Timothy Wayne Belcher

Even though he went on to have a very successful major league baseball career, Timothy Wayne Belcher also fondly reminisces about the time he spent at Highland Local’s (Morrow) Highland High School playing another sport dear to his heart. “Many of my most memorable high school experiences were centered around athletics,” Belcher said. “I played baseball and basketball. While I did go on to play professional baseball, I played on very good high school basketball teams and enjoyed more team success on the court than I did on the ball diamond.” He graduated from Highland High in 1980, and then played intercollegiate varsity baseball at Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Mount Vernon, Ohio. He was the first draft pick in the 1983 MLB Draft, selected by the Minnesota Twins. However, he refused to sign with the Twins, and instead was selected in the 1984 supplemental draft by the New York Yankees. He was picked up by the Oakland Athletics in the compensation pool and eventually made his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut as a Los Angeles Dodger. During his 18-year professional baseball career, Belcher played 15 years in the majors. He pitched from 1987–2000 for seven different MLB clubs: the Los Angeles Dodgers (1987–1991), Cincinnati Reds (1992–1993), Chicago White Sox (1993), Detroit Tigers (1994), Seattle Mariners (1995), Kansas City Royals (1996–1998), and Anaheim Angels (1999–2000). He helped the 1988 Dodgers win the World Series. The next year, he led the National League with 10 complete games and the MLB with eight shutouts – the most since Roger Clemens of the Boston Red Sox the previous year, while placing in the top ten in wins and Earned Run Average (ERA). He was the last starting pitcher in the majors to have more than five shutouts, until 2011, when Cliff Lee of the Philadelphia Phillies had six in a season. Since retiring from MLB play in 2001, Belcher has worked for the Cleveland Indians —two years as the Major League Pitching coach and the rest as a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations, handling a variety of on and off-field duties. And, even though he rose to the top of the baseball world and has lived all over the country, he has stayed true to his hometown roots, returning to those same baseball fields that he grew up playing on. “My family and I still live in the Highland Local district,” Belcher said. “My wife and each of our three children all have attended Highland schools.”