Belle Cleared of Betting on Baseball

An investigation into the gambling habits of Chicago White Sox slugger Albert Belle found no evidence he bet on baseball.

Kevin Hallinan, baseball’s executive director of security and management, spent about 14 months investigating Belle, who has admitted betting on other sports.

Players’ Association lawyer Gene Orza said he had not seen a copy of the report but had been told of its findings, which were reported Tuesday in the Chicago Tribune.

“It is consistent with what we always believed, that Albert Belle had no involvement in gambling on baseball,” Orza said.

The investigation began after Belle admitted in a deposition for a lawsuit that he lost $40,000 gambling on pro and college football and basketball games. He denied betting on baseball, which would have led to a lifetime ban.

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Seeking to to expedite a trial on former sales manager Thomas Sneed’s claim of racial harassment, the Boston Red Sox asked the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination to find that discrimination probably did occur to gain “a trial on the merits, where the positions of all parties can be fully explored.”

Sneed, who is black, said the team asked him to keep quiet when he reported that a photograph of himself and his white fiancee, which he had on his desk in his office at Fenway Park, was defaced with a racial epithet in June 1996.

He said the team also did nothing about a year later after he reported that a photograph of his fiancee--who then worked as a nanny for several ballplayers--was covered with a picture of a woman who had recently been murdered.

The Red Sox denied any wrongdoing.

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The Cleveland Indians put outfielder Geronimo Berroa and left-handed reliever Alvin Morman on the 15-day disabled list. Pitcher Jason Rakers was recalled from the minors, but the other spot was left unfilled. . . . The Texas Rangers activated right-handed reliever Xavier Hernandez, who has spent the season on the disabled list after shoulder surgery last summer. Pitcher Al Levine was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma.