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News, 1999
| MAY 1999 |
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Some old news is Albert made the Silver Slugger team last season. Also, he made the move to right field from left field because the Orioles already had a great left fielder, BJ Surhoff. Plus, at Camden Yards right field is a smaller area to cover. His new cereal will soon be available in the Baltimore/Washington area. It will be called "Albert Belle Slugger Cereal" and it is corn flakes. Grant Dinner says, "Albert likes to keep himself in top condition. He wanted a healthy product like dry corn flakes--nothing frosted." From the sale of each box, a dollar will go to Shirley Howard Children's Cancer Foundation which is headquartered in Baltimore. And finally, prior to the start of the 1999 season Albert declared that he would not talk with the media ever again.
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| JUNE 1999 |
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As you may or may not know, yesterday Albert and manager Ray Miller got into a little shouting match last night vs. the Florida Marlins. Belle was taken out of the game in the 9th inning and didn't even know. He went out on the field and jogged back to the dougout. Jeff Reboulet & Harold Baines had to hold him back after Miller waved him off. After the game he ordered reporters away with profanity. Miller said, "What happens internally stays internally and it will be taken care of internally. It's the same as a clubhouse meeting or anything else. I plan to handle it the same way."
June 11, 1999
After playing in 392 consecutive games, Albert Belle was benched today by Ray Miller but the Orioles won without him. Albert sat on the bench alone with no one next to him.
June 18, 1999
In the second game of a 4 game series vs. the Chicago White Sox, Albert hit his 12th Home Run of the season against his former team.
June 22, 1999
Albert hit a 3 run HR (14th) in the 8th inning which gave the O's the lead in the Orioles 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Also, the associated press is reporting that he posted a new sign on his locker for players wishing to boycott the Orioles' August 28th exhibition game at Triple-A Rochester. Albert's name was reported to be the only one signed on it and the sign was gone by the end of batting practice.
June 24, 1999
In his journal on his website, Albert explains that the sign was just a joke and the media made a big deal out of it. He said it was meant to be a laugh for him, the players, and the media. He hit his 15th HR tonight in a 2-1 loss to Boston.
June 25, 1999
Albert has started writing a column for a paper called The Baltimore Press. More info on this as soon as I get a hold of it! And oh yea, my site is finally opening today after a month or so of hard work!
June 28, 1999
I was checking out baltimorepress.com but couldn't find anything about Albert's column. Today I added some pictures and links to the site for your enjoyment.
June 30, 1999
In the 4th inning of tonight's loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Albert blamed a security officer for getting in his way. I didn't see the game but apparently he was trying to catch a foul ball, the security officer was trying to get out of the way, but couldn't, Albert bumped into him and didn't make the catch.
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| JULY 1999 |
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In the 5th inning of tonight's 2-1 loss to the Yankees, Albert made a catch but used the wall to help him. First, the call was ruled an out, but after the umps talked, it was a double for Jeter. Ray Miller argued the call and was ejected.
July 2, 1999
Albert hit his 17th homerun, but Baltimore lost again. It's the Orioles 10th straight loss.
Tonight while web surfing for Albert Belle stuff (As usual lol) I found yet another site against Albert Belle. Pay these 2 sites a visit and feel free to e-mail the owners with your thoughts.
July 10, 1999
Here are the all-star balloting results for AL outfielders:
1. Ken Griffey, Jr., Seattle, 2,918,055
2. Manny Ramirez, Cleveland, 1,898,430
3. Kenny Lofton, Cleveland, 1,676,595
4. David Justice, Cleveland, 1,336,304
5. Juan Gonzalez, Texas, 834,962
6. Bernie Williams, New York , 825,703
7. Paul O'Neill, New York, 582,421
8. Albert Belle, Baltimore, 455,497
I think Albert did pretty good. This shows he does have some fans!
July 15, 1999
In the 1st game of the 2nd half of the season Albert hit his 19th homer. He also had 4 RBI (57). Also, the Associated Press had an article about some "lewd gestures" Belle made to fans at a game on June 4. A guy named Norm D. St. Landau faxed a letter to the Orioles about Belle's "gestures" and was invited to sit in Angelos' box at Camden Yards.
