My parents and I moved into our new house in the summer of '95. My first night in the new house, I was listening to the game on the radio in bed, and it was the night Belle hit a grand slam off Lee Smith in the 9th to take the lead. Great hitter. Great student of the game.
And crazy as a loon, but we loved him anyway.
grodt;735102 wrote:I never really got to see him with the Tribe (I wasn't really old enough), but I know he was a great power hitter and I still think he got jobbed in the '95 MVP race.
royal_k;735133 wrote:He was one of my favorite Indian of all time. And I love that shot! And yea, he did get fucked in 95. I think he was the only player to ever hit 50 HR and 50 doulbles in a season at the time, and I don't think anyone has done it since. He was the true MVP that year. But, the media hated him.
Yeah, he was definitely no media child. I believe he was the one who threw a ball at a camera man that year (I think it was that year). The only reason they gave it to Vaughn was because he had the same number of RBI. Belle's numbers in every other relevant category were better.
Also, don't forget he had 36 bombs in just over 100 games in 1994 before the strike. And I believe he put up 48 or 49 in 1996 as well. I still remember thinking he looked so intimidating at the plate.
Oh, here's that picture.
Fab4Runner;735277 wrote:??
I'm even a Steelers fan, but I lol'd.
wes_mantooth;735579 wrote:I think that Omar's book tells the story of Albert's confiscated bat. The story of Jason Grimsly traveling through vents to get the umps locker room....it is a great read.
I thought it was Jeremy Burnitz? And the bat was allegedly Paul Sorrento's. I could be wrong, though.
Fun fact about Paul Sorrento. Up until 1995, no player had ever played over 100 games in a season while still having more RBI than hits. That year, two players did it. Mark McGwire had 90 RBI on 87 hits, and Sorrento had 79 RBI on 76 hits. Both played in 104 games. That really says something when the 8th man in your lineup puts up 79 RBI on just 76 hits in a shortened season. I believe that, of the starters, he had the team's worst batting average at .235 (which would probably earn him the 5th spot in the lineup on the Indians now
).
That was a HELLUVA team. Lead-off man with the most stolen bases in the American League (second-most in the MLB). Clean-up hitter with the most homers in the MLB. Seven of their nine regular starters had .300 or better batting averages (Alomar only had 203 at-bats because of knee problems, but still hit .300). The two who didn't bat .300? One of them won the Golden Glove at arguably the most competitive fielding position (Vizquel at SS), and the other, as mentioned before, had more RBI than hits (talk about clutch).
Couple that with their pitching staff. Every starter had a winning record, and four of them had winning percentages over .700 (Dennis Martinez at 12-5, Chuck Nagy at 16-6, Orel Hershiser also at 16-6, and Chad Ogea at 8-3). The
starting bullpen was nothing to be ashamed of either. Closer Jose Mesa had 46 saves (38 in a row without a blown save). And the worst ERA from any pitcher in their bullpen was Jim Poole's 3.75 ERA. He also had the worst winning percentage of all the regular pitching staff at .500 (3-3).
It's no wonder they won 100 games, even in a shortened season.
Top to bottom, that team was just amazing. I couldn't believe they lost the World Series.
ts1227;735687 wrote:They did get face to face, and the benches cleared, but they didn't end up throwing any punches.
Vina got his ass rocked. I wish the MLB hadn't had all the videos of it taken down. It was a thing to behold. As a former infielder, if you can help it, you stay OUT of the baseline for that very reason.
