SABR 54: Listen to highlights from 1990s Cleveland Indians panel with Sandy Alomar Jr., Carlos Baerga, Mike Hargrove, Kenny Lofton, Charles Nagy
On Friday, July 31, 2026, the 1990s Cleveland Indians Panel was held at SABR 54 at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown hotel in Cleveland, Ohio.
Panelists included Sandy Alomar Jr., 1990 American League Rookie of the Year, Gold Glove-winning catcher, and 1997 All-Star Game MVP; Carlos Baerga, fan favorite as a switch-hitting second baseman during his 14-year major league career; Mike Hargrove, who won two AL pennants and 5 consecutive AL Central Division titles as Cleveland’s manager from 1991 to 1999; Kenny Lofton, all-around star center fielder who holds Cleveland franchise record for stolen bases; and Charles Nagy, three-time All-Star pitcher and Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame inductee. The panel was moderated by Paul Hoynes, Cleveland Plain Dealer sports writer and 2026 BBWAA Career Excellence Award recipient.
- Audio: Click here to listen to the 1990s Cleveland Indians Panel at SABR 54 (1:26:47; MP3)
Here are some highlights:
On playing in front of 455 consecutive sellouts in Cleveland
- Nagy: “It was just awesome. We came from a place (Municipal Stadium) that had 75,000 (seats) and we pretty much knew everyone who was in the stands. When we weren’t doing well and someone was yelling at you, you were like, ‘Bob, I heard that.’ … (Jacobs Field) was a state-of-the-art facility. People came out in the beginning to check out the new stadium and see what it was all about. And then we came out of the gate hot and started playing well, and then they just stayed. It was fantastic. It’s a tribute to the fans, we were so excited, they stayed from one through nine, no matter if we were down by three or up by four. We knew we always had a chance to win those games.”
On Cleveland’s powerful offense
- Alomar: “We always thought we were never out of the game. With the top of our lineup (Kenny Lofton and Omar Vizquel), we always had traffic (on the bases). … The excitement of playing in front of a sellout crowd, I felt like other teams, (especially) their bullpens, felt that too. It was almost like a playoff atmosphere every single day. When pitchers saw the bottom of the lineup (for other teams), they were like, ‘Oh man, I get a break right here.’ But there was no break with us, because everyone made contact and there was power up and down the lineup.”
On playing with Albert Belle
- Hargrove: “I don’t know which story to tell you. I got a couple I can’t tell you!”
- Lofton: “On any team I’m on, I want Albert Belle hitting fourth and playing left field, without a doubt. One thing about Albert, he was an RBI machine. People see all the antics and the things he did … but if you put a man on base and he strikes out, he is pissed. You put a runner in scoring position, he gets mad. … Carlos Baerga, we all know was (also) an RBI machine. If I’m on base and Carlos hits a double, I’m scoring. There was one time, I’m on first base and Carlos and Albert were going for the RBI team lead. Carlos hits a double and I touch second, I’m rounding third, I’m going to score. I look up, and Albert Belle is halfway down the line with his bat telling me to hold! He did not want Carlos to get that RBI. It was him, not the coach. And he ended up getting the base hit and I scored, and he got the RBI. So that’s Albert.”
- Baerga: “He had to be perfect. He wanted to get better every day. This guy wrote everything down. You know how many little books he had, on every pitcher? I didn’t do that, but he did it — every year since he came up to the big leagues. … Every year he wanted to be the first player to throw out a baserunner from left field at third base. He did it five times in a row. I remember Mike (Hargrove) getting pissed off at him, ‘What are you doing? Hit the cutoff!’ … But Albert was one of the best players that I ever played with. I know he’s a Hall of Famer. Nobody put up the numbers that Albert Belle put up.”
- Alomar: “Albert was very analytically driven. He could play in this era, big-time. The one difference between him and Juan Soto is Albert would go out of his zone to get an RBI where Juan Soto will take a walk. Albert always said, ‘Batting averages can go up and down, but RBIs can only go up.’ ”
- Nagy: “He wanted to play every day. He was in the lineup every day, regardless of how he felt, who was pitching, the weather. And everyone saw that and everyone respected him for that. He played hard and, to his credit, he became a really good outfielder. And his hitting spoke for itself.”
On his 30-game hitting streak in 1997
- Alomar: “I was most focused on the pitching staff. I didn’t realize I was in a hitting streak until it was around 12 (games). You get a walk here, you get a blooper, you don’t feel like you hit the ball hard, and you don’t fee like you got a hit. People started bringing it to my attention and I’m like, ‘OK, now I gotta think about this too?’ The most important part was taking care of the pitching staff. But for some reason, I felt healthy the whole year, I was making hard contact more often than not. I don’t know, I got lucky many times. A couple of times I pinch-hit — thanks, Grover! He tried to screw up my hitting streak because he put me in as a pinch-hitter. He said, ‘I need a win, I don’t care about a hitting streak.’ “
For more coverage of SABR 54, visit SABR.org/convention.
Originally published: August 11, 2026. Last Updated: August 11, 2026.