Cleveland Rocked by Zack Meisel

Author:Zack Meisel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Triumph Books
Published: 2020-03-10T18:14:50+00:00

8. “Pure Force and Power”

Hank Peters summoned Dan O’Dowd to his office one day. Peters, the team president, supplied O’Dowd, the director of player development, with a simple directive.

Dan, I think it’s time we cut ties with Albert.

This was not so much a friendly suggestion as it was an ironclad order. Peters was not planning on engaging in a thoughtful debate about the issue. Albert Belle had whipped a baseball at a bothersome fan who had teased the left fielder about attending his keg party. Belle had spent two months the previous summer in an alcohol rehabilitation program at the Cleveland Clinic. His throw left a welt on the man’s chest, earned him a suspension and a fine, and earned the Indians another headache.

The 1991 season was Belle’s first full year in the majors, and another chapter in a War and Peace–length novel full of his Cleveland triumphs and troubles. As he aged, his anger-fueled antics did not subside. There was the infamous corked bat incident, the berating of reporters—including a verbal outburst toward NBC’s Hannah Storm before Game 3 of the ’95 World Series, an incident that resulted in a $50,000 fine—and his Halloween night chase-down of some egg-heaving trick-or-treaters. In the earlier stages of Belle’s career, O’Dowd, the overseer of the Indians’ farm system, often had to play mediator/babysitter. He shook his head when Belle destroyed a clubhouse sink while playing at Triple-A Colorado Springs. O’Dowd cooked up suspensions. He took phone calls from Belle’s mother.

O’Dowd could rattle off the name of every promising prospect in the organization…and it would not take him very long. Only a few seconds, in fact, since the list was about 11 letters long.

A-L-B-E-R-T B-E-L-L-E.

The Indians employed some relatively intriguing young players but no one who came remotely close to possessing Belle’s potential.

“In ’89, ’90, we did not have much talent at all,” O’Dowd said. “We started to get talent as we got into ’92, ’93. Our drafts started to get a lot better and we started to accumulate talent.”

The plan was to construct a winner that could emerge as a contender in conjunction with the opening of Jacobs Field in 1994. Kicking Belle to the curb certainly would not aid that cause. So O’Dowd challenged Peters.

“Hank, we can’t cut ties with Albert,” O’Dowd fired back.

That did not go over too well.

“I’m not asking you,” Peters said. “I’m telling you. It’s time to cut ties with Albert.”

The Indians selected Belle in the second round of the 1987 amateur draft out of LSU. He did nothing but crush minor-league pitching, and he received his first promotion to the big leagues in 1989, when he spent the second half of the season with the Indians. In ’91, Belle batted .282 with 28 home runs, 95 RBIs, 31 doubles, and an .863 OPS in 123 games with Cleveland. At that point, the Indians hadn’t yet traded for Kenny Lofton. They didn’t have Omar Vizquel or Eddie Murray. Jim Thome was a well-regarded infield prospect, but he didn’t even reach the legal drinking age until late that summer, and he was as thin as a twig.

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