BUCKSHOTS

What's giving you a rash this week?

The out-of-control arrogance in professional sports today? The latest in labor? The price of a lousy stadium hotdog?

An overpaid player? An underhanded agent? An owner who would sell the carpet from underneath his own mother's feet for the right amount of PSLs and luxury boxes?

Where can you get off your chest something boiling inside your belly?

Right here. Right now. Buckshots, a weekly dish-it-out-and-duck feature, is designed to give you, the subscriber, a chance to take your best shot at Ray Buck, national columnist for SportsLine USA.

Agree or disagree, let 'er rip. Sign your name -- if you dare -- and tell us a little about yourself: age, city, state, occupation/student. Just remember, Buck has the last word.

E-mail your comments to buckshots@sportsline.com

No shots; Just a forearm shiver

June 5, 1996

By Ray Buck
SportsLine USA National Columnist

E-mails over cocktails, while wondering if Albert Belle's autobiography will be entitled "I'm OK, you're KOed." "PERHAPS YOU SHOULD have a little cheese with your whine ... say, Limburger, because your Albert Belle article really stinks!!!" writes Christine "Wahoo" Hultai of the Cleveland area.

"It's amazing how many different versions of the 21st home run ball have been reported. (The fan who caught the ball) had been heckling (Belle) through the game. Why wasn't that mentioned in your article?

"There is no law stating that a player has to give a person an autographed anything in exchange for a home run ball ... (besides) Mr. Belle does smile. When my family and I met him, he was extremely nice and very polite. He talked to us for a few minutes, shook our hands and autographed our baseballs.

"I guess when you give respect, you get respect, and I have lost respect for all of you negative journalists ... (because) I don't think Albert Belle is not a bad guy. He has some problems that he is trying to work through, but the media won't let him."

BUCKSHOT: And what version of Belle's gutless forearm smash to 5-foot-9 second baseman Fernando Vina's mouth did you get, Christine?

"BELLE NEEDS A SHRINK," suggests Tom Caldwell, address unknown. "He is a sad individual ... a high-paid athlete who doesn't understand that his survival in the sport is a direct result of the people he seems to hate.

"I hope he gets help before he goes off and hurts someone."

BUCKSHOT: Unfortunately, Tom, you'll probably end up being a prophet someday. Although for now -- in the wake of a five-game suspension for cheapshotting Pee Wee Vina of the Brewers -- only Belle's bank account is taking a beating.

"RING-A-DING BELLE has the world by the ying-yang and still acts like it owes him something," e-mails Johnny Root of Temecula, Calif. "He should be damn grateful that he's not flipping burgers or mopping the floor ..."

BUCKSHOT: Belle knows absolutely nothing about the Golden Rule. You're right, Johnny, maybe the Golden Arches are more his speed.

"ALBERT BELLE IS FLUSHING the game even deeper into the toilet," writes Kurt Hickman of Charlotte, N.C. "He is a public relations disaster who should be suspended for the remainder of the season and forced to undergo a legitimate rehabilitation program and should not be allowed to return to MLB until he successfully completes that program.

"I seriously doubt MLB would ever do what I have suggested. It appears the so-called 'leaders' of the game think we want Mr. Belle around to see if he breaks Roger Maris' home run record. Baseball should do what is best for the fans: advise Albert Belle that his behavior towards the game and the fans has been unacceptable and that his services are no longer required at this time.

"But how can we expect such a positive move from an entity that doesn't even know where the strike zone should be?

BUCKSHOT: Unlike the strike zone, Belle is consistent -- consistently demonic. By the way, MLB and the players union agree on very little, but neither wants one of its superstars disciplined too severely. It might take him off the field.

"MY INTEREST IN ALBERT Belle's behavior is based on the fact that it is deviant. My mother would not let me act like this! Nobody's mother would let them act like this!" writes Susan "Dr. Pigball" Shook, a 47-year-old retired ob-gyn from Arlington, Va.

"We find 'inappropriate' behavior fascinating. Please tell us more! Isn't this the basis of the National Enquirer, People magazine, ad nauseum? (But) at some point we feel a little guilty. Perhaps our delicious vicarious thrills at being naughty have something to do with him not stopping.

"At least the press is starting to sound uncomfortable in reporting 'look what he did now!' We're afraid he's really going to get into (serious) trouble. I know I am. I'd like to know what steps have been taken to see that he has been offered psychiatric care.

