Cleveland Indians: The 1995 Powerhouse Lineup

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The 1995 Cleveland Indians were one of baseball’s most fearsome teams. One after another they came at you with a relentless surge of power. And their pitching wasn’t too shabby either. The following tribute will feature profiles on each player and a video clip highlight from their time with the Indians.

The Cleveland Indians would win 100 games in the 1995 season. But what made it even more remarkable was the fact that they achieved this number in a strike-shortened season in which they played only 144 games.

To put their lineup in perspective, their catcher Sandy Alomar hit .300, and he batted ninth!

After having time to reflect on the team’s accomplishments, Carlos Baerga had this to say about his team in 2013:

“We were so cocky,” Baerga said. “As soon as we walked out on the field, everyone felt it. I remember the first game of the playoffs against Boston (in the 1995 Division Series). Clemens was pitching for them and as soon as we came out on the field we all started yelling at him, ‘We’re going to kill you!’ Albert (Belle) was yelling at him, ‘We’re going to kill you!’. You could see Clemens thinking to himself, ‘These guys are crazy’.”

Predictably, the Cleveland Indians would make it all the way to the World Series that year. But when they got there, there was a buzz saw named Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux waiting for them.

The Atlanta Braves, who were on a run that seemed to put them in the playoffs every year, but always fell short, would finally take a World Series championship at the expense of the Cleveland Indians in six games. Losing the World Series might have diminished their overall ranking in assembling the best teams ever, but in this case the Cleveland Indians get a “pardon”.

Because as you’ll see when we go through their lineup, the Cleveland Indians had assembled one of the best one-through-nine challenges ever assembled to face opposing pitchers.

So let’s get started with their regular season lineup that opened with a burst of speed and a quick bat.

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

If you could get Kenny Lofton to stand still long enough, his 5’11” frame would weigh in at 190 pounds. Gifted with speed, he would steal more than 600 bases over his career and roam the outfield with the grace of a gazelle.

He could hit a lick too and would finish just one point shy of .300 over a career that lasted 17 years, and would total more than 2,400 base hits that were sprayed equally to all points of a ballpark.

In 1995, Lofton was only in his fourth full season in the big leagues. Originally selected as the 424th pick in the 1988 draft by the Houston Astros, he was immediately tagged as a up and coming outfielder in their plans for the future.

But that future would turn out to be only 20 games that he played for them before being traded to the Indians in 1991 for two nobodies that made the trade a regular on any list of worst trades in Astros history.

In 1995, Lofton was still in the early stages of a developing career that saw high strikeout totals that he would soon mitigate with his ability to draw walks. In fact, he would finish his career with a .372 on base percentage that certified his position in the lineup.

He hit .310 for the Indians in 1995 with 54 stolen bases. His 15 caught stealing total though shows that he was still in the process of learning the art. In the postseason that year, he contributed 11 more stolen bases and a .290 batting average while facing two future Hall of Fame pitchers on the Braves staff.

Lofton Flies Away and Then Comes Back

Ironically, it would be those same Braves that Lofton would be traded to as part of a blockbuster deal that would change the face of both teams. John Hart, the General Manager of the Indians at the time would lament saying, “I kept thinking if we traded Kenny, it would be the end of an era. He was the last one.”

The thinking at the time was that the Indians would have had Lofton for only one more year and then he would hit the free agent market after the 1997 season. Which is exactly what happened in Atlanta where Lofton stayed for that one season.

But in another twist of fate, it would be the Cleveland Indians who would sign Lofton to a “return home” deal. He would have four more productive years with the Indians before his career would begin to wind down, and after playing with a string of teams before coming back to Cleveland again for one final season in 2007.

What’s He Doing Today

Game 1 of the 2016 World Series saw Lofton returning to Cleveland once again as the Indians gave him the honor of throwing out the first pitch to get the Series underway.

Beyond that, he is now a film producer who earned a degree in studio production at the University of Arizona while playing minor league baseball for the Houston Astros. He credits his post-MLB success, as owner of FilmPool, Inc., to that education

Omar Vizquel played in the major leagues for 23 years before retiring at the age of 45 in 2012. Over that span, he amassed 2,877 hits, and for that alone he has a list of supporters who believe that he should be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Maybe, maybe not. To be sure though, he definitely had a remarkable career and any talk of that kind cannot be easily dismissed.

A product of Venezuela, Vizquel was signed by the Seattle Mariners as an amateur free agent in 1984. He bounced around in the Mariners minor league system earning a reputation as a wonder at shortstop, but a little light with the bat. In December of 1993, Seattle traded their sharp-fielding shortstop, to the Cleveland Indians for shortstop Felix Fermin, infielder Reggie Jefferson and cash. To this day, the deal is ranked among the worst trades ever in Mariners history.

Vizquel would remain with the Indians for eleven years, including the 1995 pennant-winning season. He would hit for an average of only .266 but in more than 600 plate appearances, he would manage to get on base one out every three times, which was exactly what the Indians needed from him with all that power coming up behind him. A contact hitter, he would strike out only 59 times. More importantly, he would handle more than 600 chances at shortstop and make only nine errors.

In the postseasons, it was pretty much all or nothing for Vizquel. In the 1995 ALCS against Seattle, he hit .087 and then turned around the following year to go 6-for-14 against the Orioles.

In their rally for Vizquel’s election to the HOF, Cleveland.com came up with these facts:

*Vizquel turned 144 more double plays than any shortstop in baseball history.
*His 2,709 games at shortstop are the most of all-time
*His 404 stolen bases rank 71st all-time
*His 1,445 runs scored rank 80th all-time
*On 10 occasions, he ranked in the top 10 in his league for being the toughest to strike out
*Baseball-Reference lists the 10 players with the most similar credentials. Six of the 10 (Luis Aparicio, Rabbit Maranville, Ozzie Smith, Luke Appling, Pee Wee Reese and Nellie Fox) are in the Hall of Fame.

Today, Omar Vizquel remains involved with baseball as the first base coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. And he’ll also be the manager for the team Venezuela will field for the World Baseball Classic this spring.

Carlos Baerga was signed as an amateur free agent in 1985 by the San Diego Padres. A native of Puerto Rico, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in December of 1989 in a package that also included Sandy Alomar Jr. for Joe Carter.

Baerga would remain with the Indians for eight seasons and he would be a integral part of their pennant-winning season in 1995. He appeared in that year’s All Star Game and led the league in assists at second base. Not much for power, 130 of his 175 hits that year were singles. But like his teammates hitting before him, it didn’t matter much with the power coming up behind him.

In July of 1996, he was suddenly traded to the New York Mets. Recently, he had this to say about how he felt at the time:

“When I got traded to the New York Mets, I was hurt. I remember when (former Mets general manager) Joe McIlvaine called me . . . and he said, ‘Hey, Carlos, we just make a trade for you. We welcome you to the Mets.’ And I said, ‘I’m hurt. Don’t trade me. I’m hurt. I pulled my groin through my stomach.’ I said to him, ‘I cannot play for like a month. Don’t make a trade.’ And he said, ‘We don’t care. We want you there.’”

And it was pretty obvious that he had left his heart in Cleveland making his time in New York depressing on all sides. Although he claimed to be playing hurt most of the time, he hit just .267 with 18 home runs in 306 games for New York.

When asked by Cleveland.com what he was doing these days, he replied, “I’m training the national team that’s going to be in the Central American Games in Mexico in November, and I manage in a league in Puerto Rico.”

He’s happy to be reacquainted with his Indians too, “Every month I am here. I am an ambassador for the Cleveland Indians, so they bring me here to sign autographs, to make appearances.”

Albert Belle spent a good portion of his career battling the media, his teammates, the fans, and most of all, himself.

Writing for ESPN, Bob Carter reported: “Bud Black, a Cleveland Indians teammate, nicknamed Belle ‘Snapper.’ Others simply called him crazy. Belle could flare up at any time, even at friends, and often turned violent.”

“Albert’s snapped at me. He’s gone off at other coaches,” said Indians coach Dave Nelson in 1996. “You never know which Albert’s going to show up.”

