by Albert Belle was one of the greatest pure hitters in the history of the Cleveland Indians. He was a monster at the plate that opposing pitchers and managers feared.
He once smashed 50 homeruns and 50 doubles in a single season (1995), making it even more impressive was the fact that it was a strike shortened season where they only played 144 games. Every time number eight stepped up to the plate fans knew the possibility for something great happening was increased.
Based on numbers alone it would sound like he was a sure-fire fist ballot Hall all of Fame candidate. Intense hitter, rocket for an arm and the kind of hitter that could alter a game greatly simply by being the lineup.
He finished his career with 381 home runs, 295 batting average and 1239 RBI, 369 OBP and 564 slugging. All of that, in only 10 full seasons. Simply incredible!
So why isn’t he in the MLB Hall of Fame? Why didn’t he ever win MVP? Why do you really never hear his name now or is he mentioned with the greatest hitters in Cleveland Indians history? We don’t see him do talk panels, autograph sessions or anything with the fans or media. Something must have happened along the lines to alienate him to this point.
Well, whether it was a corked bat, a ball thrown at a fan, a thermostat busted or a second basemen ran over, it almost always seemed to be something. We will cover all of that and more in this informative 3-part series on Albert Belle.
He was perhaps Cleveland’s greatest pure hitter. You can argue Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez as well, but when you factor total body of work while playing in Cleveland, combined with a much lower strikeout total then Thome, and no steroid suspensions such as Manny, then we have ourselves quite the argument.
A lot of fans forget that Belle played four more seasons after leaving Cleveland in a hostile exit in the winter of 1996. He played great his two seasons in Chicago following his Cleveland departure. So much attention was given to Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 for their epic home-run chase, that many forget Belle belted an incredible 49 Home Runs with the White Sox that year as well.
Belle hit at least 35 home runs in 7 of his 8 seasons between 1992 and 1999. In the year he didn’t, 1997, he smashed 30 while also logging 53 bases on balls. If he wasn’t smashing home runs, he was crushing doubles, among the league leaders every single season as well.
He was a monster on the field, and a monster off of it, over the next three nights we will tackle all of it with quotes from former teammates and managers. Enjoy more on page two below as we being the story of Cleveland’s Greatest Villian.
Noce story. I think he is starting to talk to the media now. I hurd him on knr this winter. It was not a fan he through the ball at ot was a sports illustrated photographer named Tony Tomsic from Roc ky River oh