MESA, ARIZ. ? He and Barry Bonds, Honus Wagner and Ty Cobb are among six men in baseball history with at least three seasons of 100 runs, 100 RBIs and 30 stolen bases.

Last year he became the 11th man and the first switch hitter to bat over .300 while swatting more than 25 home runs and stealing more than 40 bases.

So just who is this superstar?

He’s quiet Carlos Beltran. The relatively obscure center fielder for the Kansas City Royals is probably the finest player in the game today whom most fans have barely heard of.

It’s a seemingly unfair lack of acclaim that would leave most standout players seething. But Beltran, 26, counts anonymity among his many blessings.

“I don’t expect people out there to know who I am,” he said. “I always pray to God to be a good player. But at the same time, I want a life. I want to do things that make me happy, go to movies and things like that. When you’re famous like A-Rod and Barry Bonds, those players, they can’t do that.”

During a 21-game turnaround in 2003 that produced Kansas City’s first winning campaign in nine years, Beltran had one of the Royals’ finest seasons ever.

After missing the first 14 games because of a strained muscle, he led the Royals in average (.307), runs (102), home runs (26), RBIs (100), walks (72), and stolen bases (41). The short list of players who have packed a .300 average, 100 RBIs and 40 stolen bases into a single season includes Barry and Bobby Bonds, Joe Morgan, Alex Rodriguez and Jose Canseco.

But even in his native Puerto Rico, where many kids dream of big-league careers, Beltran remains a relative unknown.

“I like that because I can be in peace,” he said. “I’ve never been to an All-Star game, I’ve never won a gold glove. I’ve never played in the playoffs. I always start slow. I finish strong, but I always start slow.

In another distinction, Beltran’s stolen base percentage of .882 (150-for-170) is the all-time best among players with at least 100 steals.

“If you’re not in the All-Star game, then you’re not a good player. That’s the way most people look at it,” he said.

Buck O’Neil, the Royals’ superscout and 90-year-old walking encyclopedia of baseball history, remembers when he first saw Beltran in 1995 in the Gulf Coast League.

“I immediately thought about the young Willie Mays,” he said. “Willie was 17 the first time I saw him. He could do everything. And so can Carlos Beltran. He can hit for average, hit for power, run, catch and throw. He can be as good as he wants to be.”