July 18, 1999
Please check this out (go all the way to the bottom) and read about Albert & Reebok's donation of 60 uniforms to the Natchez T.M. Jennings Little League in Natchez, Mississippi. I'm not sure how long this story will be up so go read it now! AD Athletes - Albert Belle
July 19, 1999
The Associated Press is reporting about a new sign next to Belle's locker in the Orioles Clubhouse that reads "1/2 year down, 4 1/2 years to go so don't fight it and show me some Love!!!" and is written in yellow and blue marker. It is under the sign that directs reporters to refer all questions to his website.... Speaking of his website, Albert's new journal came out today. In this journal he sends out congratulations to Harold Baines, Mike Mussina, Cal Ripken, and BJ Surhoff on their All-Star selections, especially BJ. Belle wishes Sparky Anderson a speedy recovery and sends out condolences to the Kennedys as well. The Orioles are in the middle of a series with the Mets and he thinks the booing of Armondo Benitez is not right, saying Benitez gave 100% while with the O's. He also says that he thinks the Orioles still have a shot at the wild card if they win at least 54 more games.
July 21, 1999
Today's Washington Times newspaper had quotes from Jerry Manuel about his conversation with Albert last month. Manuel says, "We were talking in the outfield and he told me he had agreed to void it. After he had that incident, he told them they could do something if they wanted." Why did Albert go to Manuel? And a month ago! I think Manuel is a great manager, I wish Albert hadn't left the White Sox. Later today, Albert voided the no-trade clause in his contract and now is tradable. By the way, in last night's game Belle hit his 20th home run and notched his 59th RBI. He was booed by the home crowd in every at bat, but they cheered for him when he had the HR (how fickle!).
Later, 7/19- Okay, now there are some reports that Albert is denying that he waived the clause. On his AOL Athlete Direct Website, he says "I have not sought nor am I seeking to be traded. I made an election to play in Baltimore and that is where I plan to continue playing." It is labled an "exclusive" statement.
July 23, 1999
Michael Reghi, the O's TV announcer, said that Albert came up to him today to tell him that he is staying. Reghi said that he did yesterday as well and said some stuff about Terry Belle saying Albert never took the clause off. This is so confusing. When Reghi asked if Albert wanted to say that on camera, he replied with a no (But no mean words!). Albert had his 21st HR last night. Ohh yea.. I updated the links, quotes, and articles sections and also took out dead links ..yay! I'm thinking about doing frames or changing the layout, who knows.
July 24, 1999
The Baltimore Sun says that Albert donated 150 pairs of Reebok baseball cleats to the 13-15-year-old junior division of the Orioles RBI League in Baltimore City.
July 25, 1999
Wow. What a game for Albert Belle. Albert had 3 HRs(24) and 6 RBI (69), plus walked and was hit by a pitch. He was on base after all 5 times he came to the plate. With 2 men out in the bottom of the 9th,O's down by 1, Albert hit his 3rd HR of the game, tying the game and giving the chance for the Orioles to win it in the 11th! As if that wasn't enough (It was for me!) Belle talked with the media after the game for the first time since March! I can't remember much, but let me hit some of the main points. Belle said he did NOT waive his no trade clause, he intends to play here, he doesn't like what the reporters are writing about him, and how he wanted to bat and not take first base after being hit by a pitch. He said something similar happened to him last year (or in the past) and he didn't have to take first. That's all I can remember, maybe if I hear it again I can tell you all more. By the way...I'm working on a new layout and I should be done soon!
July 29, 1999
YAY! I'm finally done with this new layout, hope you all like it. Some browsers cannot view it so that sucks doesn't it. Albert's 7 game hitting streak came to an end yesterday. Oh well.
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| AUGUST 1999 |
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Today in Albert's journal on his website he talks about how he still has hope for the rest of the season, telling the fans to hang in there while the Orioles try to get to .500. In site news: I just got a copy of the May 6, 1996 Sports Illustrated which has a good article about Albert. Scanned some pictures from that, added a few quotes. I recommend you get it if your a big Albert fan. I updated the pictures section adding the 6th picture gallery. Also added a few pictures to the 1st photo gallery. Added belle3.wav (which I recorded from the radio) to the Fun Stuff section.
