Added Intrigue : After Albert Belle Is Caught With Corked Bat, Indians Pose Question: How Did the White Sox Know?

Having confessed to a clumsy break-in at the umpires’ dressing room in Chicago, the Cleveland Indians are wondering whether the White Sox might have been poking around where they didn’t belong too.

The American League, at the insistence of White Sox manager Gene Lamont, caught Cleveland slugger Albert Belle using a corked bat during a weekend series at Comiskey Park, and some members of the Indians now are curious:

How did the White Sox know?

“I think the White Sox were trespassing in our locker room,” Cleveland pitcher Dennis Martinez said. “Since it’s their home park, there’s nothing to stop them when we’re not there. It just seemed too obvious.”

The White Sox on Friday night demanded that umpire Dave Phillips inspect the bat used by Belle, who one night earlier had hit a long home run. By rule, a manager may request an examination of one opponent’s bat per game.

Although Phillips initially saw nothing improper about the bat, it was confiscated and locked n the umpires’ dressing room for later examination. But someone broke in during the game, dropping down through the ceiling tiles, and switched the bat with another.

The Indians eventually returned the original bat and blamed the switch on an overzealous member of their organization, who has not been identified.

When the American League finally examined the bat Monday, using X-rays and then sawing it open, cork was found inside. Corking, which is not permitted, can make a bat lighter, easier to swing and more resilient.

Belle was suspended for 10 days but has appealed the ruling. He will remain in Cleveland’s lineup until AL president Bobby Brown hears the appeal July 29 in New York.

Lamont was a bit vague about why he decided to have the bat inspected, saying that he had “heard some things” and that the White Sox staff had noticed that Belle was hitting a lot of balls hard to right field.

Indians manager Mike Hargrove did not accuse the White Sox of snooping but hinted he might have some questions about how they found out. Chicago and Cleveland are battling for first place in the AL Central.

“It was a little curious, yeah,” Hargrove said. “Beyond that, I don’t want to comment.

“Gene was just doing his job. Put in the same situation, if we had suspicions, we’d do the same thing. We did it with (Chicago pitcher) Dennis Cook. We suspected him of putting pine tar on the ball to give himself a better grip. We had it checked, and it turned out that he didn’t. There was no vindictiveness in it, no revenge in it. It was just part of the game.”

Hargrove would not speculate on how widespread the use of corked bats might be in baseball. He said he did not know Belle used a corked bat.

“I could sit here and throw out accusations, and that’s all they’d be,” Hargrove said. “I don’t have any facts to back anything up.”

The last player disciplined for using a corked bat was Houston’s Billy Hatcher, suspended for 10 days in 1987.

Belle has denied using a corked bat, and his agent, Arn Tellem, issued a statement saying the accusation was “no more than a well-timed charge concocted by the White Sox in the heatof a pennant race with Cleveland.”

The incident did nothing to diminish Cleveland fans’ appreciation for Belle, who has hit 26 home runs and driven in 78 runs. They applauded loudly, many of them standing, when he came to bat at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field on Monday night for the first time since the infamous bat was discovered.