe it.”

While it was the three newest members of the Hall of Fame who were celebrated, Kent took a wider view.

“This day isn’t about me though, this day is about baseball,” he said. “It’s a celebration of baseball, and I just happen to be a part of it. Baseball was here long before me, it’s going to be long after I sit back down. But standing up here with these guys sitting behind me, I’ve never felt more humbled and more grateful in my entire life.”