Jeff Montgomery confronted some formidable Cleveland groups whereas pitching for the Kansas City Royals from 1988 to ’99. Thanks largely to a sturdy offense, Cleveland averaged 94.2 wins yearly from ’95 to ’99, making the playoffs all 5 years and twice taking part in within the World Series. No group in both league scored extra runs over that span.
Montgomery, whose 304 saves are essentially the most in Royals franchise historical past, now serves as one of many group’s broadcast analysts. He sat down to debate the erstwhile Cleveland powerhouse previous to a current recreation at Fenway Park.
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David Laurila: Mark Gubicza advised me earlier this summer time that the 1984 Detroit Tigers had been one of the best group he performed in opposition to. Which was one of the best group you confronted?
Jeff Montgomery: “I look again at groups by how they stacked up in opposition to me personally, which is possibly a bit of completely different perspective. But these mid-to-late ‘90s Cleveland groups had been actually deep. They had so many various weapons. It appeared like each time you performed in opposition to them, in case you had a lead, there was a fairly good likelihood they had been going to discover a solution to reduce into it and even overtake that lead. I believe their fanbase performed an element in that. They created an setting that was virtually hostile whenever you went to Cleveland to play them.
“One recreation specifically stands out. Our supervisor advised me that I had the evening off, so I used to be sitting out in bullpen that day. We had a left-handed reliever named Billy Brewer, and he goes in and will get what I believe was his first main league save. After the sport, he got here as much as me within the clubhouse and mentioned, ‘Man, you can have that job. That’s not loads of enjoyable.’ [Closing] is completely different. Personally, it made me higher in regard to focus, focus, and finally execution, as a result of I knew how nice it felt to be shaking teammates’ arms after a recreation was over. I additionally knew how unhealthy it felt to not get that final out and really feel such as you’ve let your teammates down, that you simply’ve let the fanbase down.
“But again, going back to those days in Cleveland, they had the Alomar brothers, Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Travis Fryman, Omar Vizquel, Jim Thome, Paul Sorrento, Manny Ramirez… I mean, you could go on with the players they had during that stretch. That was right around the time the divisions were reorganized and there was now a Central Division. They became the team in the Central that was going to be a force, year in and year out. I’m not sure how many years they made it to postseason, but I know they were always contenders. For me personally, going into a game against Cleveland, especially on the road, was a real challenge.”
Laurila: Which participant on these groups did you most respect when he got here to the plate?
Montgomery: “Well, Albert Belle was such skilled hitter. He may hit for energy, he may hit for common, and he was additionally a kind of gamers that liked to be in that large state of affairs. I really feel like he type of received… I don’t wish to say a foul rap, however from a persona standpoint… I imply, he was a extremely brilliant particular person. I received to know him a bit of bit through the years, us having spring coaching near the place [Cleveland did], and taking part in some All-Star video games with him. Again, a really brilliant man. But he was a beast. He was a man that was going to do every thing he presumably may to attempt to beat you and assist his group win a baseball recreation. So, he stands out fairly a bit for the affect he had, how good he made their lineup.
“Another one, obviously, was Manny Ramirez. The way he was able to handle a bat from the right side… I mean, he was one of the best right-handed batters in baseball for a long time.”
Laurila: Can you share any Albert Belle tales?
Montgomery: “Again, he was a beast. I remember one time, I’m going to guess around 1989 or 1990, I forget the exact year, we had a benches-clearing brawl in Cleveland. Albert Belle put a hurt on one of our pitchers. Well, in spring training the next year, our pitching coach indicated that it was a good time to take care of business with Belle. I threw a pitch that was probably going to hit him in the neck if he didn’t swing. He swung and hit a line drive home run out of our spring training facility in Haines City, Florida. It almost tore out three rows of bleachers. It was an embarrassing moment for me, because here’s a guy that turns on my best fastball, one that’s supposed to knock him down, and he hits it for a home run.”
Laurila: Knocking Belle down and having him cost the mound wouldn’t be an enviable state of affairs for a pitcher.
Montgomery: “Neal Heaton did that once. We’d had a benches-clearing brawl the day before, and Neal was trying to retaliate. I don’t think he actually hit him, I think he threw three balls behind him. After the third one, Belle took off after Neal. I remember Mike Macfarlane grabbed him, and he pretty much just drug Mac out to the pitcher’s mound. It was one of those crazy, crazy brawls. There was some blood shed in that one.”
Laurila: It sound like McFarlane saved Heaton from some critical injury.
Montgomery: “Well, Neal still got a pretty good beating out there. And I actually did hit him once. It wasn’t Albert Belle’s fault, but I had to hit him. I hit him right in the cheeks. They had a guy named Mark Whiten. Do you remember him?”
Laurila: I do. Hard hittin’ Mark Whiten.
Montgomery: “Yes. Well, Whiten hits a ball to the first baseman, and I’m covering the bag. Whiten veers off to fair territory to give me the bag, I’m a half step ahead of him, and he pushes me, flips me into right field. My rule of thumb was that if you were trying to hurt or embarrass me or one of my teammates, I was going to take care of business. The next batter was Albert Belle. I think everybody in the ballpark knew what was going to happen. I drilled him. But I did it the right way; I hit him right in the wallet. He dropped that bat and stared out at me, I thought he was coming after me, but luckily he didn’t. Thankfully he just jogged to first base.”
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