Posted on 01/05/2005 5:58:20 AM PST by GreatOne
Imagine the sight of Albert Belle stepping up to the lectern in Cooperstown in 2006 and giving an impassioned speech about his love of baseball.
Can't picture it?
Neither can I.
But that won't stop me from voting for Belle when his name appears on the Hall of Fame ballot next December, his first year of eligibility.
The voting guidelines ask that eligible Baseball Writers Association of America voters consider a player's "record, playing ability, integrity, sportsmanship, character and contributions to the team(s) on which he played." Obviously, there are many who consider Belle's anti-social behavior to be a character defect, considering he once chased some kids in his truck after they egged his house one Halloween, threw a ball at a photographer and launched into an obscenity-laced tirade against a female television reporter.
But if "character" really were a factor in Hall of Fame voting, players like Ty Cobb never would have made it in. There are few saints in the Hall of Fame, including one of this year's inductees, Wade Boggs.
Looking at the pitiful vote totals the surly Jim Rice has received in his 11 years on the ballot, I realize voting for Belle is a lost cause. But I never saw a more feared hitter than Belle in his prime.
Playing in an era with Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, Belle was the most dominant slugger of the 1990s, driving in more runs (1,099) than any other player. He earned five Silver Slugger awards with Cleveland and the White Sox and finished among the top 10 in MVP voting five times despite his famous disdain for sportswriters.
Some believe Belle's ornery demeanor was solely responsible for his second-place MVP finish in 1995, when he finished eight points behind Boston's Mo Vaughn despite playing for a pennant winner and being the first player in history with 50 home runs and 50 doubles.
Belle ranks 17th in major-league history with a .564 slugging percentage, making him one of the game's greatest power hitters. Few realize Belle's .655 slugging percentage with the Sox in `98 was higher than Sammy Sosa's .647 percentage with the Cubs during his 66-home run season that year.
After retiring at the age of 34 in the spring of 2001 because of degenerative arthritis in his right hip, Belle basically disappeared from view. He lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., and follows the Minnesota Vikings around. Belle told Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist Patrick Reusse last week that the low point for him as a Vikings fan was being at Soldier Field last month during the Vikings' 24-14 loss to the Bears.
"What was so upsetting was to see Chad Hutchinson have a great game," Belle said. "I told the people I was with at the game, `Watch him the rest of the year. He's going to be garbage.' And he has been."
Belle's numbers are on par with those of Kirby Puckett, who was a first-ballot Hall of Famer and a friend to any sportswriter who was in need of a quote. Belle finished with 381 home runs and 1,239 RBIs in a 12-year career, numbers that are much higher than the 207 homers and 1,085 home runs Puckett produced in a similar 12-year career that was cut short by glaucoma.
Belle's .369 on-base percentage was higher than Puckett's .360, though he hit .295 in his career to Puckett's .318.
Puckett's image took a hit because of some questionable behavior after his retirement, well after he had been inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Belle can't erase his past. He only can hope enough voters ignore his image and look at the numbers he put up in a relatively short period of time.
I only interviewed Belle once in my career, during the 1997 All-Star Game, so my support has nothing to do with any kind of personal relationship. But I voted for Puckett and I'll do likewise for Belle for one simple reason.
He deserves it.
I don't agree with the comparisons to Kirby Puckett, who was a hitting machine, with 600 more hits and a lifetime batting average of .318. Puckett was also always considered to be one of baseball's good guys (unless, of course, you were married to him).
Go here for the Patrick Reusse column about Albert Belle. Good read.
That is considered a character defect? Dale Murphy should get in before Belle. He had over 400 HRs and was (I think) a three time MVP. He just played on bad teams.
Fair or not, sometimes a person's choices bring consequences. If Belle chose to be an assh*le, perhaps some future would-be assh*le will learn something from his outcome.
My one encounter with Belle was in a fitness club and I asked him to move so I could do some wrist curls on a bench he was occupying. He moved.
I agree on Belle. I'd put him in. Jim Rice too. This fixation on career numbers drives me nuts.
I cannot understand why Jack Morris is not in. His post season pitching was masterful.
For me, Belle is a borderline HOF candidate. He was very good, but I would have liked a bit more longevity. I think the author is remiss in his comparison of Belle and Puckett, though, by failing to note that Puckett was also an outstanding defensive player, winning 6 Gold Gloves as a centerfielder. That is not an insigificant part of Puckett's HOF resume.
Jim Rice I can see. I'm not so sure about Belle.
How many teams did Albert "Don't call me Joey" Belle play for? I was always impressed with his talent but then again, I like Barry Bonds too (Hey, no steroid is going to help you see and make contact with a 95mph baseball).
Also, didn't Joey get busted for corking? Sounds like he should just take a seat over in the corner next to Pete Rose. Afterall, integrity apparently counts, right?
OK. I won't fixate on career numbers, although, in some part, surely you can see that career numbers are the way to quantify a player's achievements. Without those career numbers, though, I'm wondering on what you would base your elections to the hall.
Albert Belle simply didn't (in my ever so humble opinion) have a long enough career to demonstrate that he was a player for the ages. 93-98 were, without doubt, great years statistically. As an O's fan living in Baltimore with a stat crazy teenage son, I'll say that his 37 homers and 117 rbi in 99 were the quietest big numbers put up in Baltimore for a long time.
His outfield play was horrendous, at least what I saw in his 2 years here in B'more. Not an all-around great player.
I just don't see him a hall of famer.
No on Belle. Good slugging numbers for the years he played, but in an inflated era. Didn't play long enough. Bad defensive outfielder and baserunner. OF/1b have to have the best numbers.
"There are few saints in the Hall of Fame, including one of this year's inductees, Wade Boggs."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he get caught cheating on his wife?
The more I think about it, the more I come down against Belle. He and Juan Gonzalez were very similar players. Gonzalez has the better career numbers, and I'm not so sure he's a HOF player, either. I couldn't justify putting Belle in, but not Gonzalez. And I'm not comfortable saying yes, both are HOF material. I think in the end I say Belle and Gonzalez are among that group of players who were very good, but fall just a bit short of the standard needed to get into the HOF.
And Reinsdorf learned never to put up huge bucks for a player again. Sigh....
If they're gonna only use hitting stats, then they'll have to create a hitters Hall of Fame. Even then Belle should have no chance. In 8 years there will be plenty of 450 HRs guys hovering who don't belong in the Hall, guys who had 8 big years and then just stuck around being average(Griffey). Gonzales, Frank Thomas, Belle are pouty, lousy fielders who never hustled, and killed a team with there laziness, bad attitude, and chronic injuries. The hall is for the 15 year total package guy who you could always count on in any situation.
One thing that separates baseball (from an offensive standpoint, at least) from other sports is that longevity truly does matter -- because it really isn't the kind of sport where careers are cut short by injury on a regular basis. An NFL running back like Gale Sayers or Terrell Davis can make the Hall of Fame on the basis of five or six great seasons, but an outfielder in Major League Baseball simply can't do the same thing on the basis of 8-10 dominant years.
As a fellow Orioles fan, watching him "play" for the Os was painful. His big numbers were quiet because he was always hitting solo homers when the game was out of hand. He goes in the Glenn Davis category of "I want my money back". No HOFer would have fans thinking that.
Orioles fans hurt at the name Glenn Davis the way Bosox fans cringe at the name Bill Buckner.
Curt Schilling, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley. Ouch.
No, but steroids can turn a 300 foot flyout into a 325 foot homer.
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