And more recently, he was the only teammate to spurn the Indians’ invitation to attend the ceremony inducting Jim Thome into the Cleveland Hall of Fame.

The Incredible Numbers

But Albert Belle could hit a baseball. You have to give him that. And before a hip injury slowed him down to a crawl, he was putting up numbers that were destined to place him in the Hall of Fame.

In an abbreviated career of 12 seasons, he hit 389 home runs, which averages out to about 33 a season. And in the 1995 pennant-winning season of the Indians, he lit up the league and all of baseball with these numbers: .317 BA, 50 home runs, 126 RBI, 121 runs scored, a .690 slugging percentage, 52 doubles, and 377 total bases. And except for batting average, he led the American League in all of those categories. However, he would falter in the postseason and figure prominently in the Indians’ loss to the Braves in the World Series.

A complicated person, Belle made his major league debut in July 1989, getting his first hit against Nolan Ryan, and batted .225 over 62 games as a rookie. A closet drinker who often consumed to excess, Belle spent 10 weeks in an alcohol rehab clinic the next year after ripping up a bathroom while playing in Triple A. He exchanged “Joey” for “Albert” in rehab, emerging with a new name and new focus.

Whar’s He Up to Now

He’s calmed down a bit and according to Cleveland.com he describes his life now this way: “Asked what he’s been doing, Belle said, ‘Soccer and dance.'”

Belle has three young daughters.

“I tell them to use their elbows in soccer when somebody gets close to them,” said Belle. “No, I don’t get mad. You can’t get through a soccer game without somebody crying.”

Or, based on those flying elbows, maybe he hasn’t changed much and he’s still, well… Albert Belle.

By the time he reached Cleveland in 1994, Eddie Murray had hit most of his 504 career home runs and had already gathered most of his 3,255 base hits. But poised in the middle of the Cleveland lineup, he nevertheless continued to plague opposing pitchers and managers who knew he could still hit one a mile.

In reality, although his numbers in 1995 weren’t “Murray-like”, and considering that his role with that team was limited, 21 home runs and 82 RBI was a season most major leaguers would take any day.

His 1995 season with Cleveland was highlighted by his single that won Game 3 of the World Series, putting the Indians ahead 2-1 in the series. He also attained his 3,000th hit as an Indian earlier in the season.

Much like his teammate Albert Belle, Murray was an enigma to all who had contact with him. His refusal to talk to the media and the increasing displeasure of fans ultimately forced Baltimore to trade him. And apparently, things went the same way in Cleveland with the Indians sending him right back to Baltimore in 1996. He would limp to retirement after appearing in just nine games for the Dodgers the following year after 21 seasons.

His post-playing career would see the same kind of bouncing around and trying to find a home: “After retiring, Eddie Murray returned to the Orioles in 1998, serving as the team’s bench coach and then first-base coach. He became the hitting coach for the Cleveland Indians in 2002 and served in that role until 2005. He then took the same job for the Los Angeles Dodgers, but was fired in 2007 (ironically, Murray was fired the night after the Dodgers claimed a 9-1 rout of the NY Mets in the NLCS, a series in which the Dodgers recorded 31 hits and 18 runs).”

On July 27, 2003, Murray was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Murray was elected in his first year of eligibility, receiving 85.3 percent of the vote. Which goes to show, you can’t deny the numbers. And Eddie Murray, after all, did it “his way”.

In a career that spanned 22 years, Jim Thome averaged 39 home runs, 108 RBI, and 111 bases on balls per season. He finished his career with a on-base percentage of .411 to go along with a batting average of .276. Those are the numbers. Along with his total of 612 home runs, they may or may not be enough to get him elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

But in one sense it won’t really matter because Jim Thome is already in not one but two Halls of Fame. These are the local ones that many teams have to honor players who have made significant contributions to the franchise. Thome draws honors from both Cleveland and Philadelphia.

And in many ways these tributes count more than election to the big hall in Cooperstown because they tell you something about the character of the man being honored. And after reading the profiles of Albert Belle and Eddie Murray, it’s good to settle in on one of the truly “nice guys” in baseball.

