Albert Belle charged with stalking ex-girlfriend

[EJ72]

What an ass.

Belle released on $108K bail, to be electronically monitored   

Feb. 17, 2006
CBS SportsLine.com wire reports     

PHOENIX -- Albert Belle tracked his ex-girlfriend with a GPS device and repeatedly threatened her, according to a police probable cause statement filed in support of stalking charges.

The 39-year-old former baseball star was arrested in Scottsdale on Thursday and charged with stalking. He made an initial court appearance late Thursday, and a judge set bail at $108,000, ordered him to be electronically monitored and to stay away from the victim.

Reached by the Associated Press on Friday morning, Belle declined to comment on the case.

"You didn't write a story about my Hall of Fame induction," said Belle, referring to joining the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame last year. "You guys never report the good stuff that I do."

Belle's next court appearance is set for Feb. 24.

Despite impressive statistics, Belle collected just 40 of the 390 votes needed to reach the Hall of Fame in voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America in January. His prickly past was blamed by many for his low vote total.

The police probable cause statement said that Belle's former girlfriend discovered a Global Positioning System tracking device that had fallen off her car on Jan. 26. Believing that Belle was responsible, she called police, who began an investigation.

The unidentified woman told investigators that for several months Belle "had been showing up everywhere she went (the store, on dates, the gym, etc.)," the probable cause document stated. The woman asked Belle if he had placed the tracking device on her car, and he initially denied it.

But on Feb. 3, he left her a message apologizing for "doing all that tracking stuff," the statement said. A later recording had Belle threatening the woman, telling her she needed to hire a bodyguard for protection and that she "would never know what hit her," the statement said.

The volatile Belle often ran into trouble on and off the field during his playing days.

A five-time All-Star outfielder, Belle hit 381 career home runs in a 12-year career that began with the Cleveland Indians in 1989. He also played for the Chicago White Sox and Baltimore before retiring in 2000 after his second season with the Orioles.

He was fined in 1994 for using a corked bat and suspended after instigating a brawl by elbowing an opposing player. In 1991, he threw a baseball into the chest of a fan taunting him. Years later, he was fined $50,000 for berating a TV reporter and tossed a ball at a photographer.

Belle, who has lived in Arizona for several years, was arrested on a DUI charge in September 2002.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2005-2006, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

http://www.sportsline.com/mlb/story/9243673

[hbionic]

In his defense...he does feed his children.

[Geowhizzer]

In his defense...he does feed his children.

He darned well better:

2001 Baltimore Orioles $12,049,040
2002 Baltimore Orioles $12,368,790
2003 Baltimore Orioles $13,000,000
Career (may be incomplete) $97,376,294

Those three years (at approximately $37.4 million) were after his last at-bat in 2000. 

[PhillyPhreak54]

Albert "Don't call me Joey" Belle...

I was fond of him sending a teammate to crawl through the heating vents (Jason Grimsley, I think) to take his corked bat out of the umpires room.

And when he chased down those kids on Halloween in his Hummer.

A good citizen, that guy.