I look back over my career and I almost pissed it away. I got a second chance and I've made the most of my opportunity. I play every game like it's the last game of my career.

I think a lot of people are aware of the things I do, but maybe because of who I am, they don't want to report the good things about Albert Belle.

I know the Chicago media will write a lot of bad things, but they'll write a lot of good things too. I can live with that. In Cleveland, all I got was negative press.

People want me to do things, be a certain way and that's not going to happen. I'm going to be Albert Belle.

I would rather have come to Baltimore than the Yankees. You look at their situation, they're the kingpin and you want to be that underdog that knocks them off the top. That's pretty much the situation I've been in my whole career. It just makes for a better season when you knock the big guys off the top.

People tried to test me (in 1999) and I came up with some pretty good throws. Everybody on the team calls me 'Bazooka' now. That's kind of like a nickname I gave myself.

The Indians didn't help me in dealing with the media. I think they wanted to keep my market value down. I'm moody. I know that. I've made some mistakes, but if I was a bad person, would someone want to pay me $55 million, would I have a scholarship fund my mother runs that pays for kids to go to school?