In the Beginning

A native of East Peoria, Illinois, Thome was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 13th round of the 1989 amateur draft. He made his debut with the expanded roster call ups just two years later at the age of 21.

By the time 1995 came around, he was just beginning to find his niche in a big league uniform. He would hit .314 that year, with only 25 homers and 73 RBI. I say “only” because the following year he jumped up to 38, 116 and continued at that level for several seasons.

In December of 2001, Thome was the most coveted free agent on the market. In the end, it was the Philadelphia Phillies who made the biggest splash as they “courted him with a Nov. 7 tour of the city that included a trip to the new ballpark’s construction site and concluded with a standing ovation at a Flyers’ game in the First Union Center.”

He would play for four more teams plus a one year engagement with both Cleveland and Philadelphia before retiring in 2012.

Where Is He Now?

Thome succeeded in keeping things simple both on and off the field. He struck out a lot but would only say, “It’s tough to strike out. Believe me. I hate striking out. It’s no fun. It’s embarrassing. But there really isn’t anything I can do. It’s just a part of my game.”

Similarly, when asked about his favorite thing to do, he replied, “It’s still to go back to Peoria, go to my cabin and hunt with the boys. This is a great lifestyle, don’t get me wrong. But fun for me is going back with my buddies I grew up with”

In 2013, Thome accepted a job with the Chicago White Sox as a special assistant to Rick Hahn, the club’s senior vice president/general manager.

There are many adjectives that can be used to describe Manny Ramirez in a profile like this one. He’s been called a jerk by those who have a negative opinion on him. He’s also been called “colorful” by those who don’t want to call him a jerk. I think I’ll just settle on calling him a unforgettable baseball character and let it go at that.

The Early Years

A product of George Washington High School in the Bronx, Ramirez was selected by the Cleveland Indians in the 1st round and 13th overall pick in the 1991 amateur draft. Two years later, he made his debut with the Indians at the age of 21 appearing in 22 games and hitting a illustrious .170.

By 1995 though, he had already hit his stride and would be a major contributor to Cleveland’s pennant-winning season. His line for that season would become typical of a Manny Ramirez year: .308 BA, 31 HR, and 107 RBI. He would have nine consecutive seasons with 100 RBI, capped with 165 in 1999. For his career, he would average .312, 39, 129.

But as indicated before, Manny Ramirez is about more than numbers. In a excellent piece that appeared in the New Yorker magazine in 2007, Ben McGrath wrote:

“Manny Ramirez is a deeply frustrating employee, the kind whose talents are so prodigious that he gets away with skipping meetings, falling asleep on the job, and fraternizing with the competition. He makes more money than everyone else at the company yet somehow escapes the usual class resentment, and even commands more respect from the wage slaves, who suspect he is secretly one of them, than from his colleagues in business class. It’s not that he is anti-establishment, exactly, but in his carefree way he’s just subversive enough—’affably apathetic’ is how one of his bosses put it recently—to create headaches for any manager who worries about precedent.”

Exit from Cleveland

And it was probably an affirmation of all of that that resulted in his inability to find a home in baseball. His final year with Cleveland in 2000 was also his free agent year. Soon, a bidding frenzy developed that was not hurt by the fact that Alex Rodriguez had just signed a contract with the Rangers for $252 million. According to ESPN’s Bob Ley:

“The Indians faxed across their final offer, seven years, $119 million. The two sides are far apart, $3 million a year and $81 million on total contract value. Cleveland’s John Hart has a quick answer from Ramirez’s agent Jeff Moorad. ‘Hey, John, how are you doing? You know, I wish I had a different response. But I think to some extent you already know that we are going to respectfully decline.'”

And that would be the end of Ramirez in Cleveland.

Where’s Manny Now?

As unlikely as it seems, Ramirez became a valuable member of the Cubs coaching staff as a hitting “consultant”. As recently as as 2015, he claimed the respect of Joe Maddon, who would be quoted as saying this about Ramirez:

“I love having Manny around. I had him briefly with the Rays a couple years ago. That whole spring training, he and I talked almost every day about hitting, and I got to know him. Of course he’s a great hitter, but to be able to verbalize it so lucidly, I was really impressed with all that.”

