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Thank you to Stephanie for sending this in!

Hi...I live in San Diego and watch every Padres game on TV (my poor English husband puts up with it, bless his heart) and I thought I'd let you know that the announcers of the games, Matt Vasgersian and Mark Grant (along with Tony Gwynn when he sits in on the games) seem to really like Mark and want to see him play more often. When he comes up to bat, even if he does strike out, they say that he needs to start more games and they love how much power he has, even at Petco Park, where our other players have had trouble since it opened hitting the ball out of the park. It's nice to hear these guys talking about Mark's abilities and they also mention that they read the message boards and know that most people seem to think the same, that Mark Bellhorn needs to be a regular player. There was a time right before Vinny Castilla started hitting a bit better that Mark was apparently going to be the starting third baseman. Not that I would wish a slump on one of my Padres but I was kind of hoping Vinny would cool down a bit so we could have Mark out there more often! :-) And just the other day Tony Gwynn was right there behind Mark saying that he needs to play more often so he can get consistent at-bats, especially since he is a switch hitter. They were all saying that the next half of the season could be really interesting if Bellhorn gets to play more often. They obviously know he's capable of so much more. (Look at the fact that he has more home runs than some of the regular players!)

I'm hoping Mark will be with us for a while. I dread the trading deadline though it seems like Bruce Bochy seems to like putting Mark in as a pinch hitter, even if it's not his strength. I do wish he could start more often, though. He seems to whenever my son and I go to the games so I guess this means we'll have to buy more tickets. :-)

Just thought I'd let you know that the Padres' announcers are behind Mark. It's nice to see. They are pretty honest about players so it's nice to hear them talk about Mark.
 
Stephanie

READER POLL RESULTS:

A total of 47 people responded; 6 males and 40 females

The person who lives furthest away is a male in Israel

The breakdown by state:

California - San Diego, Encinitas, Vandenberg AFB, and one city not specified

Connecticut - New Haven and Windham

Florida - Orlando and Oveido

Illinois - Darien and Roselle (2)

Indiana - Highland

Massachusetts - Boston (5), Brookline, Lowell, Lynn, Mansfield, Marlboro, Somerville (2), Wakefield, Waltham, and Watertown

Maine - Etna, Lowell, Portland

Minnesota - Minneapolis

Missouri - St. Louis

New Hampshire - Dover, Epsom, Rollinsford and Stratham

New Jersey - Estelle Manor

New Mexico - Edgewood

Nevada - Reno

Rhode Island - city not specified

South Carolina - North Myrtle Beach

Vermont - Burlington, Hyde Park, Jericho and Rutland

A few readers mentioned their ages - 16, 25, 30, 35, and 44

From Lynne -

From Lynne - 

These pictures were taken by Catherine in Milwaukee on June 5 and 6
Thank you!!

This is Holly with Mark, during spring training.  
Thank you Holly, for sending this wonderful picture!!

And this is the ball that Mark signed for her

All Comments and Tributes are now on the TRIBUTES page

This is part of a paper that Paula wrote for a creative writing course - she says it all!  ENJOY!

The Boston Red Sox has to be one of my favorite teams.  In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, the Red Sox had a second baseman that I liked named Jody Reed.  In 1992, he left to play for the Colorado Rockies.  In December of 2003, the Red Sox acquired my second favorite player from the Colorado Rockies, and his name is Mark Bellhorn.

Mark Bellhorn came up in the Oakland Athletics organization, and made his debut in June of 1997 with the Athletics.  In 2001, the Athletics traded him to the Chicago Cubs.  It was here that Mark Bellhorn made a great impression that stuck with me for years, but I didn’t realize it until recently.  I have a station out of Chicago that carries, airs the Cubs games, and I watched Mark Bellhorn play, and I loved his way of play.  He made the pitchers work, made dives for balls, and is not afraid to get his uniform dirty.  He is a great player to me, and there are different levels of greatness.  You have players who play great defense, which Mark Bellhorn does; you have great offensive (people who hit homeruns a lot) players, and there are players who have great defensive and offensive numbers (statistics).

 Everyone isn’t perfect; Mark Bellhorn is no different.  He strikes out a lot, however, every player who plays baseball who steps up to the plate in games, strikes out from time to time.

In 2004, in Mark’s first year in a Red Sox uniform, he had a great season number wise, with the exception of 177 strikeouts.  In 523 at bats in 138 games, he scored 93 runs, had 138 hits with 37 doubles, three triples, belted 17 homeruns, with 82 runs batted in (RBI).  He also had 88 walks with six stolen bases and a batting average of .264.

 In the post season, the playoffs, the American League Championship Series games six and seven, in each of these games, Mark Bellhorn hit a homerun.  In the first game of the 2004 World Series, he became a Red Sox hero by hitting a homerun off the right field foul pole to pull the Sox ahead 11 to 9.  His homerun would prove to be the game-winning hit. 