August 5, 1999
Belle has had a HR 2 nights in a row making his totals 27 HR and 75 RBI. He is on his way to having another season with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI, yay!
August 6, 1999
I would like to thank my friend Phillip for sending me this article. I added a lot of quotes from this article to the quotes section. As for news, today Albert had career hit number 1,500.
August 9, 1999
Today I uploaded belle4, belle5, and belle6 to the wav section on the Fun Stuff page. Download the wavs and hear what Albert had to say on July 25.
August 11, 1999
Albert has a 9 game hitting streak! Tonight he hit his 28th HR. Also, his Birthday is coming up in 14 days.
August 13, 1999
How ironic, the Orioles play the Indians on Friday the 13th! OK, I'm going overboard. Anyway, Belle wrote in his journal (dated August 12) that Cleveland plays hard and the Orioles aren't giving up. He is still very optimistic.
August 15, 1999
The Orioles have been swept by the Indians for the second time this season. All weekend long the Tribe fans have been booing Albert extremly loud and chanting "Jo-ey". Albert's 11 game hitting streak was ended tonight. Only 10 days till Albert's Birthday~!
August 17, 1999
Today I added 3 articles to the articles section which are written by Albert Belle himself! Maybe through his writing you can tell more about what kind of guy he really is.
- Are We Losing the Teacher? by Albert Belle
- Where are the people? by Albert Belle
- Boston or Baltimore? by Albert Belle
August 18, 1999
Albert now has 14 outfield assists, which is tied for the American League lead. Also, please check out the latest edition of USA Today's Baseball Weekly because my site is featured in it on page 12! I still have not gotten a copy but you can get it at grocery stores or drugstores. Read the story online here.
August 19, 1999
You can view Albert Belle's auctions on Ebay here. All the money goes to charity so go bid!
August 24, 1999
Tomorrow is Albert's Birthday! For those of you who find it funny to write 'Joey Sucks' in my guestbooks, I'd just like to say that is immature (no wonder Albert gets angry at taunting fans) and I should remove it but I will not. You do have freedom of speech, I just think that it is lame to walk around saying someone 'sucks' on a fans page. Go do that on some anti-Albert page. Plus, if you are going to use 'sucks' at least back yourself up. That is soley your opinion, perhaps a better place to do that might also be a message board where people argue about difference in opinion.
August 25, 1999
Last night Albert had a HR to bring his total to 29. It was the 350th of his career! Today is Albert's 33rd Birthday. He wrote in his journal on his site today congratulating Eddie Murry, Jesse Orosco, and golfer David Toms (who he went to LSU with an played Little League with).
August 30, 1999
Albert had 4 doubles today tying an Orioles club record.
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| SEPTEMBER 1999 |
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Albert has achieved his 8th straight 30 HR or better season. Tonight he had a HR, steal, and single.
September 6, 1999
Albert is now tied for the league lead in outfield assists with 16. His batting average has gone up to .290 which I think is good because I can remember it sitting at .275 for some time. He had 2 HR today and is on his way to his 8th straight 30 HR 100 RBI season! More news when things happen....
September 7, 1999
Albert had another HR today, so that's 33. His average is now up to about .295! He also has 98 RBI.
September 8, 1999
I added a new article to the articles section-- click here to read it. It is really good! It has some quotes from Albert and shows you the other side of him. I am trying to get ahold of the magazine. Please join the Albert Belle yahoo! club or the mailing list because we need more people!!
September 9, 1999
Albert had his 100th RBI of the season tonight giving him 30+ HR and 100+ RBI for the 8th straight season. He is now 3rd on the list of most consecutive seasons with at least 30 HR and 100 RBI. Jimmie Fox has 12, Lou Gehrig has 9, and Babe Ruth has 8. He is also on a 9 game hitting streak.
