Careers cut short: Albert Belle

Nobody feared opposing pitchers more in the 1990s than Albert Belle who had 8 consecutive years of 30 home runs and 100 RBI from 1992-99, but hip problems ended his career at the age of 34. Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images.

Jack Butler

It’s 1986, and the Cleveland Indians are in the 26th year of their 33-year slump where they went 84-78 for 5th in the 7 team American League East – the most wins they had since in a season since 1979. Cleveland was awarded the 47th overall pick in the 1987 MLB June Amateur Draft and selected Albert Belle out of LSU. Belle quickly rose through the ranks of the minors as he played in 149 games from A ball to AA, compiling 153 hits, 49 doubles, 32 home runs, 119 RBI with a .289 batting mark, .363 OBP, .562 SLG, and .925 OPS.

He made his major league debut on July 15, 1989, facing the legendary Nolan Ryan and singled home Pete O’Brien in the bottom of the first to help Cleveland defeat the Texas Rangers 7-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Belle played in 61 more games for Managers Doc Edwards and John Hart where he collected 49 hits, 8 doubles, 7 home runs and 37 RBI while just hitting .225.

Belle only played in 9 games in 1990 as he spent two months at the Cleveland Clinic for alcoholism rehabilitation. In those games, he had 4 hits in 23 at bats, 1 home run, and 3 RBI to hit .174. In 1991, Belle broke out for 130 hits, 28 home runs, 95 RBI, and batted .282 with a .863 OPS and never looked back. Cleveland went 57-105 that season which was the worst record in all of baseball, but with promising young talent in Belle, Carlos Baerga, Charles Nagy, and Sandy Alomar alongside Manager Mike Hargrove there was a bright future off the shores of Lake Erie.

1992 was he beginning, as Cleveland saw a 19-win improvement to finish 76-86 where Belle had his first of 8 consecutive seasons of 30 home runs and 100 RBI with 34 homers and drove in 112. In the last season at Old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Belle led the Indians to another 76-86 record and had 172 hits, 38 home runs, an MLB leading 129 RBI while hitting .290 with a .922 OPS, made his first of five straight AL All-Star selections and awarded his first Silver Slugger. Belle finished 7th in the AL MVP voting and his teammate Baerga finished 10th.

A new era for the franchise began with the opening of beautiful Jacobs Field on April 4, 1994, that started one of the most successful periods of baseball in Cleveland. Belle had a hit in the home opener that ended on a Wayne Kirby walk-off single in the 11th to give the Indians the 4-3 over Randy Johnson and the Seattle Mariners. When the 1994 Strike ended the season early on August 14, Cleveland was 66-47 and a game behind the Chicago White Sox. In the shortened season, Belle had 36 home runs, 101 RBI and a 1.152 OPS while losing the batting title to New Yankees rightfielder Paul O’Neil who had a .359 mark which was two tenths of a batting point better than Albert’s.

The 1995 campaign started in late April due to the end of the strike and Belle experienced his best year of his career with 173 hits, leading the league in runs with 121 and tied Mo Vaughn with 126 RBI while being tops in MLB with 52 doubles, 50 home runs, a .690 SLG, and 377 total bases. He became the first and still only player in baseball history with 50 2B and 50 HR in a seasons that was 144 games, nonetheless.

Belle led Cleveland to the AL Central Division Title and the clubs first postseason appearance in 41 years where they swept the Boston Red Sox in the Division Series and then defeated the Mariners in 6 games to win the American League pennant. The Indians faced the Atlanta Braves in the World Series where Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine shut down the best offense in the AL with the latter being named WS MVP. In 14 games that October, Belle batted .306 with 4 home runs and 8 RBI. Following Cleveland’s most successful season since 1954, Belle was robbed of the MVP by Vaughn because the latter's character was better than the former's even though the Indians’ leftfielder had better numbers than the Red Sox first baseman that season.

The next year, Belle led Cleveland to their second consecutive AL Central Title. During the season, he had 187 hits, 48 home runs, and a league leading 148 RBI with a .311 batting mark. In the ALDS, Cleveland was upset by the Baltimore Orioles in four games as the Indians pitching staff let them down, especially closer José Mesa blowing a 3-2 lead in the 9th inning of Game 4. Belle hit .200 with 2 home runs and 6 RBI in his final playoff series in a Cleveland uniform.

Belle became a villain in the offseason after he signed a 5-year, $55 million contract with the rival White Sox which was the at the time the highest contract in baseball history. Indians fans let him hear it when he was announced during the player introductions at the 1997 All-Star Game at Jacobs Field. Belle played on the South Side of Chicago from 1997-1998 and collected 374 hits, 79 home runs, and 268 RBI while hitting .301.

In the 1998 offseason, he was on the move to become the highest paid player once again when he signed a five-year, $65 million deal with the Orioles. He only played in two of the five years, but put-up Belle like numbers with 181 hits, 37 homers, and 117 RBI in 1999 and 157 hits, 23 homers, and 103 RBI in 2000. Unfortunately for Belle, his career came to an end sooner than anyone expected in 2001 when he was diagnosed with a degenerative hip condition and forced to retired.

Albert Jojuan Belle was a rare slugger who hit for both power and average and feared by pitchers for close to a decade. Today he's known for his corked bat incident while being rude to the media, but nobody questioned his abilities with the bat. The Contemporary Baseball Era Players Committee should consider him for enshrinement into the National Baseball Hall of Fame as his career numbers of 1,726 hits, 381 home runs, 1,239, hit .295 with a .933 OPS, and 144 OPS+ are outstanding which are comparable to Hall of Famer Jim Rice's. Whether he’s elected or not, Belle will be remembered as an all-time great who was bound for the Hall until his hip gave out.

Sources

Albert Belle Stats. Baseball Reference. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/belleal01.shtml

Frey, Jennifer (7 May 1996). The Belle of Cleveland is Silent. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1996/05/07/the-belle-of-cleveland-is-silent/6a7fabac-17e0-4d3f-93c4-687570109b21/

Hill, David (30 June 2017). Baltimore Orioles History: Albert Belle Has Degenerative Hip. FANSIDE. Retrieved April 25, 2022, from https://www.foxsports.com/stories/mlb/baltimore-orioles-history-albert-belle-has-degenerative-hip