He is the first player to hit three homeruns in three consecutive games in the post season.  He plays hard and makes the pitchers pitch to him.  This season he did not produce all entirely great, but still got eight homeruns with three stolen bases and 20 doubles.  He sprained his thumb on July 17, 2005 while diving for a ground ball off the bat of Jason Giambi of the Yankees.  The following day, the Red Sox put him on the Disabled List (DL), and he remained on the DL until August 19, 2005 when the Red Sox designated him for assignment.  What this means was the Red Sox could have traded him or released him, which they eventually did because Mark’s replacements, Tony Graffanino and Alex Cora was playing good enough for the Red Sox to get rid of Mark. 

In my conversation with Mr. Bellhorn, I would ask him how he felt to be in the World Series with one team, become a hero for that team, and winning the World Series.  I would also asked him how it felt to switch teams, by getting released and signing with the New York Yankees with one month left of the regular season.  The regular season is 162 games that the players play.  I would also ask him his opinion on the happenings of the world like the war in Iraq, the “War on Terrorism”, and anything else that would come to mind.      

Why I like Mark Bellhorn, the man, ball player, and would have a conversation with this amazing man?  Why is he my favorite baseball player?  Mark Bellhorn works hard when he is playing second base, or any of the other infield position that he can play.  He makes the opposing pitchers pitch to him.  He is quiet, nice and would do anything for his teammates, friends, and fans.  He’s smart, handsome, and intelligent.  He doesn’t bad mouth anyone and probably would give his shirt off his back for another person in need.  He is a person who I admire because he is close to my age, and I feel that I could relate to him in more than one way.

From Paula - our resident "Mark watcher"

"I just checked the Yankees website and noticed in the
game wrap that Mark played last night (Sept 26), he came in to
play 3rd base in late innings, I don't know what
inning or innings, but he played"

(Sept 25) - In the 8th inning, Mark pinched-ran for Giambi, and scored a run when Sheffield hit his homerun.

Well, at least he got in a couple of games!  Thanks, Paula!

Screen caps from Sept 25 - from Jenn

(click on thumbnail for full size)

Joyce's "Bellhorn Corner"

New Icons by Jenn
http://redsoxicons.cjb.net

The small ones are for buddy lists
medium for forums
larger ones are for Live Journal

OK - Kelly sure hasn't given up on our boy!

Well, he played last night (Sept 4) and did very well (including a homerun - YAY!) - here is a report from Paula for those of you who didn't see the game:  

I thought that I would write and tell you that Mark played last night in the game.  I don't know if you and other Mark fans watched it or not, so here's a report.  At his first at bat last night, he hits a homerun. The second at bat, he struck out; made a basket
catch for an out.  In the 1st inning, he caught a ball in foul ground.

In the 4th inning he started a double play. In a couple at bats, he walked, and flew out once.  He had some involvement in all three outs of the 7th inning.
It was a pretty good game.

I heard the announcers saying that they had a good feeling about Mark, one of the announcers said that he (Mark) may get a gold glove award.  He would definitely deserve it.  One of the announcers had mentioned that Mark being a Yankee now, came up with Oakland and won a World Series championship with the Red Sox. Do you think that the Red Sox let Mark go
because of his high strikeouts?  The reason why I'm asking is because one of the announcers had said that.

THANK YOU, MARK BELLHORN
from Kelly

Some pictures of Lenny DiNardo - taken by Colleen - August 7 - Pawtucket

Thank you for dedicating this fabulous website to my man Bellhorn.  I couldn’t agree more, Bellhorn was always my favorite player on the team.  I’ve been to a few games this season and have some pics for you to add to the site… Keep up the good work! Thank you!
 Elyse  August 26, 2005

and Thank YOU, Elyse, for the pictures and the kind words!

These 2 are from a game against the Yankees

This one was against Baltimore:

pictures from Stephanie (taken June 10 in Chicago)

Karen's Report on the Hall of Fame Game (late entry - my fault)

                  
          the Hall of Fame       A store on Main Street    A sign on the parade route

the collage and color bar below were made by Nikki

click to enlarge - this one is larger than the one below

I made them 2 different sizes

again - 2 different sizes

Icons by Jenn
http://redsoxicons.cjb.net

The small ones are for buddy lists
medium for forums
larger ones are for Live Journal

Thanks, Jenn!

Wallpaper by Jenn - click to see full size

Bellhorn Backers - first meeting!

left to right:  Aimee, Alicia, Pam (me) and Megan
next time I hope there will be a BUNCH of us!

this was taken by Emily at Toys R Us on April 16 - great picture! - Thanks, Emily!!

This is from Angie - you can look at them individually or as a slide show - they were taken on Monday, April 25.  The first few pictures are from the BoSox Club luncheon.

slide show

Thanks to Chris D for this - isn't it great??