September 10, 1999
Lately there has been some talk of Albert accidentally touching an officer... if you would like to read the article click here. In tonight's game vs the Seattle Mariners Albert had his 26th Double and 2 RBI. He is not on a 10 game hitting streak and closing in on batting .300.
September 14, 1999
Albert has a 14 game hitting streak. (YEAH!)
September 15, 1999
The next 2 O's vs. A's games are cancelled. That stinks because the O's were on an 8 game streak and things like this often interrupt good play. Also Albert is on his streak of 14. Albert writes in his journal today about how it is nice to be mentioned with names such as Jimmie Fox, Lou Gehrig, and Babe Ruth but he really wanted to make the playoffs and thats his only real goal! (This shows he isnt only bout his stats, he wants to win. Albert also said thanks to the fans for coming out to the Yard this season since the O's reached the 3 million mark in attendance this season.
September 18, 1999
The O's are on a 9 game winning streak! Albert continued his streak as well and has hit in 15 straight games. The O's vs. A's games have been rescheduled as a doubleheader this week. Albert had HR #34 tonight!
September 19, 1999
The O's won but Albert's streak was ended at 15 last night.
September 22, 1999
The O's are now on a 13 game winning streak! Albert had his 35th HR! YEAH!
September 23, 1999
The O's streak ended today at 13. But Albert had his 36th HR! The O's won the second game of a double header giving them 14 wins in the last 15 games. Albert had 4 doubles in the second game.
September 26, 1999
Albert hit HR #37 today. Over his career he has had 27 vs. the Red Sox. I predicted 41 HR for him back a few months ago, I think he might actually get there!
September 27, 1999
Congrats to Albert for getting AL Player of the Week!
September 29, 1999
Albert wrote in his journal on his wesite today. It was really long. He talked about how he doesn't want the NL President Len Coleman to step down because "he is a tremendous baseball man, and his only concern is for the betterment of the game". Most of his journal was about minorities in baseball. To summarize all that, he thinks there are a lot of quality black players/managers/writers in the game who do not speak out. "There are some quality guys out there who could really excel if opportunities were open to them," he wrote. Also, Albert's agent Art Tellem was bought out by SFX Entertainment today.
September 30, 1999
The whole race thing Albert wrote about has caught fire on his AOL Message Boards. A lot of haters, and defenders on there... Today Albert became the first player in Oriole history to have 100 walks and 100 RBI in 1 season. He also had a career high 17th Outfield Assist.
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| OCTOBER 1999 |
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Albert has been named AL Player of the Month for September. Read about it here.
October 3, 1999
The O's lost the last game of the season today. Albert was hit by a pitch and I heard he glared at Rheal Cormier. Well one inning later, the benches cleared but no punches were thrown. I didn't see the game so I don't know where Albert was. Anyway...The Orioles final record is 78-84 which is 20 games back of first place in the AL East. Here are Albert's final stats:
Hitting Stats
Games: 161
At Bats: 610
Average: .297
On Base %: .400
Slugging %: .541
Runs: 108
Hits: 181
Doubles: 36
Triples: 1
Home Runs: 37
Runs Batted In: 117
Walks (Bases on Balls): 101
Intentional Walks: 15
Strikeouts: 82
Stolen Bases: 17
Fielding Stats
Games in Right Field: 154 (He DHed a few games)
Assists: 17
Errors: 4
Put Outs: 252
Fielding %: .985
October 4, 1999
Today I added the section called 'Fan Experiences' because I have heard so many good fan stories before so I thought I should make a section for people to send them in. (TopBird's story is the first one in there! ;)
October 7, 1999
Ray Miller & Frank Wren are no longer part of the Orioles. I don't know all the details because there are so many different articles that say different things so I don't want to give out the wrong info. So all I'm going to say is they are both gone! Oh yeah, I finally got one of those Albert Belle bammer bears, it's so cute! Great gift for the Belle fan ;-)
October 9, 1999
I just got 2 old magazines. One is Sport from May 1997 which has a Q&A with Albert and the other is an Outside Pitch from March. I'll be adding quotes from these mags sometime this week.
October 12, 1999
I really apoligize for not knowing about this earlier, but Albert Belle was on WTEM AM 980 for an interview on former Gerogetown bball coach John Thompson's radio show today. I did not hear it myself so all the info I am giving you was told to me by various people on various internet BB's. Anyway, the interview was about 40-45 minutes and here is what Albert talked about:
- He'd like to see Eddie Murray as manager. (Figures since he has always liked Eddie)
- He'd like to see Dave Stewart, Reggie Jackson or Dave Winfield for GM.
- Ray Miller did not get respect from some players and some of the players "quit on him"
- He thinks it's ok that Cal and Brady stay in separate hotels because it is probably to get away from people like autograph seekers. "I don't know why they list our hotels in the media guides."
- "I want to stay here" "A trade would have been the easy way out and I have never taken the easy way out."
Please correct me if you know for sure any of this is wrong. Thanks to all the people who posted messages about this and informed me about the things in the interview! To read a better writing of the main points visit this post in the Orioles Newsgroup... Prince Albert Speaks
October 13, 1999
I heard that John Thompson will be replaying the interview (or parts of it) tomorrow on his radio show at 3 on WTEM. If that's right I will tape it off the radio and make sound clips for the comp so you guys can hear some of it and I will get some quotes. Many articles came out today about this, here is the one from the Washington Post and here is the one from CNNSI.
October 14, 1999
Alright, John Thompson only replayed parts of the interview. I taped what he played. He also had a big discussion about how the media tagged his interview as Belle bashing Miller etc. Thompson felt that the interview was tagged incorrectly. I will have quotes on this as soon as I can find the time, I do have school to go to and homework so I have to put this off till maybe the weekend. Anyway, I heard him say that he will probably replay the whole entire thing on Saturday, so I will try to listen for it. If you do not live in the DC area, you can access their website and listen on there if you wish. The link is in my above posting.
October 16, 1999
Today I got a new Message Board for the site. It is a lot more organized. Hopefully more people will stop by to post often. Also, I will be listening to WTEM for the replay, and hopefully I will get to record it and add quotes from it to the quotes section later plus quotes from the May 1997 issue of SPORT magazine. We will see later on today.
October 23, 1999
Let me first say sorry that it has taken me forever and a day to update this. This week I have not been online much. Anyway, Albert wrote in his journal on October 20. He first starts off talking about how saddened he is with Wilt Chamberlain's passing. He then talks about this past season and how he thinks he had a solid (but not OUTSTANDING season and that RINGS are more important to him than his personal numbers. "To me, rings show completion and teamwork," he said. He then talks about next year and how he feels Baltimore should get an established hitter and an established pitcher. He brings up the John Thompson interview and how it mostly got negative press just because it was Albert Belle. He recently visited a Hospital in Baltimore. "Visiting the hospital was something I really enjoyed. Seeing sick kids reminds me to keep things in perspective. That's why I've never taken anything for granted and I try and play every day. Maybe one day people will start focusing on the positive rather than the negative," he wrote. Albert also said he saw his old High School football coach at church last Sunday, and that he is visiting his family in Louisiana.
October 24, 1999
Found another article written by Albert on the Baltimore Press website today. It put it in the articles section. Or just click here to read it. It's called Albert Belle For President.
October 28, 1999
No Albert news, just added another fan story. Read it it's cute.
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| NOVEMBER 1999 |
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It has been so long since I was allowed to update!!!! And even now, doing this I have to use ftp which is more of a pain than what I regularly do. It really does mean a lot to me to update this page so I'll do whatever it takes. Anyway a lot has happened since the last update. The Crosswinds server was down for a while so I could not update, and for that I'm sorry. I know most of you know by now that Mike Hargrove was picked as the new O's manager. I bet this will work out good since he is familiar with Albert. In his journal on November 1 Albert gives his condolences to the families of Paune Stewart,Greg Moore, the victims of Egypt Air, and Walter Payton. He then talks some baseball saying how he watched some of the World Series and he thinks there will be some big trades this offseason. And then he talks about how he is playing some golf and how it's really challenging. That's it for now, I will try to update more later on and post some new quotes and articles....
