Our long national nightmare is over: Beltre wears a cup

Adrian Beltre came to his senses and decided to start wearing a protective cup upon returning from the disabled list yesterday. He confessed to never wearing a cup, but three weeks on the sidelines with a testicle injury caused by a ground ball apparently changed his mind. Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times has more:

Beltre is getting fed up with all the questions and jokes flying around the past three weeks since he injured a testicle while trying to field a ground ball without the proper equipment. But while he says he’ll never answer that particular question again, manager Don Wakamatsu did the talking for him. “Adrian will wear a cup tonight,’' Wakamatsu said. “He’s played his whole career without it, but we’re just talking about for the future. Making sure that everything stays intact. It’s important for him to do that.”

Beltre might be “getting fed up” with all the jokes, but his teammates apparently aren’t. Thanks to Ken Griffey Jr., when Beltre came to the plate last night for the first time the theme from “The Nutcracker” was played over the PA system. I’m absolutely amazed that Beltre seemingly still had to be talked into donning a cup, because had the same gruesome thing happened to me I’d probably wear one 24 hours a day for the rest of my life. You know, just to, as Don Wakamatsu says, “make sure that everything stays intact.”