Nick Belmonte has lived a colorful baseball life.
Florida Gators fans know Belmonte as the insightful and at times quirky analyst for ESPN and SEC Network broadcasts for Florida baseball games.
But 50 years ago, Belmonte was the Rickey Henderson of the SEC, setting a Florida baseball record that has stood for a half a century. In 1976, Belmonte stole 42 bases for Florida, setting both UF and SEC records at the time.
Then UF baseball coach Jay Bergman gave Belmonte the green light to run, due to his combination of base running mechanics and instincts. Belmonte was only caught stealing twice by catchers that season.
“I wasn’t what I would call a world-class sprinter guy,” Belmonte said. “I was like, a 6.75 (second) runner. That’s good; it’s not like track speed, it’s good speed.
“But technique-wise, first step, jump, what to look for, all those things that go into it, when I do a baserunning clinic it takes an eight-day program to go over everything, it’s so much involvement with this stuff, to get it right.”
Former Florida baseball pitcher and teammate Bruce Baker, a recently retired Delta pilot, said Belmonte would ask him about tendencies of other pitchers throughout the SEC.
“He was the best baserunner I ever played with, college of pro,” Baker said. “Most of it was because of his dedication and intellect. He would just study everything he could. That first step was the most important, and he had such a quick first step. He was one of those guys that at a few strides was going full speed.”
In addition to the base running prowess, Belmonte was a team prankster who studied stand-up comics with the same passion as base running. Belmonte kept things light in the UF dugout with practical jokes or impersonations of players and coaches. During team flights, Belmonte would often find the mic to the cabin voice recorder and tell a few morbid jokes before takeoff.
“He probably contributed more to team morale than anybody,” Baker said.
Why Nick Belmonte’s Florida baseball SB record has stood up for 50 years
Belmonte stole 42 bases in 48 games in an era when college baseball seasons were shorter. The fact that no UF player has surpassed it is surprising give college baseball seasons can now extend in the neighborhood of 60-70 games for teams that reach the College World Series.
But it’s also an indictment on the analytics era of baseball at all levels, which has devalued the stolen base for the pursuit of the home run. Brian Roberts of South Carolina holds the SEC record for steals in a season with 67 in 1999, though only one SEC player has stolen more than 42 bases in a season since 2002, Vanderbilt’s Enrique Bradfield Jr., who led the conference in steals in 2021 (46) and 2022 (47).
“Bill James came out as the original analytics guy who said the stolen base isn’t worth the risk of the 27 outs that you get,” Belmonte said. “He doesn’t take a lot of consideration into the threat of the stolen base changes everything. It changes your defensive alignment, it changes your pitch selection, it changes a lot of things.”
Ideally, Belmonte said, teams shouldn’t run unless they are at a 75 to 78% success rate. Belmonte said more catchers who are choosing to catch on one knee for framing purposes gives today’s base runners even more of an advantage.
“I wish when I was playing catchers were on one knee,” Belmonte said.
Nick Belmonte’s early life lesson
After a knee injury ended Belmonte’s minor-league career with the Expos and Brewers organizations, he returned to his native Miami, dabbling in comedy as part of an improv group. He was also a substitute teacher, teaching orthopedically handicapped students at his alma mater, North Miami High School.
There, Belmonte learned a lesson in humility. Belmonte admitted he was feeling sorry for himself about the knee injury that ended his Major League dreams. That’s when a young girl named Debbie wheeled up to him in her wheelchair and asked, “Coach Nicky, does your knee hurt today?”
“I said to myself ‘Oh my God do a I feel like a jerk,'” Belmonte said. “That was a seminal moment in my life. God must have put me here for this, to get over this, because I looked at her in her wheelchair, and she’s worrying about how my knee hurts.”
Belmonte became determined to take the class to an MLB spring training game in Miami. At first the principal rebuffed the plan, saying the school couldn’t afford the specialized bus to transport the students. Belmonte put the word out in the school hallways, and unsolicited donations flowed in from fellow students.
Belmonte was called to the principal’s office again. He was told he couldn’t accept the student’s money.
“The princpal said, ‘Look, I’ll make a deal with you, you give them all the money back, you win, I’ll get the bus,'” Belmonte said. “I walked out of there, hands raised like I won a championship.”
Belmonte still recalls the game at Bobby Maduro Stadium between the Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles. Mickey Rivers, who played for the Rangers, got all the kids autographed baseballs and posed for pictures. Later that afternoon, on March 30, 1981, former president Ronald Reagan nearly succumbed to an assassin’s bullet.
“These kids, some of them aren’t alive anymore because of the maladies they had,” Belmonte said. “But some of them I still stay in touch with, and it’s kind of cool.”
Nick Belomte’s path from player to broadcaster
Belmonte earned a broadcasting degree from Florida and a Master’s in sports administration. He continued his stand-up comedy dreams throughout the 1980s before a unique opportunity arose in 1990 to manage the Salt Lake Trappers. The Trappers were an unaffiliated rookie-level Minor League Baseball team in the Pioneer League.
“I never managed a day of pro ball,” Belmonte said. “I had never coached a day of pro ball, and a guy by the name of Vance Schley gave me that opportunity. One of the owners was Bill Murray, the actor, who I got to see and hang out backstage at his concert in Tampa a couple of weeks ago.”
Belmonte managed the Trappers to a .672 winning percentage from 1990-92 and led them to a league championship in 1991.
“It still stands as the last team to win a title in Salt Lake City,” Belmonte said.
After managing, Belmonte realized his MLB dreams as a scout for 16 years with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs under wunderkind GM Theo Epstein. He was presented a World Series ring from Epstein on Easter Sunday in 2017, less than a year after the Cubs broke a 108-year curse to win the 2016 World Series.
Belmonte began calling Florida baseball games in the late 1980s and still leans on his improv experience from his time with the improv group “Temporarily Disconnected” decades ago.
“It really does keep you on your toes that way,” Belmonte said. “Through the course of a three-hour game, you’ve got to be able to talk about anything and everything, whatever camera shot comes up, and so that definitely helped.”
WRUF’s Steve Russell, who has known Belmonte since his playing days in 1970s, occasionally teams with Belmonte on broadcasts.
“Nick has done things as a player, has done things as a manager, has done things as a scout,” Russell said. “He’s been through different levels of baseball, so he kind of understands how the game in changing, how the game has changed since he’s played, and he does a great job articulating that.”
Russell said Belmonte’s sense of humor also comes in handy, especially in blowout games
“Those are the hardest games to do, because it’s not exactly a tense moment where it’s a one-run game in the ninth inning and every pitch counts,” Russell said. “Maybe you are talking about what you did in college and who you managed in Triple-A. Nick has had all of those experiences.”
Belmonte, who lives in Tampa, also stays connected to the game by coaching base running clinics. His latest passion project is to restore the high school baseball program at his alma mater, North Miami, a school that also produced Hall of Fame pitcher Steve Carlton. North Miami dropped its high school baseball program shortly after the COVID pandemic in 2020.
“Carol City, Norland, North Miami, Central, Edison and Jackson do not have baseball teams, and those are storied programs in Dade County,” Belmonte said.
Most players from those schools now play baseball at neighboring North Miami Beach HS, where Belmonte has conducted clinics and donated equipment, such as netting for batting cages and baseballs.
“They have no money, and they went 13-7 this year, which I’m really proud of,” Belmonte said. “A third of their teams come from different high schools which have no programs anymore … I’ve been at this now for three years trying to revive it, and I’m not giving up.”
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF baseball stolen base king Bemonte brings color to commentary
Reporting by Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Sun / The Gainesville Sun
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