David Roth calls our attention to the following gruesome comparision, as found at Faith & Fear In Flushing :
FOSTER VS. BELTRAN
FIRST YEAR AS A MET
THROUGH 135 GAMES
FOSTER 1982: 13 HR 63 RBI .252 AVG
BELTRAN 2005: 14 HR 62 RBI .265 AVG
adds Roth,
The fine writer Greg Prince, who made the comparison, claims that he has resisted making it all year. I would, too, mostly because it’s incredibly depressing to think that the Mets might’ve hooked into another George Foster for another half-decade. I feel bad getting on Beltran’s case — baseball is very difficult, he doesn’t seem like a jerk (robust 2004 support for Our President aside) and he’s likely playing with serious pain right now — but the spectre of Roberto Alomar and The Curse of the Instantly Disappearing Skills seems extra spooky right now.
Harsh stuff, but it should be stressed that Foster was 33 during his first season as a Met. He played in 151 games that year, so I’m presuming he contended with neither a strained hamstring nor a face to face collision with a teammate.