CLEVELAND, Ohio – When the Cleveland Indians twice went to the World Series in the 1990s, a bell clanged like a death knell when Albert Belle stepped into the batter's box.
The frenzied rhythms of the macarena serenaded Carlos Baerga to the plate. On team flights, he sometimes danced down the aisle between seats to the same beat.
The current Indians, aiming for their own World Series, are dancing to a different tune.
Hell's Belle
These are not your father's Indians, a team born to bang their way through obstacles -- slamming balls off walls, slapping the head of a player responsible for a walk-off home run at home plate with a fervor that might give the NFL pause, or in the case of Belle, punishing a Milwaukee Brewers infielder named Fernando Vina the way Belle belted mistake pitches.