November 13, 1999
In his journal on November 12, Albert talks about a variety of topics. First he congratulates Tiger Woods on winning so many tournaments recently. Then he talks about the unfair Gold Glove voting...Rafael Palmeiro winning after playing only 28 games at first...and how he thinks BJ Surhoff had a pretty good fielding season. Then he goes into this big economic thing about money in the NBA & Baseball which I'm not sure I can even understand (sorry :). He closes saying... "Once again, I am all for players getting paid as much as the market will allow. But, I love the game, and don't want another work stoppage, because I don't think baseball would ever recover again."
November 19, 1999
No Albert news, just news about this website. Well I should have did it a while ago but it took me a while to find time. Today I added this cool tracking thing that tells me about visitors to my page, like if they are using IE or Netscape etc. and that kinda helps me out because some older browsers cannot view frames right? So it has a lot of cool features on it that will help me find out more about visitors to this page :) Just thought I'd let ya know. OH and I hit the 1,000 mark on visitors the other day (someone wrote it in my gbook)! WOOO HOO.
November 27, 1999
Not much to post during the offseason. Today I added a few facts to "All About Albert". I went through this Cleveland Indians program from when Albert had the 50-50 to learn a few new facts. Well, thats it buh bye..
November 30, 1999
I heard from a friend that Albert is suppose to be on Channel 2 in Baltimore tonight at 11. We'll see!
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| DECEMBER 1999 |
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Albert writes in his journal this week (dated December 7) saying he is keeping in shape and playing some golf. He then talks about how the leading money winner on the PGA Tour's winnings keep going up. "In 1963, the top money leader on the PGA tour made $128,000. In 1965, the top money leader made $145,000. In 1999, Tiger Woods is the top money leader so far with $6.6 million (not including his most recent win, which may have pushed him to $7.2 million). Based upon that type of growth, in the year 2035, the top money leader on the PGA tour will be earning $340 million!!"
This is the 2nd time he has talked about Tiger and golf in his journal so i'm guessing he is a Tiger fan.
In site news...I won for Crosswinds site of the week. Isn't that cool? :o)
FOX released their Saturday baseball schedule and I'm sure most of the O's games on it are regional coverage only...but I'll post em up anyway...
December 8, 1999
Albert writes in his journal this week (dated December 7) saying he is keeping in shape and playing some golf. He then talks about how the leading money winner on the PGA Tour's winnings keep going up. "In 1963, the top money leader on the PGA tour made $128,000. In 1965, the top money leader made $145,000. In 1999, Tiger Woods is the top money leader so far with $6.6 million (not including his most recent win, which may have pushed him to $7.2 million). Based upon that type of growth, in the year 2035, the top money leader on the PGA tour will be earning $340 million!!"
This is the 2nd time he has talked about Tiger and golf in his journal so i'm guessing he is a Tiger fan.
In site news...I won for Crosswinds site of the week. Isn't that cool? :o)
FOX released their Saturday baseball schedule and I'm sure most of the O's games on it are regional coverage only...but I'll post em up anyway...
| DATE | TIME | GAME |
| June 24,2000 | 4:00 PM EST | O's at Mariners |
| July 29,2000 | 1:00 PM EST | Indians at O's |
| September 2,2000 | 1:00 PM EST | O's at Indians |
| September 9,2000 | 4:00 PM EST | O's at Angels |
December 17, 1999
Albert is going to be one of the scheduled participants at Orioles Fan Fest 2000 which is Saturday, Jan. 22, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 23, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m . Tickets cost 10 dollars for adults and 5 dollars for kids under 14 and senior citizens. This event is held at the Baltimore Convention Center.
December 30, 1999
This article talks about the Cleveland Indian trade rumors. I'm pretty sure they are just that..RUMORS. Albert would never waive his clause to go back to that team , and according to the article John Hart isn't even pursuing him. This article also claims Albert e-mailed the Cleveland Plain Dealer and said "Tell John Hart to quit calling my agent about me coming back because it ain't gonna happen!" In this supposed e-mail Albert also writes that he does not own a house in Cleveland.
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