Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, Adrián Beltré in 2017, CC BY-SA 2.0
As of the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame class, third base has the dubious distinction of having the fewest inductees in Cooperstown by any fielding position (17), which speaks to the degree of difficulty required to play the “hot corner” and to excel both offensively and defensively there over a sustained period of time. Luckily for baseball fans of my generation, we had the fortune of witnessing two of the greatest third basemen ever in Adrian Beltre and Chipper Jones. While one was a bit of a baseball nomad (Beltre) and the other a face of a franchise for nearly 20 years (Jones), both were without a doubt among the best players of their generation and at times, often underrated and under-appreciated for their greatness. 2018 was a milestone year for the two, as it marked Beltre’s retirement from baseball and Chipper’s induction into the Hall of Fame; with this era of third basemen from the 1990s coming to an end and a new generation emerging that includes stars such as Jose Ramirez, Nolan Arenado, Alex Bregman, and Kris Bryant, we should take a moment to pause, reflect, and ask:
Who was better – Adrian Beltre or Chipper Jones?
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