by It was his claim that Belle had been corking his bat and that the homerun was not legitimate. A few moments later, Cleveland manager, Mike Hargrove, stormed the field to argue with the umpire, who allowed the bat to be taken away.
Hargrove explains what was going through his mind at that moment, “I have a real quick and bad temper; I get angry quick but I can also get over things quick. That was one of those times that it was a real good thing that I was that far away from the dugout. If I was much closer I would have been in there. I thought it was a real bush league move, they knew that Albert wasn’t using a corked bat. It was gamesmanship trying to avert Albert’s attention and it was just a chicken shit move to tell you the truth and I wanted to make sure Kevin knew that.” The crowd was going nuts as Albert Belle shot a look into the Red Sox dugout and pointed to his bicep. It was a heated moment that showed the fight and heart of the team.
The Indians would move on to sweep the Red Sox and then get past the Seattle Mariners in an exciting six game series in the ALCS. Belle was a key reason why the Cleveland Indians reached the World Series for the first time since 1954. No one would deny that, they couldn’t, it was clear. But as usual, it came with drama.
It was before game one of the World Series in Atlanta against the Braves that Belle once again had his usual bit of drama. He launched a profanity laced tirade against NBC female broadcaster Hannah Storm in the Cleveland dugout before one of the games. He was irate that a women wanted to interview him so close to such a pivotal game against the Atlanta Braves.
Shortly following the six-game loss to the Braves he was sitting at home on Halloween trying to lick his wounds in peace and quiet. His calm would not last long as a bunch of rowdy kids threw eggs at his house.
He saw the kids do this, so he promptly jumped in his SUV and chased them down, coming within inches of running them over. That would not be the last incident however, far from it.
The rage of Belle continued in 1996, when during pre game warm-ups he threw a ball at Sports Illustrated photographer, Tony Tomsic who was taking pictures from the designated area to do so. Belle later claimed that the ball got away from him, but few people bought the story.
That incident was shortly before Belle ran over Milwaukee Brewer infielder Fernando Vina who made the mistake of getting in Belle’s way trying to tag him. However, in that case, I must say Belle did nothing wrong and Vina got what he deserved standing in the base line.
Despite the ugly incidents, Belle once again had a stellar year as he hit 48 more homeruns and career high 148 RBI. He led the Indians back to the playoffs where they lost in the first round to the Baltimore Orioles.
