(1966- ) Controversial Baseball Player and one of the game's greatest sluggers and most troubled players. In a career that spanned from 1989 to 2000 and led the AL in RBIs in 1993, 1995 and 1996, let the league in Home Runs in 1995 and was an All Star from 1993-97. His lifetime batting average was .295 with 381 Home Runs and 1239 RBIs. His incredible slugging ability was far overshadowed by his incredibly un-sportsmanlike behavior, his surly attitude, his run-ins with fans, and the law, et al. His bad behavior began in college and despite his great statistics some teams refused to even consider him. He came up with Cleveland in 1989 but missed most of the 1990 season due to his alcohol problems. While in rehab, he changed his name from Joey to Albert. Despite his improved playing, he began to have serious problems. In one incident he drilled a fan with a baseball and in 1994 he was suspended for 7 games after being caught with a corked bat. Just before the third game of the 1995 World Series, screaming obscenities, he chased NBC-TV reporter Hannah Strom out of the dugout and was fined $50,000. On Halloween of that same year he tried to run down a group of kids with his jeep after they egged his condo. In April 1996 he threw a ball at a photographer who tried to take his picture and on May 31st was fined $25,000 for almost decapitating Milwaukee 2nd baseman Fernado Vina while trying to break up a double play. In 1997 he was traded to the White Sox and almost immediately ran into trouble with both the team and fans. When a fellow player tried to turn up the heat in the locker room Belle broke the thermostat. He was then fined $40,000 for betting on sports and during his first Kid's Day at Chicago he stayed in the locker room and refused to sign autographs. He then publicly cursed out a reporter who happened to be standing behind the backstop. In 1998 he was charged with wife beating the same day that he was awarded the AL Player of the Week. Traded to Baltimore, he continued his bad behavior and refused to speak to the press under any circumstances. In 2000 an inflamed hip forced him to retire from baseball. In 2002 he was convicted of OUI and in February 2006 was arrested for stalking and threatening a former girlfriend. He was given heavy bail and forced to wear an electronic monitoring device. In stalking her he had used a Global Tracking Devise he attached to her car and threatened that she should get a bodyguard because she "would never know what hit her." In August of 2006 he was sentenced to 90 days jail time and five years supervised probation for the incident. Sig., also signed "Phil 4:13" (signed during his brief "Born Again" period)

Ask a question about this item. 

Return to Catalog