Ex-Cleveland Outfielder Albert Belle Discusses Corked Bat Incident

One of the many topics of discussion was Belle’s missing corked bat incident in 1994, for which he was suspended for seven days.

Here is what Belle had to say about the incident:

“I laugh about it because during the game, I don’t know what happened. You hear stories. We knew the White Sox thought they were the team to beat, but we were kind of like the new kid on the block. And we just knew since you can’t beat us, you’re going to try things. And you’re going to try to knock us off our game.”

The incident occurred on July 15, 1994, after the Chicago White Sox suspected that his bat was corked during a game. The umpire then took the bat into the umpires’ room to be investigated.

However, Cleveland pitcher Jason Grimsley eventually crawled through the ceiling of Comiskey Park, dropped into the umpires’ room, and replaced the bat with one of Paul Sorrento’s.

While Cleveland won the contest, the 1994 season came to an end less than a month later because of a player’s strike, with Chicago one game ahead in the AL Central standings.