All-Too-Familiar Ring in Belle’s Behavior

We had better enjoy Albert Belle while the fun lasts. It won’t stay funny long.

Baseball has, from generation to generation, had men who by their every outrageous act begged for help with their emotional troubles.

Some, like Jimmy Piersall, got help in time; so, we’re left with “Fear Strikes Out.” Some, like Billy Martin, didn’t; we’re left with a drunk-driving death on Christmas night.

Now it is Belle whom we should not take at face value. He’s quickly moving beyond the realm of baseball farce into the sphere of real-world sorrow. Surrounded by family, advisers and union lawyers who minimize his problems or “defend” him from critics, Belle is drifting into deeper water each year.

The American League doesn’t need to suspend him for his latest escapade -- allegedly hitting a photographer with a thrown ball. Instead, the league, the union and the Indians need to make sure he gets consistent professional counseling.

So far, Belle’s career has been one that has amused us, even as we’ve pretended to be outraged. Nothing beats a cartoon villain who always ends up being the butt of his own joke.

By a long series of petty misadventures, in which he always ends up as his own victim, the Indians slugger has turned himself into a kind of national object lesson for our ‘90s children. More than any lout in sports, he lets us say: “Keep on. And you’ll end up like him.”

Baseball fans have watched as Belle has been thrown off some teams, and had trouble with others, from Louisiana State to Mexico to Puerto Rico to Cleveland. He’s been disciplined for charging the mound, starting fights, hitting a fan with a thrown ball, failing to hustle and corking his bat. He’s been in alcohol rehab and changed his name from Joey. He’s been fined $50,000 for cussing out television reporter Hannah Storm at the World Series.

In the tacky world of contemporary sport, Albert can do it all. He recently turned down a $35-million-for-five-years contract offer, asking for almost $50 million. When a Cleveland restaurant mocked him with a $99.99 Albert Belle Greedy Burger, Belle called the owner to stand on his rights not to have his name used without his permission.

After pleading guilty to misdemeanor charges of driving across private property, Belle is still facing a lawsuit, accused of trying to run down several trick-or-treaters -- who had egged his front door -- in his Ford Explorer. The parents of one child say Belle’s car bumped their son.

“We’re dealing with a guy who’s sitting in his house with his parents on Halloween and, suddenly, he’s trying to run down these kids on foot, then he comes back -- with his parents right there -- and jumps in his truck to get them “ says an Indians official. “This is not a man with a (tough guy) agenda. This is a man with a problem.”

On the surface, Belle is the definition of a person who doesn’t deserve any special sympathy or slack. Throw away any stereotypes. He’s no victim. Compared to most people, Belle’s had life handed to him on a silver platter.

His parents were both teachers; they insisted on good grades and raised him right. With a genial father and a doting mother who thought he could do no wrong, Belle had a garden-variety middle-class upbringing in Shreveport, La.

Belle went to college at LSU, got drafted by the Indians and now, at 29, makes $5 million a year. He’s big as a house, bright by any standard and has never wanted for anything.

But he’s angry all the time. He’ll walk in the clubhouse, rip out a music cassette tape he doesn’t like, smash it to bits and replace it with his own. He’s trashed locker rooms with his bat. He’s called “Snapper” by players -- the universal buzzword warning for a ballplayer whose temper is dangerous.

One ex-Indians official who dealt with Belle for years says: “I don’t understand why people say he’s hard to figure out. He’s a mean guy who can’t control his emotions. That’s it. He’s also smart and engaging when he wants to be. But, mostly, he’s been able to get away with being a jerk all his life because of baseball and by intimidating people. He’s easy to figure out.”

Those who think sports records are more important than anything in life -- and baseball seems to collect this type around its fringes -- love to view Belle as an artist in the Ted Williams mode. Belle is a serious student of the game, a perfectionist, a workaholic, a force of nature, a sight to behold.

Please, spare us. If sports in the era of the Dallas Cowboys proves anything, it’s that records have modest weight until we ask who won them and how.

The Indians have, finally, begun to wise up. Belle is in the last year of his contract. After his most recent photographer-bopping incident -- on which AL President Gene Budig is still hearing testimony -- the Cleveland front office has begun to reassess its own interests.

“We’ve pulled our contract offer off the table,” says a team official. The Indians want Belle to hit 62 homers and lead them to a world title. But they’re not sure they want Belle back. For $7 million a year you can get a free-agent hitter and a pitcher. “That’s an option. We could spend it wisely,” said a front-office source.

Belle is ticking and everybody senses it. That’s all the more reason for everybody in baseball to stop worrying about his anger -- catering to it, fearing it and enabling it. It’s time to call the troubled man’s bluff. He’s way out of line. His behavior is consistently unacceptable. He needs to get treatment for his obvious emotional problems and start to act right. Or else be prepared to take all of the consequences that apply to everybody else.