Game 143

September 30, 1995 – Albert Belle Has First and Only 50/50 Season

The strike-shortened 1995 season was quickly coming to a close. The Royals were in town for the final weekend of the regular season. Mark Clark took the hill against Dave Fleming on a beautiful fall Saturday afternoon in front of a sellout crowd. 

Clark and Fleming carried their teams through the first three inning scoreless until Tony Pena hit a comebacker to the mound with one out in the top of the third. Fleming left the game and Melvin Bunch took the mound for KC. 

In the top of the sixth, the Royals finally broke through when Brent Mayne smacked a line drive double into center field on Clark’s first pitch. Two batters later, Tom Goodwin deposited a home run into the bullpen giving the Royals a 2-0 lead. 

Kenny Lofton led off the bottom of the sixth with a perfectly placed bunt single and then stole second base. Omar VIzquel flied out to deep right field, allowing Lofton to tag and advance to third. Carlos Baerga grounded to short and was put out at first while Lofton came home. 

Next up was Albert Belle. Albert was one of the most fearsome power hitters of the mid-90s and had risen to legend status in Cleveland both for his prodigious power hitting, but also his fiery temper and off-field struggles. Belle smashed Bunch’s 2-2 pitch over the left-field home run porch and through the stadium gates onto Eagle Avenue. 

Belle’s homer was his 50th of the season, and marked the first and only time a player recorded 50 homers and 50 doubles in the same year. It tied the game at 2-2. 

Mike Hargrove turned the game over to the bullpen to start the seventh inning. Chad Ogea pitched a 1-2-3 seventh. Erik Plunk retired the Royals in order in the eighth. Jose Mesa walked Tom Goodwin in the ninth, but escaped with the tie intact. Alan Embree allowed a single by Juan Samuel to lead off the tenth, but promptly squashed the threat. 

Backup catcher Jesse Levins led off the bottom of the tenth with a double. Jeromy Burnitz came in to pinch run for Levins. The Royals intentionally walked Kenny Lofton. Omar Vizquel laid down a sacrifice bunt that advanced Burnitz to third. Carlos Baerga dropped the game-winning single into center for the Tribe’s twelfth and final walkoff win of the regular season. 

I remember this game playing on our small black and white TV that we kept in the walk-out basement. I was helping my father with fall yard work and we ran inside each time Albert came to bat to wait for history to be made on Channel 43. After Albert hit the home run, dad and I toasted with a 50/50 soda. 

Todd Helton had a 54 double 49 home run season in 2001. This is the closest that any player has come to completing the feat…and Helton played in 159 games that year. 

Belle was known to feud with the media. Mo Vaughn won the 1995 MVP award–a clear rebuke from the baseball writers. Vaughn had a strong season, but was nowhere near the historic stat line that Belle generated in the strike-shortened campaign of 1995. Belle later said, “Actually I’m surprised I got as many votes as I did [from the writers].” He received 11 first-place votes to Vaughn’s 12.

Baseball Reference Box Score

Honorable Mention – September 13, 1936 –  Bob Feller Strikes Out 17 at Age 17

Bob Feller arrived from Van Meter, Iowa in 1936 and instantly took over as baseball’s hardest-throwing strikeout pitcher. On this Sunday afternoon, the 17-year old rookie sat down 17 of Connie Mack’s Athletics on his way to a complete game 2-hit shutout.

Baseball Reference Box Score

Game 135

September 5, 1992 – Walkoff Win Against the Mariners Prefigures Biggest Matchups of the 90s

The 1992 Indians were 62-73 and in dead last in the American League East. The only team with a worse record were the Mariners at 56-80. Both teams were in the midst of decades-long rebuilding programs. The Indians had not made the playoffs since 1954, and the Mariners had their first winning season in franchise history in 1991–with a record of 83-79.

However, both teams had some rising stars that would later become some of the biggest figures in baseball. This late-season series between two basement dwellers prefigured some of the highest-profile matchups of the mid to late 1990s. 

