| Albert Belle | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Belle with the Chicago White Sox in 1997 | |||||||||||||||
| Left fielder | |||||||||||||||
| Born: (1966-08-25)August 25, 1966 (age 59) Shreveport, Louisiana, U.S. | |||||||||||||||
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |||||||||||||||
| MLB debut | |||||||||||||||
| July 15, 1989, for the Cleveland Indians | |||||||||||||||
| Last MLB appearance | |||||||||||||||
| October 1, 2000, for the Baltimore Orioles | |||||||||||||||
| MLB statistics | |||||||||||||||
| Batting average | .295 | ||||||||||||||
| Home runs | 381 | ||||||||||||||
| Runs batted in | 1,239 | ||||||||||||||
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |||||||||||||||
| Teams | |||||||||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Medals
| |||||||||||||||
Albert Jojuan Belle (born August 25, 1966), formerly known asJoey Belle,[1] is an American formerMajor League Baseballoutfielder who played from 1989 to 2000, most notably for theCleveland Indians. Known for his taciturn personality and intimidating stature, Belle was one of the leading sluggers of his time, and in 1995 became the only player to ever hit 50 doubles and 50home runs in a season, despite the season being only 144 games. He was also the first player to break the $10 million per year compensation contract in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Belle was a five-timeAll-Star andSilver Slugger. He retired with a .295 careerbatting average, and averaged 37home runs and 120runs batted in (RBIs) per season between 1991 and 2000. He is one of only 10 players in MLB history to have nine consecutive 100-RBI seasons.
Albert and hisfraternal twin, Terry, were born on August 25, 1966, inShreveport, Louisiana, the son of Albert Belle Sr., a high school baseball and football coach, and Carrie Belle, a former math teacher.[2] He attained the rank ofEagle Scout in theBoy Scouts of America.[1] Belle attendedHuntington High School in Shreveport, where he was a star baseball and football player, a member of theNational Honor Society, and vice president of the localFuture Business Leaders of America.[3] He graduated sixth in his high school class and made the all-state baseball team twice.[1] In 1984, he was selected to play for the US in theJunior Olympics, in which the U.S. won a silver medal.[4] He played outfield and pitched, winning one game. After graduation, Belle accepted a baseball scholarship toLouisiana State University.[4]
Belle played college baseball atLouisiana State University from 1985 to 1987, where he made first-teamAll-SEC in 1986 and 1987 and played in 184 games, with 585at bats, 194hits, 30doubles, 49 home runs, 172 RBIs, 157runs, a .670slugging percentage, and a .332 batting average. In 1986, he playedcollegiate summer baseball in theCape Cod Baseball League for theChatham A's and was named a league all-star, then returned to the league in 1987 to play for theHyannis Mets.[5][6]
In his junior year, he was batting .349 before an incident involving a heckler insulting him with racial epithets at an SEC Tournament game led to a suspension that kept him out of theCollege World Series.[7]
After college, Belle was drafted by theCleveland Indians in the second round (47th overall) of the1987 Major League Baseball draft.[8]
Belle made his major league debut on July 15, 1989, going 1-for-4 with one RBI in a 7–1 win against theTexas Rangers. He recorded an RBI single off Rangers pitcherNolan Ryan in his first career at bat.[9] On July 19, Belle hit his first major league home run and went 2-for-4, helping Cleveland to a 10–1 victory over theMinnesota Twins.[10] He ultimately played in 62 games during his first season, batting .225 with seven home runs and 37 RBIs.[11]
Belle became the fourth player to have eight straight seasons of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs, joiningBabe Ruth,Jimmie Foxx, andLou Gehrig (a feat since matched byAlbert Pujols,Rafael Palmeiro,Manny Ramirez, andAlex Rodriguez). He was an accomplished baserunner, with a career-high 23 steals in 1993, and 17 steals in 1999 despite hip problems that plagued him late in his career. He led the league three times in RBIs, three times in total bases, three times in extra-base hits, and twice in slugging. He was a five-time All-Star between 1993 and 1997. He had a strong throwing arm and was a gifted pitcher in high school. His range factor by games played was consistently higher than the major league average at that position;[11] nevertheless, he still managed to accrue a -63 "total zone runs" during 12 major league seasons.[11]
Belle's career highs in home runs, RBIs, batting average, runs scored, and walks occurred in five separate seasons. In 2006, theHardball Times published a statistical comparison of Belle's career statistics with those of 60 of his current and former peers. The article ranked him in career "prime value", behindHall of FamersRalph Kiner andFrank Thomas.[12]
In 1992, Belle would have become one of only five players in MLB history to hit a home run over the left-field roof ofDetroit'sTiger Stadium (joiningHarmon Killebrew,Frank Howard,Cecil Fielder, andMark McGwire), but the ball struck a light tower on top of the roof and fell back into the stands.[13]
.jpg)
In 1994, Belle lost the batting title toNew York Yankees outfielderPaul O'Neill, .359 to .357.[14] In 1995, Belle became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season;[7] the last player before him to reach as many as 40 in both categories had beenWillie Stargell in 1973.[15] The achievement was more impressive because Belle played only 143 games in 1995 due to a season shortened by the previous year's player strike.
