MARK in the MEDIA    

From MLB.com

Notes: Bellhorn quietly warming up
06/04/2005 2:38 PM ET
By Ian Browne / MLB.com

Red Sox second baseman Mark Bellhorn had the fortune of a lot of people not noticing his early-season slump. While there's been plenty of talk about Edgar Renteria (who is now on fire), Manny Ramirez and Kevin Millar, Bellhorn was able to go back to the basics without the media and fans chronicling his every step.

then:

Rough day for Bellhorn: Just when it seemed second baseman Mark Bellhorn was starting to get hot, he whiffed four times in Saturday's loss.

However, Francona has a lot of confidence in Bellhorn and has been encouraged by his at-bats during this homestand.

"He has shown that ability, for sure, in the past to come up big, to maybe go up his first two times and miss six straight times and then hit a ball off the foul pole," said Francona. "You can't tell, from my opinion, how many hits he has by his body language. He just plays the game and keeps playing the game, and it seems like we get rewarded. He doesn't let it get him down. He just keeps going."

Bellhorn entered Saturday's game with a .253 average, the highest he'd been at since April 23.

"That's the season," Bellhorn said. "Obviously, I didn't start the way I wanted to, but I'm working every day to try and find the swing and just relax and get some results. If I keep working, it's going to happen."

Salt Lake Tribune Article
May 9, 2005

Boston Metro newspaper  
Friday April 29, 2005

Bellhorn bigger than his numbers  (summary)
Joe Haggerty

... instead just observe the 30-year-old infielder as he unassumingly keeps putting up numbers - both good and bad.

(He) has struggled out of the starting gate this season.  He's hit .229 ... but still leads the AL with nine doubles, is fourth on the team with 10 walks and turns a smooth double play around the second base bag with new partner Edgar Renteria.

Bellhorn also leads both leagues with 29 whiffs, but clearly has grown weary of the attention foisted upon either ball four or strike three.
The one telling stat that Bellhorn also leads the team in: pitchers throw a team-high average of 4.21 pitches per at bat to the patient slugger.

"I don't go up there every at bat with the intention to just watch pitches and get a walk or a strikeout every time," says Bellhorn. "I know what my strengths are, and part of that is the ability to go up there and make a pitcher work."

Thanks, Joe!

Mark was featured in both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald on Thursday, Feb 24.  The Globe article was also on Boston.com

The Globe article was titled "Loud and Clear" and was written by Chris Snow.

The Herald article was titled "Mark of a Winner" and was written by Jeff Horrigan.  There was a great quote by Terry:  "He's himself and you've got to be true to yourself.  He just comes to the ballpark and gives you everything he has.  Players appreciate that.  I know I do."  (and of course we do too!) 

                          12121212212121212121212121212121212121212121212
     

January 29, 2005
from Google Alerts

From the "The RotoTimes" - two years of Mark info..

RotoTimes Mark Info

January 2, 2005

I subscribe to Google Alerts, and there was a link to this wonderful article about Mark when he played in the Cape Cod League (the Cotuit Kettleers) here in Massachusetts in 1993 - and how both he and Mike Matheny were alumni of that team and also both on the cover of SI - and many other Sox and other MLB stars played there.  Check it out...

http://www.kettleers.org/worldseriesstory.htm

December 23, 2004

Check out this article I found online...  Mark and the Sox are famous in the UK!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

October 2004

world series GAME 1: RED SOX 11, CARDINALS 9

Bellhorn gives Boston warm feeling

He hits a 2-run homer in the 8th inning to give the Red Sox a victory on frigid night at Fenway.  

By Mike Lopresti
IndyStar.com
October 24, 2004 

BOSTON -- The Fall Classic opened on the edge of winter. A cold and windy Saturday night that was no place for pitchers, defense or anyone without a heavy coat.

A hitter with gloved hands and a hot bat would have to settle Game 1 of the World Series. And Boston's Mark Bellhorn did. Bellhorn's two-run homer in the eighth inning off the right-field foul pole gave the Red Sox an 11-9 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in an enchanted and shivering Fenway Park.

"It's a nice feeling," Bellhorn said of his deciding home run.

"If you watched him all year, he's really been a pretty good player," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "He's been a very clutch player for us all year."

A game that began with David Ortiz's three-run rocket shot for Boston in the first inning and a 7-2 lead after the third turned into a trial of focus and concentration, where the conditions had to be beaten along with the opponent.

It made for lots of runs, anyway. This was the highest scoring Game 1 in World Series history.

The Red Sox nearly flunked. But a team that had committed two errors in 10 postseason games had four in one night -- throwing one ball into the St. Louis dugout, another into the first-base photographer's booth.

Not to mention Manny Ramirez's eighth-inning, left-field misadventures, when two errors helped the Cardinals to two runs and a 9-9 tie.

The climate did not help. Temperatures were dropping through the 40s, with the wind blowing in. And the game dawdled, as games do in American League ballparks. When Keith Foulke struck out Roger Cedeno for the last out, the game was four hours old.

