BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS: DAY 3 : Samuelson Is Always Across Decorum’s Line

What is it about Bob? What made Bob run half-naked one night through the streets of Tokyo? Why did Bob beat up a fruit-juice vending machine in Pomona? Why did Bob tattoo himself with a skull-and-crossbones wearing a blue Mohawk hairdo? Why did Bob’s best friend use Bob’s hand for a dart board?

Why does Bob call himself “the weirdest guy in the world?” Why was Bob personally responsible for the United States giving back an Olympic volleyball victory over Japan? Why did the head of volleyball’s international federation pull Bob aside after Sunday night’s game and say: “Please, do not cross the line of good behavior any more!”

Well, Bob?

What about it, Bob?

“I’m mad, I’m sad, I’m upset, I’m bummed,” he said. Anybody who knows Bob Samuelson knows that Bob was simply being himself--a big, bald, bawdy volleyballer--when the score was 14-13 in Japan’s favor and a ball appeared to bounce out of bounds and a referee instead called it good and Bob went ballistic and began McEnroeically screaming: “That ball was out by a foot! Clearly out! Out by a foot!”

Everybody else on his side was screaming, too, Samuelson said Monday, but Bob was the one at whom the ground-level referee pointed a finger when he called up to the chair-level referee and began screaming (according to Bob): “Give a yellow (penalty card) to No. 9! Give a yellow to No. 9!”

But why Bob?

Why, Bob?

“Because I’m me,” he said. “Because I’m 6 foot 5. Because I’m bald. Because I’m loud. Because I’m emotional. Because I’m excitable. Because I’m noticeable.”

Because you were out of line, Bob?

“Well, yeah,” Samuelson said. “But I always am.”

Nobody--least of all Bob--disagrees that he is a handful, not to mention an earful. He was that way at Westchester High, where he played basketball because his black-belt, karate-instructing father thought volleyball was for wimps. He was that way at L.A. Pierce College, where he got suspended from the team for karate-kicking a teammate where it hurts. He was that way at Cal State Northridge, where his coach never knew what to expect next.

“I thought Bob had come a long way since he was at Northridge,” said John Price, who woke up Monday morning at his Northridge home, turned on his TV and watched Bob’s latest misadventure like a Looney Toon cartoon.

“But that’s part of Bob being Bob. It’s like Charles Barkley throwing an elbow--that’s Barkley. Bob is so intense, it’s like he forgets there are other people even out there. It’s like he’s out on the beach, where the players are their own referees.”

Funny thing is, the TV cameras evidently hadn’t caught Bob misbehaving. All Price heard was NBC’s Chris Marlowe saying: “If that’s on Samuelson, that’s the match!”

One more point would have given the Japanese game, set and match. Samuelson already had one yellow card for protesting a call. Two yellows in one game equal one red card, resulting in automatic ejection for the player and one point awarded to the opponent. Bob heard the lower referee beefing to the upper referee. But Bob saw no red, the game continued and the Americans rallied and won, 15-8, 11-15, 10-15, 17-16 and 16-14.

“Yellow is a warning,” Samuelson said. “It means, ‘Shut up!’ The referee did his job. He used his discretion. He did not feel what I did was deserving of a red. He didn’t feel he could justify just giving the match to Japan. The referee made his call, and the next day a jury calls him wrong. Why do we even have a referee then?

“This is so wrong. You mean now the fifth game we won never took place? That’s really weak.”

Once the team won, Samuelson thought that was that. Later that night, however, Ruben Acosta Hernandez, president of the international volleyball federation, flagged down Samuelson and the U.S. coach, Fred Sturm. Acosta reprimanded the player for his actions. Perhaps everybody among the Americans accepted the fact that Samuelson was an excitable type whose teammates considered him an emotional jumper-cable, but Acosta did not.

“What I told them was, ‘I like your team very much, but please do not cross the lines of good behavior!’ ” Acosta said Tuesday. “I told the young man, ‘You are an excellent player, but please . . . !’ ”

People say that to Bob a lot. Please don’t run in your underwear through downtown Tokyo simply because you lost a bet. Please don’t trash that vending machine because you lost a game. Please explain that tattoo on your ankle. Please explain why that dart is protruding from your bloody hand. Please, Bob.

Bob believes that his “weirdest guy in the world” defense pretty much covers everything. But as he gets older he is wising up if not getting wiser, so with his 26th birthday coming up Thursday, there is a new determination on Robert Lewis Samuelson’s part to be a good boy.

“I definitely have a red flag on me now,” Samuelson said. “I’m not saying they’re out to get me, but you never know. So I’m not going to say a word. I can’t even glance at anybody sideways. It’s all my fault, I guess.”

Bob is definitely bummed.

Times staff writer Mike Hiserman contributed to this column.