Charlie Nagy was matched up with Randy Johnson for the Saturday afternoon matchup on the lakefront. Randy Johnson was tall, and he could throw a fastball but he was not yet “The Big Unit.” In fact, he led the league in walks in 1990, 1991, and 1992. 

Ken Griffey Junior blasted Nagy’s 2-1 pitch deep to right-center to lead off the top of the second with a home run. 

Nagy had his sinker working. He got out of both the second and fourth innings on ground ball double-plays. 

In the top of the fifth, Mariner’s catcher David Valle sent a line drive onto the home run porch in left to make it 2-0 Mariners. 

The Indians jumped ahead in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out bases-loaded single by Carlos Baerga tied the game. Then Albert Belle dropped one in over the third baseman’s head. Albert raced into second base as Felix Fermin and Baerga scored to give the Tribe a 4-2 lead. 

After consecutive walks in the sixth, Nagy was replaced by reliever Kevin Wickander. Wickander walked Griffer to load the bases, and then walked Tino Martinez on four pitches to cut the Indians lead to one run. Jay Buhner’s sacrifice fly tied the game 4-4. 

Randy Johnson pitched 7 ⅔, struck out eight Indians and walked seven. Jeff Nelson came in to match up with Paul Sorrento and recorded the final out of the eighth. The Indians then faced Russ Swan in the bottom of the ninth. After a Kenny Lofton groundout, Swan walked Felix Fermin. Carlos Baerga slapped a single through the left side of the infield that put the speedy Fermin on third. 

Wayne Kirby came on to pinch run for Fermin and Albert Belle came to the plate. Belle punched one past the shortstop and into the outfield. Kirby came home to score the winning run. 

Albert was 3 for 5 on the day with 3 RBI and a stolen base. He was coming into his own as one of the AL’s premier hitters. He would go on to lead the league in RBIs in 1993, as well as in 1995 (when he was robbed of the MVP) and 1996. 

Late in the 1992 season, Randy Johnson met Nolan Ryan during a series against the Rangers. Ryan suggested a slight change to Randy’s delivery that he credits with giving him greater control. For the next four years, Johnson led the league in strikeouts. He became a fixture in big matchups with the Indians. He was the Mariners on Opening Day starter in 1994 when the Tribe opened up Jacobs Field. He also the visiting starter in Game 3 of the 1995 ALCS. 

Both teams matured and came together during the strike-shortened 1994 season, and both achieved long-awaited playoff berths in 1995. Both clubs are still in search of a World Series trophy in this century.

Baseball Reference Box Score

Game 50

May 31, 1992 – Charles Nagy Win, Steve Olin Save

Before John Rocker played Twisted Sister, Chris Perez was the Firestarter, Andrew Miller told hitters to “Beat it,” and before Cody Allen reminded batters that “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” there was the Yellow Submarine. The Municipal Stadium organist would pipe up with a few bars of the Beatles jaunty classic as Steve Olin made his way from the bullpen to the mound.

Much like hockey goalies, closers have always been a bit different. Pitchers with short memories, and more than a few eccentricities probably because they only make the news when they fail.

Steve Olin came to the Indians via the 16th round of the 1987 amatuer draft. Since high school, various coaches had tried to get him to change his delivery and focus on a more traditional pitching style. Olin always insisted that he would make it with the submarine delivery that he felt comfortable with–he said that he learned it skipping stones as a child–or he would not make it at all.

By 1992, Olin was effectively the Indians closer, although manager Mike Hargrove had reservations about using Olin against left-handed hitters.

Charles Nagy was matched up with Jim Abbott for this Sunday afternoon game in Anaheim. Nagy. With the bases full of Angels in the bottom of the first, Rene Gonzales grounded out to second and the only out was the force at second. Two runs scored to put the Tribe in an early hole.

The Indians tied it up on two unearned runs in the top of the second. Both pitchers settled in after this point. Ultimately Nagy would go seven innings, giving up five hits, four walks and only the two runs noted above.