You just never know these days…

I suppose if you were the unfortunate soul whose turn came up to face the 1995 Cleveland Indians lineup, you might quietly breathe a sigh of relief when you looked over to the on deck circle and saw Paul Sorrento twirling a couple of bats. And maybe that was because you hadn’t looked at his numbers. Because otherwise you would have known that there would be no relief, just more punishment.

Paul Sorrento was taken by the California Angels in the 4th round of the 1986 amateur draft. Sorrento was dealt from the Angels to the Minnesota Twins after the 1988 season in a package that sent former Indian and future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven to the West Coast. He would arrive in Cleveland via a trade with the Minnesota Twins who never really gave him a chance (81 game appearances in three years) in March of 1992.

The Indians did give him a chance and Sorrento took advantage of it. He could be counted on for 20-25 home runs and 70-80 RBI each season. And his .257 lifetime batting average was fortified by a .340 on base percentage. But his real value was his consistency and no-drama approach to baseball, as well as in his personal life.

When it came time to retire he immediately turned his attention to his family, telling Did the Tribe Win Last Night, “I’ve been a dad. I’ve got two kids. My son is 16 and my daughter is 14. I retired in 2000, so from 2000 to 2011 I was just raising my kids.”

Referring to the 1995 team he would say, “It was an All-Star lineup. “There was no easy out. For an opposing pitcher, there would be a lot of pressure on them. If they made any mistake then they could get hurt. I think that a big factor too was our home fans. That year started that string of sellouts where the Jake was just rocking every night and sold out every night. When I sit here now (as a coach), I can still hear the drum.”

Now back with the Angels organization, Sorrento enjoys being back in the game and giving back to today’s athletes. He describes his job as hitting coach this way:

“Well I’m the hitting coach, so it’s just about getting our guys ready to play,” Sorrento said. “Keeping them confident—I’m not too far removed from the game to realize how hard it is. I realize it’s very hard to hit, especially on an everyday basis. It’s a grind for 162 days, so I just try to stay positive with the guys and keep them confident and prepared for the game. We concentrate more on the mental side of it. I just try to get them in routines. If you do that over the course of the season your numbers will be there. We also work on situational hitting and moving runners. All of the stats will be there at the end.”

Still very calm and consistent, Paul Sorrento.

Hailing from Puerto Rico, Sandy Alomar Jr. was signed as a free agent by the San Diego Padres in 1983. The son of Sandy Alomar Sr. and the brother of Hall of Fame member Roberto Alomar, he would go on to have a 20-year career in the major leagues.

Sandy Alomar Jr. played 11 years with the Indians with his best season coming in 1997 when he batted .324 with 21 home runs and 83 RBI. Beginning in 1999, though, his role would be reduced along with his playing time. After leaving the Indians in 2000, he would go on to play with five more teams before retiring in 2007.

Alomar was just beginning his career in baseball, though. He would take a number of coaching jobs before he finally settled in as the first base coach for the current Cleveland Indians. He has also been interviewed on several occasions for possible managerial jobs. The most recent time was only a few weeks ago when the Colorado Rockies talked to him about their opening for a manager.

Following more in the path of his dad as a baseball lifer, he has still remained close to his brother. They have a long and durable history together as indicated by a story Sandy Jr. told at Roberto’s induction ceremony in 2011.

“When we were in Double-A, we didn’t have enough [money] to get a two-bedroom apartment,” he said. “So we got one bigger apartment with one couch and one bed. So we said whoever has a good night or good game at the plate gets to have the bed. I slept on the couch the whole year.”

Sandy Alomar Jr., for the love of baseball.

I could have gone with either Charles Nagy, who went 16-6 in 1995, or Orel Hershiser, who had come over from the Dodgers that year and also went 16-6 for the Indians. But I selected Dennis Martinez mainly because he still has the most wins (245) of any Latino pitcher. Or maybe it’s because I always liked his jet black hair.