Out of the limelight
Belle talks about his past, present and future
Posted: Saturday September 26, 1998 02:35 PM
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Belle: "I do 99 things great, then one incident happens and everybody blows it out of proportion" AP |
CHICAGO (AP) -- Baseball has been one big party this summer, with Mark McGwire,
Sammy Sosa and
the New York
Yankees as the guests of honor. And then there's Albert
Belle.
Although he's chasing his second 50-50 season, he's the forgotten man
in baseball's summer of love. Think he cares? Think again.
"People want me to do things, be a certain way and that's not going to
happen," Belle told The Associated Press in a rare interview. "I'm
going to be Albert Belle."
Belle was hitting .379 since the All-Star break with 29 home runs and
82 RBIs going into the season's final weekend. His total of 47 homers and
148 RBIs was second-best in the AL, and his 48 doubles, 387 total bases and
.648 slugging percentage led the league.
And when Cal
Ripken finally took a day off last weekend, Belle became baseball's
current leader in consecutive games played (331). He's set Chicago White Sox
single-season records for home runs, doubles, RBIs, total bases and
extra-base hits.
"You look at that statistic sheet they put out every day, you're going
to find his name in almost all of those categories. Defense, too," White
Sox manager Jerry Manuel said, adding that his outfielder should be
considered for the MVP award.
But Belle knows that won't happen. No matter what he does, he'll
always be shadowed by his history of bad behavior. He was suspended five
times in six years, and he screamed profanities at a reporter during the
1995 World Series while with the Cleveland Indians.
When he became the first player to hit 50 homers and 50 doubles in
1995, he finished second to Boston's Mo Vaughn for the
MVP award in what many considered a backlash to Belle's personality.
"I do 99 things great, then one incident happens and everybody blows
it out of proportion," Belle said.
In 1996, for example, he leveled Fernando Vina
of the Milwaukee
Brewers with an elbow to break up a double play. Belle was
suspended.
"How many [broken-up double plays] have happened since then?" he said.
"They didn't get suspended. Nobody says a word. They congratulate the guy
for breaking up the double play."
So, does it bother him?
"The guys in the other dugout know the season I'm having," he said.
"That's what counts."
He insists he isn't surly or mean, and except for a domestic battery
charge this summer, he's stayed out of trouble the past two years. But he
feels no need to change the perception.
"People don't need to know what Albert Belle is thinking," he said.
"I've learned from my mistakes in the past, and that's what's made me a
better person."
He believes he's an athlete, not a role model, perhaps a good approach
given his occasional violent outbursts and past gambling habits that one
prosecutor said cost the player as much as $300,000.
Belle also once chased down several Halloween pranksters who had
thrown eggs at his house. He was accused of hitting one of them in his car,
and later convicted of reckless operation of a motor vehicle and fined
$100.
The 32-year-old Belle, who is not married, said he understands it's
tough to raise children these days, but sending them to the ballpark or
parking them in front of a game on television isn't the way to do it.
"Moral values have been thrown out the window. Christianity is out the
window. And that's wrong," he said. "Parents should be at home, teaching
kids right from wrong, making sure they get a great education so they can
be a success in life."
Off the field, Belle keeps a low profile. He lives in Arizona during
the off-season and is an avid golfer. A 14 handicap, he got his first
hole-in-one last winter.
He didn't play golf at all this season for fear of being injured. But
come Monday, he'll be back on the course.
"It's an individual sport, so it's the exact opposite of baseball," he
said. "If you hit a bad shot, you can't say, 'Well, this happened.' It's
just you. It's your shot. You can't point the finger at anybody but
yourself."
And when he's finally done with baseball, Belle dreams of turning all
of his attention toward his off-season hobby.
"I want to own my own golf course," he said. "And run it myself."
But that will have to wait a few years. Although he signed a
five-year, $55 million contract in November 1996, he could become a free
agent after this season. According to his contract, if he's not one of the
three highest-paid players (by average value, not including option
buyouts), he can become a free agent.
To prevent that, the White Sox would have to pay him an additional
$1.42 million in each of the remaining three seasons of his contract.
Belle hasn't decided what he'll do, but he enjoys playing in Chicago.
He likes Manuel, and the fans treat him well. The day after he was arrested
on the domestic battery charge, fans at Comiskey Park greeted him with loud
applause.
He likes his teammates, too. With the youngest roster in the AL, the
White Sox got off to a rough start, but they rebounded after the All-Star
break. With almost everyone coming back, Belle thinks the White Sox could
win the AL Central next year. "I think our lineup can be just as
potent as anybody else's," he said. "I like the makeup in the clubhouse.
We're all in this together. We're all going to win together, and we're all
going to lose together. We're a close-knit group of guys."
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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