So, how and when did Adrian Beltre learn to deal with pain?

He doesn't have to take more than a few seconds to find his answer even though the moment came 20 years earlier.

"It was during a fight. I still have a bone bruise on the outside of my hand. I still played (Little League) baseball," he said, pointing to his right hand which was broken in the altercation.

"I'm not going to lie, sometimes it's stupid, But that's what I want to do. I want to be there every day. The team needs me to be there every day. I'm not going to take a day off because of some soreness or an injury."

The latest test of Beltre's resolve might not measure on his all-time most challenging injuries to overcome ("This isn't anything," he said of his recent hamstring woes), it isn't all that unfamiliar.

What the injury to Beltre's left hamstring represents is a reminder as to the battles he has had to fight.

As he explains, since tearing the same hamstring in 2000, it has been that part of both of his legs that have challenged the mind-set first entrenched as an 11-year-old pugilist.

"Hamstrings," Beltre once again answers without hesitation when asked what has been the most difficult injury to overcome during his professional career. 

"Some days my hamstring was so bad I couldn't even walk. Sometimes it hurts to jog. Especially some day games, when you get up in the morning and they are just killing me. I've always had hamstring problems, especially on the left side … I've learned how to play through it every year.

"The first few weeks my hamstrings are free but after that I have to deal with it."

It is an interesting answer considering some of the injuries Beltre has had to fight through. Perhaps the most notable ailment came on Aug. 13 of last season, when his decision not to wear a protective cup came back to haunt him as he took a ground ball in the crotch that ultimately led to bleeding in one of his testicles.

But even then, it wasn't hard to uncover the attitude as he actually finished out what turned into a 14-inning Seattle Mariners victory.

"I grew up like that. Sometimes the mind is stronger than the body," Beltre said. "My mind said that I wanted to be there every day. You're not going to play 162 games, but I wanted to be there every day. I know there are a lot of tests, and nagging and soreness, but the fact is that if you don't know how to play with pain and soreness you aren't going to play a full season so that's the way I look at it. 

"I always want to test myself and push myself to be there every day. So far I know how to play in pain and I've been doing that."

Beltre got good news Thursday when an MRI showed that his injured hamstring shouldn't present too much of a problem going forward. But what should be noted that it was far from the first time he has has to turn back the pain. He went five straight seasons playing in 156 games or more, and before the 2009 injury hadn't totaled less than 143 since 2002.

Another example of the third baseman's resiliency came in St. Petersburg last week when Beltre rocketed a foul ball off his left leg just moments after Kevin Youkilis had left the game with a foot injury. He remained in the game, saying after it was over, "It isn't broken, and if isn't broken it isn't a problem."

"You play through something like that and three or four days later you're OK," explained Beltre, who also credits his older cousins for roughing him up just enough to teach some valuable lessons.

"It was already in me. That's the way I think. That's how I've been over the years and I don't think it's going to change any time soon."