Athletes - Albert Belle

Home > Listing Index > Athletes > Albert Belle

	Athletes - Albert Belle

Albert Jojuan Belle (born August 25, 1966 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, and Baltimore Orioles. Considered by many one of the leading sluggers of his time, he was the first player to hit 50 doubles and 50 home runs in a single season when he accomplished the feat in 1995, a season which was shortened from 162 to 144 games because of a players' strike.

Belle was also considered a model of consistency, compiling a .298 career batting average, averaging 37 home runs and 120 RBI a season over the ten years of his major league career from 1991 to 2000. Belle is also one of only six players in major league history to have nine consecutive 100-RBI seasons. However, his combative personality combined with occasional angry outbursts created a public persona for surliness that often outshadowed his on-field hitting performance.

Early life

Belle was born on August 25, 1966, in Shreveport, Louisiana the son of Albert Belle Sr., a high school baseball and football coach, and Carrie Belle, a former math teacher. Belle also has a fraternal twin, Terry Belle. Belle attended Huntington High School in Shreveport, where Belle was a star baseball and football player, a member of the National Honor Society, and vice president of the Future Business Leaders of America. Belle graduated 6th in his high school class and made the all-state baseball team twice. In 1984, Belle was selected to play for the USA in the 1984 Junior Olympics where the U.S. won a silver medal. He played outfield and pitched, winning one game. After graduation, Belle was offered many football and baseball scholarships, including one to the University of Notre Dame and an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. However, Belle decided to stay close to home and accepted a baseball scholarship to Louisiana State University.

College

Belle played college baseball at LSU from 1985–1987 where he made 1st team All-SEC in 1986 and 1987 and played in 184 games, with stats of 585 at bats, 194 hits, 30 doubles, 49 home runs, 172 runs batter in, 157 runs, a .670 slugging percentage, and a .332 batting average.

After college he was drafted by the Cleveland Indians. While in the minor league system he was known as "Joey" (his childhood nickname) and was thought of as a top prospect, but high-risk due to his temper and excessive drinking. Belle underwent counseling and became known as "Albert." Umpire Durwood Merrill, who wrote a book called You're Out, and You're Ugly, Too, tweaked Belle by calling him "Joey" long past the time when Belle was known by that name publicly.

Major league career

Belle became just the fourth player to have eight straight seasons of 30 home runs and 100 RBI, joining Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, and Lou Gehrig. He was a mediocre fielder, but a somewhat effective base stealer, with a career high of 23 steals in 1993, and a surprising 17 steals in 1999 despite hip problems. Belle led the league three times in RBI, 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. Remarkably, his career highs in home runs, RBI, batting average, runs scored, and walks occurred in five separate seasons. In 1994, he lost the batting title to the New York Yankees' similarly volcanic outfielder Paul O'Neill, .359 to .357. His postseason record was limited to two heavy-hitting appearances, in which only his batting average suffered: he hit .230/.405/.557 with six home runs and 14 RBIs in 61 at-bats.

In 1995, Belle became the first player in the history of the major leagues to hit 50 homers and 50 doubles in the same season: the last player to reach 40 in both those categories in a season was Willie Stargell in 1973. In 1998, Belle had another 40 homer / 40 double season.

His reputation, and more specifically his disdain of the media, almost certainly cost him the 1995 MVP Award; Belle finished second in the media voting to the Boston Red Sox's Mo Vaughn. Although Belle led the American League that season in runs scored, home runs, RBI, slugging percentage, and total bases, and despite Belle's outpacing Vaughn in every important offensive category except RBI (both men had 126), Vaughn was given the award. This was in the middle of a three-year streak in which Albert Belle finished 3rd, 2nd, and 3rd for the American League MVP. Belle had two other top ten MVP votes, in 1993 (7th) and 1998 (8th).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Albert Belle ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Albert Belle; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Athletes - Albert Belle

Early life

College

Major league career

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay