WELCOME BACK, BO : That Sound Heard in Kansas City Is <i> B-O-O-O-O!</i> --as in Betrayed

Q: Bo, what kind of reception do you think you’ll get in Kansas City?

A: The same reception that I got the first day I got there.

--BO JACKSON at press conference Tuesday

Guess again, buckaroo.

If his name were M-o-o-o-se or Stu-u-u, those might have been happy sounds coming from the Royals Stadium stands. But it’s Bo, which doesn’t sound like Boo, which was what Bo Jackson of the Royals/Raiders heard all Thursday night.

His (old) home fans jeered, they threw little plastic footballs with “It’s a hobby” on them on the field, they gave the arms-upraised touchdown signal.

The fans tipped their hand by tossing the footballs around in the parking lot before the game. The Royals alerted their ticket-takers, who confiscated any ersatz pigskins they saw, plus one real football. Still, some 20 footballs fell on left field during the evening.

OK, so everyone knows that Jackson’s baseball career now depends on how he shrugs off the pressure. How’d he do Thursday night? He went O for 3, striking out twice and stranding a runner at third with one out as the Royals lost, 5-4, to the Orioles.

“Fans are fickle,” said Jackson. “But I’m not out there to listen to boos. I’m out there to play ball.

“I’m grateful to the fans who are with me. As far as the fans who’re out there booing, saying negative things, the way I feel, they’re jealous.

“A person who can’t take criticism is a fool. I can’t tell you what a person who gives criticism is. X-rated.”

Unbeknown to Bo, the X-rateds had been gearing up since last weekend when the Royals were on their first losing streak of the season and he announced his vacation plans. Let’s just say the populace took it hard.

“The reaction is one of indignation, anger,” said Ed (Superfan) Bieler, a sports talk host on KCMO. “We feel Jackson played a con game.

“Knowing Al Davis, we feel that this was arranged a long time ago. Jackson used the Kansas City Royals, picking up some extra bucks while waiting for the Tampa Bay situation to be voided. He pulled the same thing Boz (Brian Bosworth) tried to pull and he’s getting away with it.

“And going to the hated Los Angeles Raiders. Let’s assume the Royals are going into the last days of the season. If Mr. Jackson is struggling, the season is over. Then he immediately goes to the big bucks with the L.A. Raiders. Conflict of interest, I think it’s called.

“We feel betrayed. Al Davis strikes again.”

The franchise had more problems than the fans. The players had been up in arms since they heard that the front office was going to sit still for Bo’s plans. It didn’t help that co-owner Avron Fogelman explained he couldn’t stand in the way of Jackson’s realizing his full potential. How about our full potential, wondered 23 teammates.

Finally on Wednesday, GM John Schuerholz held a meeting and gave the players a plausible reason: The Royals gave Bo permission because they thought he’d walk, otherwise.

“That was a real, valid consideration for us,” Schuerholz said.

Jackson’s teammates became supportive, sort of.

“I ain’t got nothing to say about it,” said chief critic Willie Wilson before the game. “I ain’t talking about it any more.”

But Frank White, another angry veteran, said he was now all for Bo, though he saw difficult times ahead.

“If he goes through a period of striking out a lot or playing bad defense, everyone’s going to think he’s thinking of football, which might not be true,” White said. “But that’s the way things are.

“Tonight’s going to be interesting. He’s got a group of fans out there in left field. It’s called Bo’s Lounge. If they accept him, it might be all right.”

Out in Bo’s Lounge, the fans were pulling plastic footballs out of their picnic hampers and letting fly. They booed as much as any corner of the stadium. Jackson is either going to have to start hitting, or hire a bouncer for the lounge, or get earmuffs, or go into football.

“Is Bo taking much heat?” someone asked a fan in the first row.

“As much as we can give him,” said Ray Carter, a 27-year-old auditor from Overland Park, Kan.

OK, showtime. Jackson came to the plate in the third inning with a runner at third and one out in a scoreless game. Baltimore’s Mike Boddicker threw a curve over the outside corner for a called strike one. Boddicker wasted a fastball away. He threw another curve that Jackson missed by a mile. Boddicker threw a curve off the outside corner. Then he dropped down and threw a sidearm curve. Bo flailed at it one-handed and missed miserably.

Second time up: Curve low and away for a called strike one; fastball up and in that Jackson tries to check his swing on but can’t; fastball down the pipe that Jackson swings late on. Strikeout No. 117. If everyone in the American League was Mike Boddicker, Bo could be in Oxnard for the opening of rookie camp.

Reliever Mark Williamson walked Jackson in his third at-bat. He grounded out to first baseman Eddie Murray in his fourth, making a routine play close with a tremendous burst of speed.

Jackson also made a fine running catch on Cal Ripken and got a standing ovation from the fans. Of course, they’d boo him again later, but as fans go, this midwestern variety isn’t virulent. They rarely get on Royals’ players and if Jackson gives them half a reason, they’ll let him up.

Of course, he has to do his part. By making himself the object of a tug-of-war, Jackson has multiplied the pressure and he’s looking at a tough second half of the season.

It has been suggested that Bo’s second half started early. On April 28, the day of the NFL draft, he was hitting .344 with 4 homers and 15 RBIs. Since then, he’s hit .224--but with 14 homers.

“I don’t see myself pressing,” Jackson said. “Every day, I go out and learn something new.”

Thursday night’s lesson might be, let’s take it one sport at a time, they’re hard enough that way. But it’s early in Bo Jackson’s two-front career and as he’d be the first to tell you, when the going gets tough, Bo gets going.

Well, the going has gotten tough.