Please Ignore Facts and Stick to Narrative

Carlos Beltran of the St. Louis Cardinals clobbered two home runs in a rout of the Washington Nationals on Monday, helping his team tie the Division Series at one game apiece. Beltran is no stranger to postseason heroics: he famously parlayed his 2004 playoff explosion (8 homers in 12 games!) into a huge contract with the New York Mets. As Beltran's second Monday homer left Busch Stadium, baseball insider and CBS Sports writer Jon Heyman had this to say on Twitter:

carlos beltran is so completely totally awesome as playoff player. *except as a new york met
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) October 8, 2012

Heyman is probably referring to one specific moment of Beltran's playoff career with the Mets: Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series, when Beltran came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the bases loaded and his team trailing 3-1. Beltran famously struck out looking on an Adam Wainwright curveball and the Mets were eliminated.

So because Beltran didn't come through in that moment, he was a playoff choker with the Mets. Never mind that Beltran actually scored the Mets' only run of the game. Never mind that Beltran's OPS during that seven-game series was 1.054, and he hit three home runs. Never mind that in the previous series, when the Mets swept the Dodgers, Beltran reached base in half of his 14 plate appearances. Never mind that Beltran is one of the greatest active postseason players with a line of .362/.478/.819 and 13 home runs in 25 career playoff games. He failed that one time, so he couldn't have been very good after all.

Beltran's career is still defined by this one moment in one postseason at-bat, and for people like Heyman, that one moment clouds all of his other accomplishments. When Beltran's name appears on the Hall of Fame ballot, Heyman might not vote for him in part because of the looming specter of that one bad postseason moment. On the flip side, Heyman is more sympathetic to players like Jack Morris because of one great postseason moment. Yet in a vacuum, Morris making the Hall and Beltran missing it would be a joke.

Truthfully, Carlos Beltran shouldn't need another signature postseason moment to erase the memory of that one strikeout in 2006. But for his sake, I'm kind of hoping he gets one anyway.