HOUSTON -- When he was 13 years old, little Enrique Hernandez, always undersized and underappreciated, found himself glued to the television every night in October. "I never missed a playoff game," he said, and that year in particular, 2004, had him rapt. For a kid growing up in Puerto Rico, baseball heroes abounded: Carlos Delgado, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada. At that moment, though, nobody was better than Carlos Beltran.
To see Beltran in the 2004 postseason was to see a painter rendering his masterwork. His potential blossomed, his talent radiated and his star glimmered. When he made an out, it was news.