Albert Belle Recounts Incident With Fernando Vina

Originally posted on FanNation Cleveland Baseball Insider
By Tommy Wild | Last updated 1/29/24

The Cleveland Indians teams of the 1990s had some legendary players on the roster, but none of those teams would be complete without talking about the great Albert Belle. Belle was one of the best players in all of baseball when he was with Cleveland from 1989 to 1996.

Belle has some incredible stories from when he wore an Indians uniform and he sat down with Cleveland native Chris Rose on the Rose Rotation Podcast to talk about his big league career.

One incident that many fans probably want to hear Belle's perspective on is what happened between him and Fernando Vina. The two collided between the first and second baseline creating this famous clip:

This is what Belle said about the incident:

"I tell people, I say, 'Fernando Vina, he got up, dusted himself off, and acted like he was going to come after me and I'm like, bro, it's not going to look good me whooping up on you."

Here's the funny part of the whole story. Belle said he warned Vina about blocking the basepath earlier in the game. When almost the exact same play happened. Vina didn't listen to the warning which caused Belle to take exception and that's how we got the infamous clip that's still replayed today.

"And I told him earlier not to come in the baseline because it happened on Eddie Murray's at-bat a couple of innings before. Eddie Murray in the first at-bat, he hits a ground ball to him, [Vina] comes in the baseline and tags me and it caught me off guard and I was like, 'Oh, don't do that again.' Sure as s---, Eddie hits the same ground ball ... I thought he was going to pitch it and he came in and knocked him. I was like 'I told you don't do it.'"

Belle is a Cleveland sports legend, however, he rarely makes media appearances such as this one. Having these stories come to life is a treat for all fans especially for those who grew up with the 90s teams.

This article first appeared on FanNation Cleveland Baseball Insider and was syndicated with permission.

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