March 16, 2005

Don't know you guys at all:

My good friend played college ball with Bellhorn at Auburn, Mark Weeks. Bellhorn came to tailgate at Auburn/GA football game, he is one of the nicest people you'd ever meet.  You guys are lucky to have such a great guy on your side.       Jason

From Trinitygal  March 4, 2005
 
It's Trinitygal again.  My family and I went down to Fort Myers for vacation.  It was exciting and everything.  I keep getting goosebumps whenever I think about this story. (It's one of those bittersweet things). 

I believe that the first time I went down this year was February 28th.  It was really nice out and I was so tired having only coffee for breakfast and getting up at 4 in the morning to drive to Fort Myers from Orlando-- well,  I kind of slept and listened to Bob Marley on my Walkman.  I arrived and we had to get on these huge, coach buses-- this was a big difference from the last time that I went down in 2001/2002. (can't remember exactly, but I rode on a small shuttle bus that fit maybe 13-20 people).  There were so many fans there, just like I anticipated.  I would never be able to get an autograph:  at least that is what I thought.  I never liked the idea of this "pilgrimage to Mecca" to get only autographs anyway.  My biggest hope was to get a picture with Mark.  I wanted to be here because I wanted the players to know how grateful I was of what they did for Red Sox nation-- they mended a (my) broken heart, if not many.  I watched the players all practice-- checked out the new guys, the prospects, etc... Renteria looked really great as well as Mark, Ramirez, Ramirez (Hanley), Ortiz, Varitek with his (C), Millar, Mueller, all the guys.  I was so happy to be here.  When practice was over I hung out with my sister and Mom trying to get autographs of players or even just trying to get them to notice us.
 
Just when I was about to give up caring if I got an autograph, I saw Mark over the mass of little people signing balls.  I left the huge mass that was stricken to get an autograph from Manny or Ortiz, and ran towards Mark.  I do not believe in having one player as a major favorite, but Mark had seemed to captivate me the first time I saw him on TV.  "This guy's special," I thought.  I couldn't help but admire him.  He was signing autographs looking down and never looking up. It was very quiet.  I am shaking as I am writing this because I was so nervous.  He was tall and strong.  His hair was still long and he still sported the unshaven look.  I stood behind the "little people" keeping my distance.  I finally worked the courage to say "Thanks for an awesome season," I couldn't remember if I said, "Mark" or not.  He looked up and from behind his sunglasses, he smiled and said, "thank you." I was lost for words.  I just smiled back. His smile took away my breath.  I would have liked to seen his eyes, to know what he was thinking, but I was also wearing my dark shades.  After he smiled, he looked down and continued signing.  I didn't know what to do, what to say.  I didn't care about the autograph, I had an urge to give him a big hug and let him know that because of him and the rest of the guys I could wake up on October 28th, 2004; walk down the street and get hit by a car and still be happy cause they won.  All I asked God when my heart broke last year was to have the sox win one before I died.  They won a year later.  I wanted to tell Mark that I thought he was amazing and to keep up the excellent work.  I wanted to ask him how it felt coming from behind and beating the Yankees four in a row.  I wanted to ask him what was going on in his head when he hit the game winning homerun during the first game of the world Series versus the cubs.  I wanted to tell him that I admire him and I can't help having him as my favorite because he is that great.  There was so much I wanted to say, but I was lost for words.  Suddenly the fans around me started saying, "Yeah, Mark," and "Thanks, Mark,"  I wasn't saying this for him to sign my ball, but maybe they were.  He continued with his head down, signing every ball closest to him.  I let a few "cute, 'little people'" by me.  Some arrived after I did.  A woman said, "Mark, can you please sign my ball."  He said, "Sure thing."  I stood there: frozen.  My hands out, but not close enough.  I didn't crowd the kids or anything.  I just stood there.  Eventually Mark turned around and ran off to have an interview.  I ran after him trying to get a glimpse of him. His sun glasses were still on, so I couldn't see his expression.  I was more upset that I couldn't say more versus the fact that I didn't get a picture with him or an autograph.  He really had to know how I felt.  I am really one of his biggest fans and he probably only thought that I wanted him to sign my ball so that I could sell it on ebay.  Never!  I still own a hat signed by Brian Daubach that I will cherish forever.  I am happy that I was able to say "Thank you."  I just really hoped that he knew how really grateful I was. 

I did end up getting an autograph from Kevin Youkilis, though.  My step-father and I calling him the "Greek God of Walks." That got a smile out of him.  They got other autographs, but my heart wasn't in it.  I would come back on the 1st and watch them practice again before I had to make that journey back to Orlando and eventually back to New Hampshire.  I knew my encounter with Mark was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I had said that I blew it, but I felt I did get something out of it.  To me, Mark's smile is worth more than any autograph ever could.  I was just hoping to get that smile on camera with one of his arms around me so that I could stare at that photo forever, but my only regret was not being able to say more because Mark deserved it.  Thanks Mark, if you ever read any of this.  Thanks for making my dreams and those of every sox fan out there come true.  You are amazing!  I love you and I will be rooting for you all season!
 
-Trinitygal, NH

Archived Pictures & Comments

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