Mo Vaughn robbed Albert Belle of the 1995 AL MVP Award

Cleveland Indians left fielder Albert Belle, who played with the organization from 1989-1996, watches a ball he hit during the 1995 American League Championship Series at the Kingdome in Seattle, Washington. Photo by Stephen Dunn / Getty Images.

Written by Jack Butler jbutle58@lakers.mercyhurst.edu

Photos obtained by Daniel Ranallo dranallo7044@gmail.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Love him or hate him, Albert “Joey” Belle was one of the most feared sluggers of the 1990s. Belle could send a pitchers’ mistake to Lake Erie but throughout his career had numerous tirades, outbursts, and on the field incidents with the media and staff members.

In a July 15, 1994, game against Central Division rival Chicago White Sox, one of Belle’s corked bats had been taken by the umpires. The Society of American Baseball Research player (SABR) biography of Belle thoroughly details the events that followed to retrieve the bat. The umpires locked the bat in the umpires’ room which followed the league’s policy. Knowing that Belle’s bats were all corked, Cleveland Indians pitcher Jason Grimsley snaked his way through a maze of ceiling tiles and ductwork in the insides of Comiskey Park II. Once Grimsley made it to the umpires room, he switched the bats and according to other individuals of the Indians’ ballclub, he needed to put a Paul Sorrento bat in place of Belle’s since all of his bats were corked. [1] When the 1995 season began in late April following the end of the 1994 players strike Belle had arguably the most productive and dominant campaigns in Major League History.

Belle became the first and still the only member of the 50 homers and 50 doubles club, doing so in 143 games with the Cleveland Indians. On Saturday, September 30, 1995, he launched his 50th bomb of the season to the home run porch in left field off Kansas City Royals hurler Melvin at a sold-out Jacobs Field (Click this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVAZxPQElZM&t=6s to watch Belle etch his name in baseball history). [2] The twenty-eight-year-old left fielder finished the season leading the American League in runs scored with 121, doubles, homers, and RBIs with 126 while also being first in slugging percentage at .690. [3] More impressively, Belle had 103 extra-base hits in 95 and hit at an amazing .317 batting mark. With his outstanding numbers and the other talented ballplayers and pitchers around him, the Indians went 100-44, swept Mo Vaughn, and the Boston Red Sox in the American League Division Series. Then in the Championship Series, Cleveland bested the Seattle Marines in six games and was going to its first Fall Classic since 1954.

After the Atlanta Braves shutdown, the Indians in games one and two at Fulton County Stadium, both clubs traveled to the Jake for games three to five. The Tribe was looking for a bounce-back win when Belle had other ideas by getting into a heated diatribe against many media members. NBC covered game 3 and according to on-field reporter Hannah Storm:

Initially he screamed at all the media to get out of the dugout in language that was horrible. Two or three men left. They were frightened. I was the only one who stayed, because I was waiting to do an interview with Kenny Lofton. When I stayed, he directed his tirade at me. [4]

Cleveland won two of the next three contests to make it a series, however, Atlanta’s’ southpaw Tom Glavine pitched a 1-hit complete game shutout in game six to claim the Braves' first World Championship. Bell’s attack on reporters and a denial to do interviews hurt his chances of winning a thought to be MVP. But another blow to the diva slugger was a second AL player having a then-career year and it was Red Sox first baseman, Mo Vaughn.

The twenty-seven-year-old slugger launched 39 homers, drove in an AL-leading 126 runs, scored 98 runs, and hit 28 two-baggers with a .300 batting average. Unfortunately, Vaughn struck out 150 times, more than any other player in baseball but only walked 68 times. [5] When comparing Vaughn’s numbers with Belle’s any baseball fan would tell you who should have been voted MVP. Albert Belle. Despite Belle mashing 21 more dingers, hitting 17 batting points higher, scoring 5 more runs, 24 extra doubles, and striking out 70 times less than Vaughn, he came in second for the award.

