Oh lord, please make this happen. In this article by Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer about the next manager of the Cleveland Indians, Hoynes drops a bombshell near the end of it: former Indians star outfielder Albert Belle wants an interview.
"I'm just like Robin Ventura and Mike Matheny were last year," said Belle with a laugh, referring to the White Sox and Cardinals bosses. "I'm sitting on my couch waiting for my phone to ring."
Belle was one of the best hitters in baseball during his career in Cleveland in the 1990s, but a testy relationship with fans and the media led to his on-field ability being neglected and his vicious personality becoming his defining trait.
Some of Belle's career off the field lowlights include throwing balls at fans in the crowd who heckled him, leveling Fernando Vina in the middle of the basepath, being suspended for using a corked bat and having Jason Grimsley go through the ceiling to retrieve the bat, cursing out reporters and refusing to apologize, and destroying various clubhouses (and items located within) throughout the league.
He would probably be a terrible manager, but Indians games would be a much-watch event. If you think Bobby Valentine in Boston is an event, just imagine Albert Belle as a manager. Or…maybe not. Belle reunited with his former Indians teammates during spring training this year, and apparently was a much different guy. He's now a stay-at-home dad that apparently hasn't picked up a bat since 2001. But just imagine if this was the same Albert Belle from the mid-90s…man, that would be fun to watch. Hell, the Indians should just drag back everyone from those dominant teams to coach the 2013 team. It can't get much worse, can it?
