Ballgame Over the Belle

For the first time in years, Albert Belle has the entire spring and summer to do as he pleases. Instead of plotting ways to solve opposing pitchers, he’s enjoying another sport.

Pushed out of baseball in March because of a degenerative right hip, Belle has spent much of his free time on the golf course. The former slugger hasn’t been in contact with many of his former peers, although recently he made a surprise phone call to Chicago White Sox manager Jerry Manuel.

“He said he was getting his golfing thing right, the handicap is coming down, that type of thing,” Manuel said.

Belle has successfully made the adjustment to life after baseball. He’s seemingly found plenty to do with his free time, though he declined Manuel’s invitation to attend a White Sox game.

Belle loved playing baseball, not watching it. He missed only two games in 3 1/2 seasons before sitting down last August 27, when he could no longer play for the Baltimore Orioles because of the unbearable pain shooting through his right hip.

No one knew at the time that his stormy, highly productive career was within 12 games of its conclusion.

His arthritic hip worsened over the winter, and Belle was a pitiful sight at spring training as he tried in vain to perform two of baseball’s most basic plays: running to first base and chasing down a fly ball.

The concept of playing as a shadow of his former self was completely unappealing.

“He just felt that he couldn’t, that it wasn’t worth trying to get back and not having a full life,” Manuel said.

After it became apparent that he could no longer play, Belle limped away from the game without a word. Of course, he wouldn’t have it any other way.

The moody Belle didn’t say much publicly during his 12-year baseball career, and he has yet to talk to the media since being forced into a rather unique form of retirement three month ago.

Declared “physically unable to play” by the Orioles on March 8, Belle has kept a low profile since returning home to Tucson, Az.

“Obviously, he misses the competition, no doubt about that,” said Belle’s agent, Arn Tellem. “But Albert is dealing with the situation as well as any player I’ve ever seen. He’s playing plenty of golf, reading, doing crossword puzzles and considering a variety of investments. He’s even thinking of going back to school.”

The 34-year-old Belle remains a part of the Orioles, even though the Baltimore clubhouse is completely devoid of any evidence of his two-year stint in uniform.

Officially, he’s on the 60-day disabled list with a hip injury. In reality, his career is over.

Belle can’t formally retire, because that could void the insurance policy the Orioles took out on the five-year, $65 million contract he signed in December 1998. The Orioles are responsible for only a small portion of the remaining $39 million that Belle will receive through the 2003 season.

“I can’t speak for everybody, but I miss him,” Orioles left fielder Delino DeShields said. “Every team needs a presence like him in their lineup, in the clubhouse. With a healthy Albert Belle there is no way you can tell me we aren’t a better team. That’s just the bottom line.”

When the Orioles finally decided Belle couldn’t play anymore, they broke the news in a short press release, treatment hardly befitting a player whose career numbers (.295 batting average, 381 homers, 1,239 RBIs) could gain him Hall of Fame consideration.

Belle didn’t want the attention, anyway. He got more notoriety than he wanted during his playing days, although some of the headlines had nothing to do with his proficiency at the plate.

Belle was fined in 1994 for using a corked bat and suspended after instigating a brawl by elbowing Milwaukee second baseman Fernando Vina in the face. In 1991, he threw a baseball into the chest of a fan taunting him. Years later, he tossed a ball at a photographer.

“I could totally see how he had the image that he did, and he probably deserved the stuff because he was unfriendly to people he didn’t know. But he liked baseball players,” said Baltimore outfielder Brady Anderson, one of Belle’s closest friends on the Orioles.

Anderson hasn’t talked with Belle since the end of March. Orioles manager Mike Hargrove, who also managed Belle in Cleveland, hasn’t heard from Belle since the day the outfielder was forced from the game.

“I expect we’ll talk sooner or later,” Hargrove said. “I’m sure Albert will call when he’s ready.”

Belle enjoyed playing for Manuel, who respected the outfielder’s intensity and respect for the game when they were together in Chicago in 1997 and 1998.

“I’ll remember him as one of the best competitors I had an opportunity to work with,” Manuel said.

The two talked about a variety of subjects during their recent phone call, but Manuel decided against asking one important question: Albert, do you miss the game?

“I didn’t go there with him,” Manuel said. “I didn’t want to put that on him, to be thinking of what he missed. I was just hoping that he was enjoying his time away.”