Abbott pitched seven innings, giving up seven hits, while recording four strikeouts. Carlos Baerga would drive in the Indians final two runs on a single in the top of the 5th and a fielder’s choice in the top of the 7th.

Olin was brought in to face Angel’s catcher Lance Parrish. On his fourth pitch, Parrish grounded into a game-ending double play off one of Olin’s submarine sliders. Olin got his 10th save of the season as the Tribe secured the 4-3 victory.

By season’s end, Olin  saved 29 games out of 36 opportunities. He set a club record with 72 appearances by a right-handed pitcher while posting an ERA of 2.34. Indians GM John Hart once remarked, “He had the heart of a lion, the guts of a burglar. He courageously threw that fringe stuff up there and got people out.”

Prior to the 1993 season, the Indians had only one off day built into their Spring Training schedule on March 22. Olin, Bob Ojeda, and strength coach Fernando Montes visited newly-signed reliever Steve Crews property on Lake Nellie near Winter Haven. Tragically, all three pitchers were involved in a boat accident after the cookout. Olin and Crews passed away from injuries sustained when the boat struck a neighbor’s dock.

Charles Nagy was particularly affected by the loss of the two young pitchers who treated him as something of a mentor, so it seemed appropriate to note this game which was one of two where Nagy was credited with the victory and Olin with the save.

Baseball Reference Box Score

Honorable Mention Loss: June 4, 1974 – 10 Cent Beer Night

Game 3

April 8, 1993 – Carlos Baerga Switch-Hit Home Runs in Same Inning

1993 started off with a disappointing 9-1 loss to the Yankees on Opening Day. The Indians bounced back in Game 2 for a 4-2 victory. The final game of the series fell on a surprisingly warm 71 degree early April day and saw Mike Bielecki facing Sam Militello. The Indians 1993 lineup will be familiar to fans of the late-90s playoff run, since it was the year when many of the core players began to come into their own and attract national notoriety including Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, and Sandy Alomar Jr.

The Indians jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st, and chased Militello after scoring another three runs in the bottom of the 3rd.

In the top of the 4th, Paul O’Neill hit a solo home run off Bielecki to put the Yankees on the board. In the bottom of the 6th, speedy Glenallen Hill had a leadoff triple and was driven home by a Felix Fermin bunt. The Yankees added three runs in the bottom of the 7th to make it a 5-6 game.

The bottom of the 7th was an offensive explosion that would be often imitated by the hard-hitting Jacobs Field teams of the later 90s. Alvaro Espinoza pinch hit for Jeff Treadway to lead off the inning with a single to right field. Carlos Baerga stepped in from the right side of the plate. On the 10th pitch of the at-bat, he launched a 380 foot home run to right-center. On the next pitch, Steve Howe hit Albert Belle. Angry words were exchanged, and Howe was clearly rattled. He gave up three consecutive singles to Paul Sorrento, Reggie Jefferson, and Glenallen Hill.

Steve Farr was brought in with two on and no outs. He immediately retired Sandy Alomar and Felix Fermin, but then lost his command. Kenny Lofton hit a single through the 3B hole, scoring Jefferson. He worked Espinoza into a full count, the crafty utility man homered to deep left field, clearing the bases and bringing Baerga back to the plate.

Always a talented switch hitter, this time Baerga stepped in from the left side of the plate. He sent the 2-0 pitch into the bleachers and became the only player to ever homer from both sides of the plate in the same inning. Baerga scored the 15th and final run of the game.

To date, 60 players have hit two home runs in the same inning in MLB history. Baerga’s switch-hitting feat has been matched twice to date, by Mark Bellhorn in 2002 and Kendrys Morales in 2012. In my mind, this is a baseball anomaly that is heightened in stature because it is both an individual and a team accomplishment. Hitting two consecutive home runs is a notable individual feat–and a very good day for any ballplayer. Likewise, batting around in an inning is not an everyday occurance and represents a very good day for a team. Hitting home runs from either side of the plate takes an exceptional switch-hitter. Combining all of this into one inning is truly a historic event.