Effective Date: February 21, 2026
Welcome to Base Belles. We’re here for the love of the game, not to sell your data. However, in the modern era of “Robot Umps” and digital footprints, we have to have a few ground rules about how information is handled here.
Cookies & Tracking
We use Google Analytics to see how many Belles are visiting from the “corners of the Earth.” This helps us know if our content is hitting a home run or swinging at air.
- Opt-In: We use the WP Cookie Consent plugin, which allows you to opt-in or out. If you don’t want us to know you were here, we won’t take it personally.
- What is collected: Standard stuff like your general location, what browser you use, and which pages you enjoyed most.
See Also: Cookie Policy
Comments & Community
When you leave a comment on our posts (like our Spring Training updates), we collect the data shown in the comments form, as well as your IP address and browser user agent string.
Why? Mostly to protect the family. We keep this data to help with spam detection and to protect ourselves from haters or anyone not abiding by our tenets. If someone brings “vulgarities” that aren’t directed at an umpire, we like to know who they are so we can show them the dugout.
Contact Forms
If you reach out to us via a contact form, we keep that information so we can reply to you. We don’t use those email addresses for marketing lists unless you explicitly ask us to.
Data Retention
If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.
Your Rights
You are the manager of your own data. If you have left comments on this site, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes (again, looking at you, haters).
Third-Party Links
Our site contains links to official Guardians resources and news outlets. We aren’t responsible for the privacy practices of those sites, so be sure to check their “ground rules” when you visit.
Questions?
If you have questions about how we handle things, feel free to reach out via our contact page. Now, let’s get back to the game.