Even through difficult times, Carlos Beltran is proud to be a forever Met

It took one question during a news conference — ‘When you decided to enter the Hall of Fame as a Met, what stood out to you about the organization?’ — and less than one minute for Carlos Beltrán to hint at his often rocky relationship with the team’s fanbase. “I would say it was my best years in baseball,” Beltrán began, “even though, at times, it felt difficult and it felt different.  Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Mike Puma about the inside buzz on the Mets.“Meaning, my relationship and sometimes how things went down — I don’t know the message that was sent out about me as a person or me as a player.

It’s hard to connect with a fanbase when the message out there is always negative.” The most memorable moment from his Mets career was among his worst, when he could not get a swing off against Adam Wainwright.He was booed at times.

He was not “Captain America” David Wright.He fought with the team about a knee surgery.

He spent 2005-11 as a Met, only about one-third of his 20-year MLB career.He spent some of that time as a Yankee, too, which does not further endear him to Mets fans. And yet, there he was Saturday at Citi Field, slowly walking in from center field to the infield to give a speech to polite, if not overwhelming, cheers, as the franchise celebrated a remarkable and great Met but not quite a beloved one in Queens (even if he was and is in Puerto Rico, which was well-represented). Beltrán now is a forever Met, his No.

15 unveiled and hung in the rafters as the organization also formally inducted him into the team’s Hall of Fame.In doing so, he completed a remarkable journey in which he learned about himself and Mets fans and felt what he called “closure” in being immortalized in a city in which he was not always welcome. A small-market star with Kansas City from 1998-2004, Beltrán signed a seven-year, $119 million free agent contract with the Met...