On Monday, the Rangers prevailed over the AL-West rival Mariners by a score of 6-3 (box score). What's most important, though, is that in the fifth inning Texas philosopher-king/warrior-poet Adrian Beltre was tasked with facing newly summoned Seattle reliever Pat Venditte. Venditte, of course, is a "switch-pitcher,"which ensures that he'll have the platoon advantage in a given encounter until the mountains crumble into the sea. Beltre, though, in an attempt to upend Venditte's assumptions, initially greeted him with the Ol' Gentleman's Handedness Comeuppance Surprise Whoopsy-Daisy Maximus, which hasn't been glimpsed on the diamond in lo these many years. Here, see for yourself ...
You'll likely find this evocative of that time Larry Walker in the 1997 All-Star Game turned his helmet around in order to face Randy Johnson from the right side of the plate. Whereas Walker's merry-making was the reside of self-preservation, Beltre's was borne of a mighty will that wanted nothing more than baseball triumph.
In the end, though, Beltre wound up batting from his familiar right side and whacking a double off the preternaturally unaccommodating Venditte. You see, even when you beat Adrian Beltre, you lose to Adrian Beltre. Put that on a bumper sticker and tell the world what the world already knows.