Belle's surly reputation and disdain of the media cost him votes for the 1995MVP Award. He finished second in the voting to theBoston Red Sox'Mo Vaughn, though he led theAmerican League that season in runs scored, home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, and total bases, and outpaced Vaughn head-to-head in every important offensive category except RBIs (both men had 126); both players' teams reached the playoffs.[16] This was in the middle of a three-year streak in which Belle finished third, second, and third for the American League MVP. Belle had two other top-10 MVP finishes, in 1993 (seventh) and 1998 (eighth).[11]
On November 19, 1996, Belle signed a five-year, $55 million (equivalent to $108 million today) deal with theChicago White Sox as a free agent. This contract made him the highest-paid player in baseball for a brief period and the first player in baseball history to make $10 million in a season.[17][18] He enjoyed two great seasons in Chicago, including a career-high 27-game hitting streak in May 1997, and came close to another 50/50 season in 1998 with 49 home runs (a White Sox team record that still stands) and 48 doubles.[11] He also drove in 152 runs to breakZeke Bonura's single-season franchise record of 138 in 1936 (to date, the RBI total also remains a White Sox single-season record).[19] Additionally, whenCal Ripken Jr. ended his record consecutive game streak at 2,632 in September 1998, Belle took over as MLB's active leader in the category (his streak of 392 consecutive games ended the next year due to a perceived lack of hustle viewed by his manager).[7]
Belle's contract with the White Sox had an unusual clause allowing him to demand that he would remain one of the three highest-paid players in baseball. In October 1998, he invoked the clause, and when the White Sox declined to give him a raise, he immediately became a free agent.[7] He again became the game's highest-paid player, signing a five-year, $65 million ($123 million today) deal with theBaltimore Orioles on December 1, 1998.[20] His career ended just two seasons later, though, when he was forced into retirement at age 34 by degenerative hiposteoarthritis. He was kept on Baltimore's active 40-man roster for the next three years as a condition of the insurance policy that largely reimbursed the Orioles for the remainder of his contract.
Belle homered in the final at-bat of his MLB career atOriole Park at Camden Yards on October 1, 2000.[21]
In 1,539 games over 12 seasons, Belle posted a .295batting average (1,726-for-5,853) with 974runs, 389doubles, 21triples, 381home runs, 1,239RBIs, 88stolen bases, 683bases on balls, .369on-base percentage, and .564slugging percentage. Defensively, he recorded a .976fielding percentage playing at left and right field. In 18 postseason games, he hit .230 (14-for-61) with 10 runs, two doubles, six home runs, 14 RBIs, one stolen base, and 14 walks.[11]
In 1990, the Indians sent Belle to theCleveland Clinic for two months foralcoholism rehabilitation.[1]
Belle was suspended in 1994 for using acorked bat, resulting in a seven-game suspension.[22] The incident gained further notoriety whenteammateJason Grimsley crawled through the building's ceiling panels to break into the locked umpires' dressing room, where he replaced Belle's corked bat with a teammate's bat. The revelation of Belle's use of corked bats was later given more emphasis when Cleveland teammateOmar Vizquel wrote in his 2002 autobiography that it would be naive to suggest otherwise, and that "all of Albert's bats were corked."[23]
Belle was fined in 1996 for knocking downBrewers infielderFernando Viña, who had blocked his way between bases.[24]
A profane outburst directed at a group of reporters in his team's dugout was widely reported during the1995 World Series. He was unrepentant afterward: "The Indians wanted me to issue a statement of regret when the fine was announced, but I told them to take it out. I apologize for nothing."[25] Eventually, Belle routinely refused to speak with the media whatsoever, explaining that players likeSteve Carlton also did not interview and that he preferred to concentrate on baseball.[26]
JournalistBuster Olney wrote:
In 2001, following his retirement,New York Daily News' columnistBill Madden wrote:
In his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility (2006), he garnered only 7.7% of the baseball writers' votes, missing election by an extremely wide margin.[29] His vote total, though, was high enough to keep his name on the ballot for the following year. In 2007, he received only 19 votes (3.5%), knocking him off the ballot.[30]
In retirement, Belle had his first encounter with the Cleveland Indians since leaving the club in 1996, during their 2012 spring training inGoodyear, Arizona, and was joined by former teammates Kenny Lofton,Sandy Alomar Jr., andCarlos Baerga.[24] In spite of this, Belle declined both to attend the 20th-anniversary celebration of the 1995 World Series team in 2015 and the 2016 ceremony when he was inducted into the Indians team Hall of Fame.[31]
In October 1995, Belle's house inEuclid, Ohio, wasegged by teenagers after he turned awaytrick-or-treaters onHalloween. Belle chased one of the trick-or-treaters in his car.[32] Belle was fined $100 for reckless operation of a vehicle. The guardian of the teenager later sued Belle for $850,000, contending that Belle's car had bumped into the teenager.[33] The lawsuit was settled in 1997.[34]
In 2006, Belle was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years' probation after he admitted to stalking his former girlfriend.[35]
On March 25, 2018, Belle was arrested inScottsdale, Arizona, and charged withindecent exposure anddriving under the influence.[35] All charges were dismissed the following month.[36]
College (LSU):
Major League Baseball (Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles):
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | American League Player of the Month June 1994 August & September 1995 July 1998 September 1998 September 1999 June 2000 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
