Albert Belle Career Biography and Statistics

Bio:
Albert Belle was one of the most fearsome sluggers of the 1990s, and one of major league baseball’s most controversial characters. Albert and his twin brother Terry were the sons of Albert Belle Sr., a high school baseball and football coach.

In high school, Albert Jr. was a star baseball and football player. He was also a member of the National Honor Society and–ironically, in light of later incidents in which he threw a baseball at a heckling fan, chased another heckling fan in the stands, was convicted of stalking a former escort and adopted a surly, antagonistic attitude toward the media–vice president of the local Future Business Leaders of America.

In 1984, he made the U.S. Junior Olympics baseball team and became a highly sought-after baseball and football player by numerous universities. At Louisiana State University, he made the All-Southeastern Conference first team in 1986 and 1987 before being drafted by the Cleveland Indians.

It was during his successful minor league career that he acquired a reputation for truculent, erratic behavior fueled by excessive drinking and a volcanic temper. However, he made his big league debut for Cleveland in 1989 and within two years had become one of the top sluggers in the American League, leading a star-studded Indians squad to the AL title in 1995 and the division crown the following year. Belle led the AL in home runs with 50 in 1995; he led all players of the 1990s with 1,099 RBIs and 711 extra-base hits. He was a five-time All-Star, four times as a member of the Indians and once with the Chicago White Sox, with whom he signed as a free agent in 1997.

Two years later, he took advantage of a special clause in his contract to become a free agent again, signing a five-year, $65 million deal with the Baltimore Orioles that made him baseball’s richest player. Unfortunately, Belle had to retire two years later at age 34 due to degenerative osteoarthritis in his hip.