Bellhorn's shot came on a 1-2 pitch off Julian Tavarez and scored Jason Varitek, who had reached on Edgar Renteria's error at short

Taken from MLB.com:
10/24/2004 1:27 AM ET
Mark Bellhorn postgame quotes
Second baseman talks about Game 1 offensive battle

Q. In light of what happened in the ALCS, did you guys sit in the dugout in the later innings and go, "Please, not again"? 

MARK BELLHORN: Coming into this, we knew it was going to be a tough battle. I mean, they have a great offense there. You know, it's going to be a battle. We are going to score runs, they are going to score runs. It's whoever can get the last one. This team has got a lot of heart and character and somehow I think we got the confidence to come back, so we did.

Q. You seem like a pretty laid back guy, how does that help you in your slump like you were early in the ALCS, how does that help you ride it out?

MARK: You just have to kind of feed off those games. In the playoffs, everything seems like a critical moment kind of, but you've just got to think of the positives and not really so much think of those four games, because any game can be a pivotal game or a pivotal play, so you've just got to live in the present. So that's kind of what I try to do.

Q. In light of what you just said, this turn in the last three games, is there anything mechanical or physical or is it just riding out the slump?

MARK: Just confidence. I mean, I think we forget that the mind is a powerful thing and sometimes we just lose our confidence. You know, these games, you want to win so bad that you sometimes put too much pressure on yourself and that's when you start to struggle.

You know, you just got to battle through it and that's kind of what I did. Support, everybody kept trying to pump me up and keep my confidence up because you never know what could happen or when you're needed. That's what happened. Got a couple of good hits.

Q. You got a pretty good look at it. Is that a home run in any other park or is that just home-field advantage?

MARK: I don't know, I'm not sure. I hit it pretty good, but depends on which way the wind was blowing. The wind was blowing pretty hard. Actually I thought I hit the first one and it kind of blew pretty hard to the right. I don't know, I'm not sure.

Q. History is full of playoff and World Series heroes, like the Mark Lemke and Gene Tenace and Tito Landrum, did you ever envision yourself like that growing up, watching the series in the playoffs and putting yourself in a spot that you've been in tonight and up to the World Series?

MARK: I think so. Every little boy always thinks of playing in the World Series, Game 7 and winning the game. I mean, I know I did, I guess, but it's not, being, I'm not here to try to be a hero. Just to here to try to win four games.

Q. After slumping last year, what does it mean to you to be in this position this year and having a chance to win a world championship?

MARK: Unbelievable. If you asked me last year if I thought I was going to be in this spot, I would probably have to say no.

I think last year, I really don't know what happened, but I think I got a lot stronger from it. And was able to, you know, for future times, been able to go back on that and remember what I went through, and hopefully get over it quicker.

Courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

Taken from:  http://personals.nydailynews.com/front/story/245690p-210442c.html

Bellhorn makes his Mark
Two-run homer in 8th lifts Sox to Game 1 win

By SAM BORDEN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER


Red Sox second baseman Mark Bellhorn follows through on his two-run home run in eighth, which proves to be decisive blast in Boston's Game 1 victory.

BOSTON - There is faith here now like there never has been before, faith that bad things will finally end for the Red Sox. Maybe it is Johnny Damon's hair or Curt Schilling's ankle or David Ortiz's nickname or Pedro Martinez's midget or Manny Ramirez's flightiness, but after the Red Sox finally beat the Yankees, it seems a foregone conclusion that this team, this band of happy-go-lucky "idiots" as Damon calls it, will be the one to finish the job.
The Sox are just three wins away. Mark Bellhorn roped a two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the eighth inning that got Ramirez off the hook for two costly errors and Ortiz - now known as "Papi" - blasted a three-run homer and drove in another run as the Sox beat the Cardinals, 11-9, in Game 1 of the World Series last night at Fenway Park.
After 86 years of losing, no one expected it to be easy. Ramirez single-handedly gave away a two-run lead in the eighth when he first overran Edgar Renteria's single that allowed pinch-runner Jason Marquis to score from second, then completely botched a Larry Walker fly ball that allowed Roger Cedeño to come home and tie the score at 9.
Coincidentally, Ramirez was nearly the hero, having lined an RBI single in the seventh that broke a 7-7 tie. Ortiz's subsequent RBI single gave the Sox bullpen a cushion that would have been enough had Ramirez not stumbled - quite literally - in the field, his spikes getting caught in a drain as he needlessly slid for Walker's ball.
"For me, it didn't matter," Ramirez said in the Sox clubhouse afterward, "because Bellhorn picked me up and we won. Tomorrow is another day."
Indeed it is, and with Schilling taking his aching right ankle to the mound today and Martinez following in Game 3, the Sox look poised to finally vanquish their demons. Bellhorn's homer off Cards reliever Julian Tavarez was actually reminiscent of a positive piece of Sox history - Carlton Fisk's memorable blast off the left-field pole in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series against the Reds.

Originally published on October 24, 2004

********************************************************

From Auburn University News:
Taken from Auburn site:  www.auburntigers.com/baseball/page.cfm?doc_id+8162