Adrian Beltre has more than just his 3,000th hit to celebrate.
The Fort Worth Zoo has named its male reticulated giraffe calf Beltre after the Texas Rangers player.
This was in honor of Beltre’s major career accomplishment of reaching 3,000 hits. The news release said that “the Zoo wanted to give this calf a name that embodied his strength and liveliness that was apparent from day one.”
The calf Beltre is one of the largest giraffe calves born in the history of the Fort Worth Zoo and he was moving in minutes after being born. He was born weighing 185 pounds and was about 6 feet tall. The news release says that when fully grown Beltre will be 18 feet tall and will weigh up to 3,000 pounds, his version of the Rangers’ third baseman’s milestone.
The news release said that Beltre can be seen with his younger half-brother Buddy in their exhibit at the Zoo with the rest of the heard. Buddy, born a week after Beltre, was named in honor of a family member by Zoo friends and donors, the Jeff and Kelly Dillard family. When the African Savanna exhibit opens, Beltre and Buddy will join the herd in interacting with many other species in the new exhibit. The exhibit is set to open next year.
For more information on Beltre’s birth go to https://goo.gl/G2tbPr
For more information on Buddy’s birth go to https://goo.gl/TGw9a6
For more information about the Fort Worth Zoo go to fortworthzoo.org/