Belcher New Tribe Pitching Coach

Tim Belcher is the Indians' new pitching coach. The 48-year-old was a special assistant to general manager Mark Shapiro the past eight season and becomes the first coach hired by new manager Manny Acta. A native Ohioan, Belcher pitched 14 years in the majors for seven teams. He pitched 2,442 2-3 major-league innings -- more than any other current pitching coach in MLB.

In his role as a special assistant to baseball operations with the Tribe, Belcher provided instruction and evaluation at each level of the organization. He spent time scouting players from outside the organization and for the last several years provided advance scouting reports to the Major League staff. He assisted the Major League pitching coach during each of his spring training camps during his tenure and at various points served as interim pitching coach at each level (AAA, AA, A) of the Indians system.

Belcher had a career record of 146-140 with a 4.16 ERA from 1987-2000. He won 10 or more games in nine of his 14 seasons at the big league level, topped 200 innings pitched seven times and finished in the top 10 in his respective league’s ERA on three occasions.

Belcher was an All-American at Nazarene University in Mount Vernon, Ohio before winning The Sporting News National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year honors in 1988 with the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. He won Game 4 against Oakland.

The following year, he led the National League in complete games (10) and shutouts (8).

Belcher was the first overall pick in both the 1983 June draft (Minnesota) and 1984 January secondary phase draft (New York Yankees).

He signed with the Yankees on Feb. 2, 1984 -- but was chosen by the Oakland Athletics just six days later as a compensation pick for losing free agent pitcher Tom Underwood to Baltimore. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was furious and vowed to get the silly rule changed. It met little opposition from players or teams, who never really liked it.

Interestingly, the first player to change clubs under the archaic rule was Joel Skinner, recently fired as Tribe third-base coach after many years as a player, coach and manager in the Cleveland system. Skinner was picked by the Chicago White Sox from the Pittsburgh Pirates after losing relief pitcher Ed Farmer (another ex-Indian) to the Philadelphia Phillies.

The ridiculous manner in which a team could lose one of its top prospects because another club lost even a marginal player such as Farmer or Underwood to another team made no sense -- yet was in existence for three years.

Anyway, Belcher grew up in the Athletics' minor-league system and was dealt to the Dodgers as the "player to be named" to complete an earlier trade for veteran lefty Rick Honeycutt.

After five good seasons in Los Angeles, the right-hander was traded to Cincinnati, then to the White Sox, signed by Detroit as a free agent, signed back by the Reds, traded to Seattle then signed as a free agent with Kansas City in 1996 and the Anaheim Angels in 1998.

He had a 4-2 record and 5.02 ERA in eight post-season games with the Dodgers in 1988, White Sox in 1993 and Mariners in 1995, when he was defeated by the Indians in Game 2 of the AL Championship Series.

Belcher's career was not without controversy. He was accused of assaulting a cameraman after giving up the game-winning homer to the Yankees' Jim Leyritz in Game 2 of the 1995 AL Division Series. With the Angels in 1999, he was at the center of a brawl with the Dodgers. He tagged out Los Angeles pitcher Chan-Ho Park on a bunt play. Park then attacked him, later saying Belcher tagged him uneccessarily hard and made some racist comments.