"Our country is really proud of you" - MLB icon Albert Pujols celebrates fellow countryman Adrian Beltre's HOF induction

Adrian Beltre was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first ballet appearance on Tuesday, Jan. 23. His induction into the Cooperstown drew a heartfelt response from another MLB great, Albert Pujols.

Both players are from the Dominican Republic. Beltre is the fifth player from the Dominican Republic to make it to the Hall of Fame. He got the highest percentage of votes among players from his country. In a video uploaded on the official Twitter/X account of the MLB network, Pujols congratulated Beltre.

"Congratulations on getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. Our country is really proud of you. Thank you for representing us well, not just me, but for many other," said Albert Pujols. "What an amazing career. Well deserved. God bless you, brother."

Over his long and glorious career, Beltre played for 21 seasons with four teams — the Los Angeles Dodgers, Seattle Mariners, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers. Beltre is a four-time All-Star and five-time Gold Glove winner.

The 44-year-old made his MLB debut with the Dodgers in 1998 and later became an important part of the Texas Rangers from 2011 till his retirement in 2018. In his eight seasons with the Rangers, the third baseman batted .305, hit 199 home runs, and contributed 699 runs.

Beltre ended his career with 3,166 hits and had an all-time 18th rank in baseball history.

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Joe Mauer and Todd Helton elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024 along with Adrian Beltre

The baseball writers voted a whopping 95.1% for Beltre to enter the Hall of Fame. He had 366 voters in his favor out of 385. A player must have 75% or more of the votes from the submitted ballots to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Joe Mauer and Todd Helton have successfully cleared the 75% mark and are the new inductees in the Hall of Fame along with Adrian Beltre. As was the case for Beltre, it was the first time for Mauer and he received 293 votes, 76.1% of the submitted ballots.

This was the sixth attempt for Helton and he finally made it to the Hall of Fame with 307 votes, which is 79.7% of the ballots submitted. Last year, Todd Helton lost the opportunity to enter the Hall of Fame because of a minor 11-vote difference.

Adrian Beltre and the other inductees of the Hall of Fame will be inducted on July 21, 2024.