#CardCorner: 1991 Topps Alex Cole

He was the embodiment of Willie Mays Hayes, the fictional center fielder in the 1989 film Major League which chronicled the improbable postseason run of the Cleveland Indians.

Alex Cole debuted for Cleveland 15 months after the film’s opening and quickly became a sensation. His career would not fulfill the potential of that start, but Cole nevertheless left a mark upon the game that is felt to this day.

Alexander Cole was born Aug. 17, 1965, in Fayetteville, N.C. He graduated from Jefferson-Hugenot-Wythe High School in Richmond, Va., in 1983 and enrolled at Manatee Community College in Bradenton, Fla., as a non-scholarship player. Cole pushed his way into the starting lineup and stole 38 bases as a freshman in 1984, one short of the school record.

The Pittsburgh Pirates selected Cole in the 11th round of the January 1984 MLB Draft (a draft for college players) but Cole – who was an All-Suncoast team selection as a designated hitter as a freshman – opted to return to school. During his sophomore season, he recorded 36 steals.

“He’s just a super, super kid,” MCC coach Tim Hill told the Bradenton Herald. “We’d like to have someone like him every year.”

In the January 1985 MLB Draft, Cole was taken in the second round by St. Louis and Cole signed, adding his speed to a Cardinals system that was flush with stellar baserunners like Vince Coleman, Lance Johnson and Curt Ford. Cole reported to Johnson City of the Appalachian League and set a new league record with 46 steals in 66 games – breaking Coleman’s record of 43 set in 1982.

Cole even outpaced Coleman – who led the NL in steals in each of his first six seasons – during sprint drills in Spring Training of 1986.

“Yeah, I had a better time than (Coleman) did,” Cole told the Herald. “Right now, I’m right around 3.6 (seconds) or 3.7 from home to first.”

Cole began the 1986 season with Class A St. Petersburg of the Florida State League and hit .343 with 56 steals in 74 games – including one contest against West Palm Beach where he stole five bases – before earning a promotion to Triple-A Louisville. In 63 games with the Redbirds, Cole recorded 24 more steals and finished the year with 80 stolen bases and 101 runs scored over 137 games.

“He definitely ranks right up there as one of the quickest guys I’ve ever seen,” St. Petersburg manager Dave Bialas told the Herald. “The thing with Alex is all he has to do is put the ball in play. His speed will do the rest.”

Cole spent the 1987 season with Double-A Arkansas, batting .256 and stealing 68 bases in 125 games. He moved up to Triple-A Louisville in 1988, and by 1989, he was hitting .281 with 47 steals with the Redbirds. But with Coleman and Willie McGee entrenched in the outfield, the Cardinals did not need another speed merchant.

On Feb. 27, 1990, St. Louis sent Cole and pitcher Steve Peters to the Padres in exchange for pitcher Omar Olivares. Cole battled for a bench spot on the Padres that spring but was eventually optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas, where he hit .290 with 32 steals in 90 games before San Diego traded him to the Indians on July 11 in a deal for catcher Tom Lampkin. It would be the deal that would launch Cole’s big league career.

The Indians assigned Cole to Triple-A, and Cole batted .429 in 14 games to earn a trip to the majors. He debuted with Cleveland on July 27 in a doubleheader against the Yankees, notching his first three hits in Game 2 and stealing his first base. Two days later – in another doubleheader against New York – Cole stole two more bases in Game 2 and went a combined 3-for-10 in two games against the Royals July 30-31. Then on Aug. 1, Cole stole five bags against the Royals and catcher Mike Macfarlane.

Cole stole two more bases in Cleveland’s next game on Aug. 3 vs. the Yankees, tying the American League record of seven in two games he shared with Rickey Henderson, Amos Otis and Eddie Collins. He continued his outstanding play for the rest of the season, peaking on Sept. 6 when his two stolen bases against the Tigers gave him 26 in 40 games – a stretch that included a .324 batting average, a .402 on-base percentage (powered by 18 walks) and 27 runs scored.

Cole finished the season with a .300 batting average, 40 steals and 43 runs scored in 63 games.

“I always felt that if I got a shot, I could perform at the major league level,” Cole told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch during the summer of 1990. “Here (in Cleveland), I got a shot. There (in St. Louis), I didn’t.

“In some ways, it sort of took me a while. I got set back a couple of years. I think I listened to some wrong information.”

Cole finished ninth in the American League Rookie of the Year voting, and Cleveland was ablaze with anticipation in the offseason with the prospect of Cole playing a full season. The Indians were so excited that they moved the fences back at Cleveland Stadium – center field was relocated to 415 feet away from home plate – to take advantage of his speed. And despite suffering a dislocated right shoulder in Spring Training, Cole was Cleveland’s Opening Day starter in center field.

But Cole claimed to feel no extra pressure as the focus of a team that had not won a pennant since 1954.

“The Indians made me feel welcome as soon as I got here last year,” Cole told the Cleveland Plain Dealer on the eve of Opening Day 1991. “(Manager John McNamara) gave me the green light the first day. And the rest of the guys are so unselfish. They’ll take pitches for me and work a pitcher late in the count to give me a chance to steal.”

Cole worked with Hall of Famer Rod Carew on his bunting following the season and got off to a good start at the plate in 1991, hitting .321 through April albeit with only two steals. Then on May 3 against Oakland, Cole strained an abdominal muscle. He landed on the disabled list a week later and missed three weeks.

