off his shoulders to swing. He later complained about having to play a game on his day off. It was his personal protest, which had nothing to do with politics, Fidel Castro or foreign policy.
By now, this was described as “Albert being Albert.”
On June 4, Belle was involved in an incident during a game at Camden Yards with the Philadelphia Phillies that reached the desk of Angelos and sounded the alarm for the whole franchise by early July. A Philadelphia doctor named Norm St. Landau wrote to the Orioles complaining that Belle gestured to fans in the bleachers with his middle finger and made other lewd displays after he was heckled for his slow chase of a fly ball. Angelos was infuriated and was privately trying to find ways to void Belle’s contract.
On June 8, Ray Miller benched Albert Belle for failing to run out a ground ball against the Florida Marlins. The next day, Miller and Belle got into a shouting match in the clubhouse in front of mortified players.
By then, the 1999 Orioles were 21-36 and 12 ½ games out of first place in the AL East. The Belle signing was the biggest disaster in franchise history and it wasn’t even the All Star break. And Angelos knew he had no one to blame but himself. Wren, who wanted nothing to do with Belle, privately stewed and clearly regretted his decision to ever come to the Orioles.
Belle was everything he was advertised to be and more. He sat in the Orioles clubhouse, eating yogurt with a scowl and would stare down reporters to intimidate them. His relationship with hitting coach Terry Crowley was no better.
Belle refused to take batting practice with the rest of the team and instead would bring his twin brother and local agent, Terry, to the ballpark to flip balls to him. He didn’t like the way any of the Orioles batting practice hurlers threw to him.
8
Despite the losing and the obvious character issues, everyone with the Orioles played along with this sociopathic ding-a-ling. What else could they do? He was making $13 million a year and had a guaranteed five-year deal.
As usual, Angelos’ employees had to cover for his mistake. Of course, if Belle were hitting more home runs it would’ve been helpful.
“I think you give a player who has been as successful as Albert the latitude to figure out what he needs to do to prepare himself,” Wren said to The Baltimore Sun at the time. “Do I think he should work with ‘Crow’ [Terry Crowley]? Yes, I think everyone should. Crow is that good. But if [Belle] believes in it, you can’t force him. I would prefer every player be involved in team activities.”
Meanwhile, Ray Miller, who also had no input in the signing of Belle but all of the responsibility of managing him and trying to make it successful, said: “He said he wasn’t comfortable with our batting-practice pitching and that he’d be better off in the cage. He said he thinks the program he has is better. Apparently he’s done it in the past and has been successful with it. When a guy produces like he has, you give a little leeway. I’d like to see him work with Crow, and he has off and on. But I want to keep him happy…
“Common sense says you should hit on the field every day to see the [hitting] background. But as long as he gets his work in, I don’t care. He stretches with the team, and sometimes he goes to right field [to shag flies] a little bit.”
Asked about his personal relationship with Belle, Miller said, “I say, ‘Hi.’ He says, ‘Hi.’ I say, ‘Nice job.’ He says, ‘Thanks.’ He’s not very communicative with many people.”
But in some strange way, Belle longed to communicate.
8On June 25, 1999, Albert Belle made an announcement on his AOL webpage that said he was joining a fledgling newspaper The Baltimore Press as a sports columnist. Oddly enough, his first column was about his parents and their dedication to being teachers, and the value of teachers.
“I’m going to have fun with the Baltimore media,” he later wrote. “It seems like whatever I do invokes an article. I put up a sign to joke about the upcoming Rochester game that was meant only to get a laugh from the players and the media ‘ran with it.’ Several players really don’t want to go to Rochester, New York, on an off day and I thought I’d have some fun with it. So just in case you’re wondering what’s next…”
On Monday, June 21, 1999, the Orioles had an off day and were slated to be headed to Rochester, long-time home of their Triple-A baseball affiliate Red Wings to play what amounted to a community feel-good, intra-squad exhibition game and a chance for the folks in upstate New York to see the big leaguers up close. It was an annual tradition and a big deal in Rochester when Cal Ripken, Mike Mussina and Brady Anderson rolled through for a night of baseball and a few greetings and autographs for the locals.
Of course, this 1999 Orioles squad didn’t have enough pride to play hard and run out ground balls playing at Camden Yards on worldwide television against the Cuban All Stars so a game of batting practice against minor league teammates in a minor-league stadium was apparently asking too much of the multi-millionaires. Pitcher Scott Erickson, whose attitude didn’t always mirror his California good looks, was the first to sign a “protest form” Belle taped up in his locker that invited teammates to sign up. Belle, of course, was the first signature.
Needless to say, Naomi Silver who was the baseball-crazed owner of the Rochester Red Wings, wasn’t amused. No one in Rochester was amused.
It would be one of many breaches in the foundation of that relationship that would sour over the next few years as the Orioles minor league system wasn’t providing quality players or wins on the field in Rochester. And it certainly wasn’t mustering goodwill or positive public relations with the actions of Belle, who was allegedly the Orioles’ best player and by far its highest paid performer.
But for Wren and Miller, the 1999 season was slipping away and their relationship was rapidly