Mo Vaughn played first base for the Boston Red Sox from 1991-1998 where he was a 3-time AL All-Star and lone MVP Award winner in 1995. Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images.

Once Belle found out the results of the MVP voting, he expressed:

Actually, I’m surprised I got as many votes as I did, as he received 11 first-place tallies to Vaughn’s 12. I’m kind of upset that they give baseball writers all this power when other media people who were former ballplayers should be involved in the voting too. Maybe it should be 50-50 with those guys and the writers. Or maybe not let the baseball writers vote at all. [6]

Belle has a point as the writers are the individuals that interact with the ballplayers regularly. If they do not like how the players behave or act, the journalists might have a dislike toward them. Thus, these individuals can use their power to vote against hard people to interview which is the reason Belle received fewer votes than Vaughn. Nevertheless, it’s understandable to vote for better statistical numbers, but in Albert’s case, it should not matter how friendly or mean you are toward the media since the only important factor is what’s done on the field. Belle accomplished a feat never reached in baseball history, 50 homers and 50 doubles in the same season, and only earned a Silver Slugger Award for it.

If MLB could go find Dr. Emmett Brown and Marty McFly from Back to the Future Universe and time travel back to April 1995 to warn Belle of what could happen if he does not change his attitude...no AL MVP...But even though Belle does not cooperate at first, McFly and Dr. Brown convince the AL-All-Star and Silver Slugger winner to trust them since it would increase chances of getting inducted into Cooperstown. This would be awesome if it happened as Belle was the cruelest MVP snub of all time since just because a ball player is phenomenal on the field does not mean it needs to be one off of it, especially to the media, beat writers, reports asking ”Joey” questions to be claimed MVP. More interestingly, Belle said this when talking to the media about not wanting to discuss anything with them:

I don't get excited talking about myself"Guys such as Sandy Koufax, Joe DiMaggio and Steve Carlton did not interview, and it was no big deal. They were quiet. I am also quiet. I just want to concentrate on baseball. Why does everyone want to hear me talk, anyway?"[7]

Even when Belle told the media his dislike of them bombarding him with questions, they still attacked the heatted slugger, especially Buster Olney of The New York Times who documented Belles' tirads in the Indians Clubhouse:

It was a taken in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts... The Indians billed him $10,000 a year for the damage he caused in clubhouses on the road and at home, and tolerated his behavior only because he was an awesome slugger... He slurped coffee constantly and seemed to be on a perpetual caffeinated frenzy. Few escaped his wrath: on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet...launching plates into the shower... after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitors' clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton's boombox. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60 degrees, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was "Mr. Freeze."[8]

Through Albert Belle's short twelve year MLB career, he launched baseballs a long way, got into countless tirads with the media, teammates, and staffers while becoming one of the biggest diva's in the history of the game. Without Belle being a flamboyant and fierce figure than he does not make a huge impact on the game such as how much players were getting paid, what they said to reporters, and how they acted on the field.

Endnotes

[1] albertbelle.net/timeline.php. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from http://www.albertbelle.net/timeline.php [2] [JLTRAIN233]. (2013, March 8). Albert Belle – 50th Home Run – Tom Hamilton. [Video file]. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVAZxPQElZM&t=6s [3] Baseball Reference. (2020). Albert Belle Statistics [Data file]. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/belleal01.shtml [4] Engster, Jim. (2015, February 9). Albert Belle, man of mystery and mastery. Tiger Rag Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2020, from https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1d993b9b [5] Baseball Reference. (2020). Mo Vaughn Statistics [Data file]. Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/v/vaughmo01.shtml [6] Lorain [Ohio Morning Journal]. (1996, January 14). Retrieved April 29, 2020, from https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/1d993b9b

[7] Enders, Eric (2001, April 23). "In Defense of Albert Belle". Baseball Think Factory. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/primate_studies/discussion/eric_enders_2001-04-23_0

[8] Olney, Buster (2004).The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty. New York, NY: Ecco. pp. 133-134.ISBN978-0060515065.