by Albert was born on August 25, 1966 in Shreveport, Louisiana. He grew up in Louisiana where he went by his middle name Joey. He earned a baseball scholarship at Louisiana State University.
He played well at LSU where he compiled 49 Homeruns with 172 RBI’ and 149 hits in only three seasons. He was a two time member of the all SEC team in 1986 and 1987.
His time there was not without controversy as in the 1986 College World Series; Belle went after a heckler in the stands who was shouting racist insults at him and was suspended from the College World Series.
The incident caused Belle to drop to the second round of the draft after many teams were scared to pick up Belle because of his short temper.
Shortly after leaving LSU and being drafted by the Cleveland Indians, he decided to start going by his real first name of Albert. Because of his hot temper and excessive drinking, he was quickly earning a bad reputation as Joey, and through counseling, it helped him decide that he may be better off playing by his birth name going forward.
His time in the minors was productive but also marred with another ugly incident. While playing in the Cape Cod league, he was sent home by the team after arguing with umpires, fans, other players and even his own teammates.
While playing in the Mexican League he was asked to leave the country after tossing a catcher’s mask out of the actual stadium.
While playing minor league ball in 1990 for the farm team in Colorado Springs, he destroyed a sink in the clubhouse with his bat in a fit of rage. He spent most of his 1989 and 1990 in the minors until being called up full time by the Indians starting in 1991.
That is when things starting getting better, a lot better! And we will get to all of that and more tomorrow.
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