Legendary sportswriter and author, Jeff Pearlman, recently shared whom he thinks is the “craziest” and “scariest” athlete to have to cover for any journalist
The author of “Showtime,” “Gunslinger,” and “The Bad Guys Won!” believes the “craziest” and “scariest” to have spoken with is former Major League Baseball star Albert Belle.
“The craziest athlete any journalist had to cover, by far, hands down, and scariest, was Albert Belle." https://t.co/EPDtpUc1T4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 19, 2024
Pearlman said,
“The craziest athlete any journalist had to cover, by far, hands down, and scariest, was Albert Belle. Albert Belle was a huge guy who suffered from some serious mental illness. And you would walk up to him if you needed to talk to him…and you’d go, Hey, Albert, do you think I could bother you for a minute? And he would turn to you and just go like this.”
He also added,
“And you’d go, Yeah, I’m working on a piece about right-handed hitters, blah, blah, blah, stopping once again to do the blank stare before continuing. Yeah, so, I don’t know if you have a minute. And he’d say, You need to get away from my f***ing locker. And you’d be like, okay. And there are a lot of stories of Albert Belle throwing s*** at people. Just menacing the f*** out of people. Terrifying guy to cover. Truly terrifying guy to cover. And I wasn’t scared of any athletes.”
Ex-Cleveland Outfielder and five-time All-Star, Belle retired after 12 seasons with a .295 career batting average, 381 home runs, 1,239 RBI, and a .564 slugging percentage.
In eight Major League years with Cleveland, the left fielder and Silver Slugger hit .295 with 1,014 hits, 223 doubles, 242 home runs, 751 RBI, .580 slugging percentage, and .949 OPS.
