Belle Should Really Feel His Oates at Camden

Texas Ranger Manager Johnny Oates predicts that Albert Belle will put up some big home run numbers while playing for Baltimore in Camden Yards:

“Why ask about 60 homers? Why not 70?” Oates told Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune. “In that ballpark, I don’t think we have to predict 60. We know 70 can be had.”

By that reckoning, Roger Maris’ American League home-run record of 61 is in jeopardy.

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More Belle: Joe Knowles in the Chicago Tribune: “[Albert Belle] is on the cover of Baseball Weekly wearing an Orioles jersey and a Santa Claus cap. The headline? ‘Jingle Belle.’

“Yep, nothing says Christmas like a greedy, surly, carpet-bagging mercenary.”

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Trivia time: Which three schools in the Pacific 10 Conference have sub-.500 records in bowl games?

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Dubious honor: Bill Campbell in the Dallas Morning News: “The Texas men’s basketball team isn’t putting up much of a fight on the court, but the Longhorns are league leaders in spin-doctoring.

“As Coach Rick Barnes’ first team fell to 2-6 last week, just before its seventh loss at LSU on Saturday, a release from the school’s sports information department proclaimed that Texas ‘may be the best 2-6 team in the nation.’ ”

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Burying Barry: Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press commenting on the Lions, who are out of the playoffs with a 5-10 record:

“As for the idea that Barry [Sanders] is being wasted in Detroit? Hey, what do you want Detroit fans to do about it? Sure, having Sanders on this franchise is like hanging the Mona Lisa in a subway station.

“But as long as it’s your subway station, you’ll keep it, right?”

Ho, ho, ho! Comedy writer Earl Hochman on what famous sports figures want for Christmas:

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“Marv Albert: A promise from Frederick’s of Hollywood that they won’t go out of business.

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“Rupert Murdoch: A plane ticket to Pakistan if the Dodgers don’t win the pennant.”

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Honest appraisal: Jerome Bettis, Pittsburgh Steeler running back, on the team’s collapse this season: “We would be doing everybody a disservice by going to the playoffs.”

Looking back: On this day in 1950, Cleveland’s Otto Graham threw four touchdown passes and Lou Groza kicked a 16-yard field goal with 28 seconds left to give the Browns a 30-28 victory over the L.A. Rams and the NFL title in their first year in the league.

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Trivia answer: California, Arizona and Oregon.

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And finally: Denver Bronco tight end Shannon Sharpe in ESPN the Magazine on his controversial teammate, linebacker Bill Romanowski:

”. . . There’s that trance he goes into before the games. His skin goes chalky. His eyes get as big as silver dollars. Now that’s scary.

“At first, I thought he was crazy. No. I still think he’s crazy.”