By
KENNY LACY JR.
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Puerto Rico and Curaçao may be small islands, but the support they showed was massive as elite center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. Both joined slugging second baseman Jeff Kent as the newest members before an estimated crowd of 12,000 fans at the Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown, with 57 other Hall of Famers on stage — creating the largest gathering of current Hall of Famers.Jones’ speech was almost like a love letter to his home country of Curaçao.“There’s no easy way to get here from the small island of Curaçao, more than 2,000 miles away,” Jones said. “But today Cooperstown and Curaçao are forever joined together.”The longtime Atlanta Braves outfielder, a 10-time Gold Glove winner and five-time All-Star, is the first player from Curaçao to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. But he said he doesn’t plan on being the last. He pointed to players who have followed him, including Ozzie Albies and Kenley Jansen, as part of the Curaçao legacy started by Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens.
Among the highlights, Jones’ tribute to his late father, Henry Jones, stood out. He said his father used to hit him flyballs from foul pole to foul pole to teach him how to track the ball, and how to build strong wrists by rolling a sledgehammer.“Everything he taught me had a purpose,” Jones said. “Henry Jones was a legend in Curaçao, a great player in his own right. And I’m not standing here in Cooperstown without his constant coaching. Dad, we did it.”