He finished the year batting .295 with a .386 on-base percentage but had only 27 steals in 122 games for a Cleveland team that lost 105 games. McNamara was replaced by Mike Hargrove midway through the season, and John Hart – who was promoted to general manager on Sept. 18, 1991 – began a thorough rebuild that did not include Cole in the master plan.

On Dec. 10, 1991, Hart engineered a trade with the Astros that sent pitcher Willie Blair and catcher Eddie Taubensee to Houston in exchange for Dave Rohde and Kenny Lofton. The key to the deal was Lofton, who hit .308 and stole 40 bases for Triple-A Tucson in 1991.

By Opening Day of 1992, Lofton was the Indians’ starting center fielder while Cole was on the bench. Cole didn’t get his first hit of the season until his ninth game, and though he repeated his five-steal performance in a game against the Angels on May 3 – becoming just the second player in history after Hall of Famer Eddie Collins to have two five-steal games – Cole was unable to crack Cleveland’s starting lineup.

On July 4, 1992, Cole was traded to the Pirates for two minor leaguers. The deal was meant to give the Pirates the leadoff hitter they had lacked since Wally Backman left the team following the 1990 season.

The Indians, meanwhile, were loaded with young outfielders including Albert Belle, Mark Whiten, Lofton and the still-in-the-minor-leagues Manny Ramírez.

“We have a stockpile of outfielders,” Hart told the AP. “On this ballclub right now, it’s a real crowded house.”

Pirates manager Jim Leyland gave Cole regular playing time in right field, platooning him with the right-handed hitting Lloyd McClendon. Cole hit .278 with seven steals and 33 runs scored in 64 games for Pittsburgh, helping the Pirates win their third straight National League East title.

In the NLCS vs. Atlanta, Cole started three games and went 2-for-10 with three walks and two runs scored. He walked and scored on an Orlando Merced fly ball in the first inning of Game 7, giving Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead that pitcher Doug Drabek would hold until the Pirates scored another run in the sixth. But in the bottom of the ninth, the Braves rallied for three runs – Cole had been removed in favor of McClendon as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning – to win the game and advance to the World Series.

Following the season, Cole underwent surgery on his left shoulder and the Pirates left Cole unprotected in the Expansion Draft that would stock the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins. But the Rockies were unconcerned about the surgery and took Cole with the 17th pick in that draft.

“We worked very hard to get Alex and I was disappointed to lose him,” Pirates general manager Ted Simmons, who was a huge supporter of Cole when Simmons was working in the Cardinals’ front office, told the Associated Press. “We tried to protect every young pitcher we could, and when you emphasize one position, it leaves another vulnerable.”

For his part, Cole was surprised by the Pirates’ decision.

“I was kind of hoping things would work out for me (in Pittsburgh),” Cole told the AP. “I thought I had a future in Pittsburgh.”

Cole won the starting center field job with the Rockies and was the second batter in franchise history in the team’s Opening Day game against the Mets on April 5, 1993. He also drew the first walk in team history in his third-inning plate appearance against Dwight Gooden. He spent most of that season in center field, hitting .256 with a .339 on-base percentage, 30 steals and 50 runs scored in 126 games. But the Rockies did not offer Cole a contract following the season, making him a free agent.

Cole signed a two-year deal with the Twins on Feb. 16, 1994, and was enjoying his best season in the big leagues when the strike ended the season in August. He finished with a .296 batting average, a .375 on-base percentage, 29 steals and 68 runs scored in 105 games.

When play resumed in 1995, Cole got off to a hot start and was hitting .360 through 25 games when he suffered a broken right leg while chasing a ball hit by Milwaukee’s Fernando Viña at County Stadium on May 30. Cole was removed from the field on a stretcher and did not appear in another game for the Twins until Sept. 23.

“I think he tried to hold up and his spikes caught in the grass,” Twins teammate Kirby Puckett told reporters after the game. “That’s the only thing I can think of. He tried to hold up and he slipped.”

The injury limited Cole to 28 games in 1995, a season where he hit .342 with a .409 on-base percentage.

A free agent once again, Cole signed a one-year deal with the Red Sox on Jan. 22, 1996. But Cole did not make the Opening Day roster and was sent to Triple-A Pawtucket to begin the year. The Red Sox brought him back to the big leagues on April 22, and Cole saw regular action in center field for about a month before being returned to Triple-A. He played in just 24 games for the Red Sox that year – hitting .222 – while batting .296 in 82 games with Pawtucket.

Those 24 games with the Red Sox would be the last big league contests of Cole’s career.

Cole went to Spring Training with the Athletics in 1997 but was sent to the team’s minor league camp in late March. He played in the independent Northern League and for the Marlins’ Triple-A team in Charlotte that year, spent the 1998 campaign in the Mexican League and then played three seasons for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League.

On Aug. 27, 2001, Cole was indicted by a federal grand jury on counts of conspiring to distribute and distributing heroin. The Bluefish immediately suspended Cole, and in 2002 Cole pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He never played professional baseball again.

Cole passed away at the age of 57 on Aug. 11, 2023, in Chesterfield, Va.

Over seven big league seasons, Cole batted .280 with a .360 on-base percentage, 493 hits in 573 games, 286 runs scored and 148 steals. But few players of his era generated more enthusiasm for a single fan base than Cole did in Cleveland in 1990.

“Speed is my game,” Cole said in the heady days at the dawn of the 1991 season. “Whenever I get a chance to run, I’m going to take off.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum