Sometimes, Calm Comes After Storm

Attention Hannah Storm: Albert Belle will see you now.

Belle is considering a personality switch, according to Steve Marantz in the Sporting News.

The Indians’ slugger is known as “the Sultan of Surly” among Cleveland writers, Marantz says. No surprise there to NBC’s Storm, the object of a tirade by Belle at the World Series, for which he recently was fined $50,000.

Marantz reports, however, that Belle might soon be known as “Sunshine Albert.”

According to Marantz, Belle has noticed that nice guys in sports make much more in endorsement money than bad guys.

Belle: “I am concerned there is a lot of negative publicity. . . . Maybe it’s my fault for not being accessible to the media. I’m going to work on changing my image.”

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Trivia time: Besides being key figures of the 1947 World Series, what do the Yankees’ Bill Bevens and the Dodgers’ Cookie Lavagetto and Al Gionfriddo have in common?

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Clangggg! Tom Blodgett reports in the Arizona Republic that 6-foot-3 Vegas Davis of Parker, Ariz., Arizona’s 3A high school basketball player of the year, hit his head on a rim while dunking in a game. In another game, Davis took off from the free throw line, snared a rebound in mid-air, and dunked it.

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How time flies: From Henry Schulman in the San Francisco Examiner:

“In 1977, when Tom Lasorda became the Dodger manager, Norm Sherry was manager of the Angels, Jerry West was coach of the Lakers, Chuck Knox coached the Rams and Bob Pulford the Kings.

“Since then, the Angels have changed managers 11 times, the Lakers have changed coaches eight times, the Rams four times and the Kings 14 times.”

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Longest blast: Earl Keller, San Diego sportswriter who died last year, loved to tell the story of a 130-mile-long home run.

It happened in 1936, when he was covering a San Diego Hoover High kid named Ted Williams.

One day at Lane Field, Williams cleared the fence with a ball that landed in a boxcar on a freight train bound for Los Angeles.

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Don’t tell George: Any short list of baseball’s greatest bonus baby flops would have to include the New York Yankees’ Brien Taylor.

Taylor, who got $1.55 million out of George Steinbrener when he was drafted out of high school in 1991, went less than two innings in an intrasquad game the other day and allowed six runs on four hits and four walks.

Summed up Taylor: “I tried to keep the ball down. I really didn’t miss high, and that’s a good sign.”

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Dead-end job: Grambling football Coach Eddie Robinson, on being told how lucky he was to have the same job for 54 years:

“That’s one way of looking at it. The other is, I haven’t had a promotion in 54 years.”

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Take that! The Denver Post’s Mark Kiszla, after ripping Bronco owner Pat Bowlen for asking taxpayers to build a new stadium:

“His every tear and each threat will only confirm what’s really wrong with the Broncos. The team is owned by a rank amateur.”

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Trivia answer: None ever played in another major league game.

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Quotebook: Shaquille O’Neal, on Hack-a-Shaq defenses and roughhouse NBA play: “Blame it on Pat Riley. He’s the one teaching that stuff. He’s the one who fines his people $1,500 for helping guys up.”