"It's not funny anymore."

BUCKSHOT: You're right, Susan. Vulgarity, profanity, arrogance and classlessness seem to lose their prankish charm after awhile.

"IT DOES SEEM MR. BELLE has some kind of a serious problem. He needs some kind of help," says a concerned Karen Knowles of San Francisco. "However, it's hard to help people who don't want it. So what to do?"

BUCKSHOT: Perhaps videotape all his shenanigans and present it to him after he plays his last game. So when he retires -- rich and friendless -- he'll have a chance to finally see what we've seen all along.

"WHY DOESN'T THE MEDIA just leave this guy alone?" asks John "Strahberry," Strah, a 31-year-old health care underwriting manager from Willowick, Ohio. "He gets thrown at by two different Milwaukee pitchers but doesn't take them out ... and suddenly the whole thing is his fault.

"How about the similar situation in the baseline earlier in the game when Albert meekly went into Vina and was doubled up? (The next time) he just didn't want to have another DP turned on him. Did (Oakland's) George Williams, who took out (Boston second baseman) Wil Cordero for 8-10 weeks, get any suspension?

"I can definitely understand the Julian Tavarez and Mike Matheny suspensions, but Belle's is ridiculous!"

BUCKSHOT: Short memory, Strah? Williams' sin was that he slid hard into second base in the ninth inning of a 16-4 game. Nowhere in the same area code of second base, Belle borrowed some goon tactic from hockey to drop Vina in his itty-bitty tracks.

"IT'S NOW TIME FOR HELP!" warns Tom "Texkan" Sargent. "To Mr. Belle, Mr. Part-Time Commissioner, the owners, the players, the fans, the media and our country's perceptions of the American pastime ... find some quick cures, or else there will be no real fans (to watch)!"

BUCKSHOT: As you know, Texkan, much is wrong with pro sports today. But at least the movement now has a poster child -- Albert Belle.

"SO I GUESS YOU SMILE all the time?" asks Dan McIntyre, rhetorically, I presume. "What does that have to do with a player's actions? Albert Belle is one of the top three players' in the AL and owes you nothing.

"I have nothing against a guy running over another player who is in his path. Let's say it wasn't the 5-foot-9 Vina, but the monstrous Frank Thomas; and let's say it was Belle who was flattened ...

"It's real easy for a little dorky sportswriter to tear down a man's credibility without any recourse. I'll bet big money you don't have the baseBALLS to confront Belle with your displeasure of him."

BUCKSHOT: Belle did more than just run over a player in his path; he coldcocked him with a cheap forearm. Your hypothesis amused me, Dan. Now I have one: Let's say you had an intelligent comment to make and somebody cared. ...

"I WANT TO NOMINATE Albert Belle to be traded to Cincinnati so that Large Marge won't be in the crazy house alone," writes Mark Streit, a concerned SportsLine USA reader. "The two of 'em deserve each other."

BUCKSHOT: A carton of cigarettes and a bottle of Prozac ought to hold 'em for a day.

"THE VERSION OF BELLE'S 'gutless forearm smash to 5-foot-9 second baseman Fernando Vina's mouth' that I got was the one given by Vina and (Milwaukee manager Phil) Garner after the game. Both admitted it was a hard but clean play," points out Bradley Oldenburg, who didn't have to tell us that he's an Indians fan.

"Seems to me that the 'gutless' move was Albert being hit TWICE by pitchers who knew (because of the DH rule) there is not a chance of retaliation against them. But I am sure since Belle was involved that you have some rationalization ... GO TRIBE!!"

BUCKSHOT: GET HELP!! Or didn't you hear? That's the new chant for Indians fans this year.

"THIS GUY IS DOING more to ruin the game than he can imagine," says Bob Sutherby, address unknown. "If Pete Rose can be banned from the Hall of Fame for (allegedly) gambling on baseball games but displaying the work ethic and hustle second to none, and achieving records and stats within a team concept, why can't we, as fans, ban this idiot Belle?"

BUCKSHOT: Only major league baseball can discipline Belle, and it wants Belle banned as much as Belle wants anger-control counseling thrust upon him.

"NOW THAT THE MEDIA'S May Massacre of Marge is over, we can move right to June's Annihilation of Albert," writes John Gluesing, a 27-year-old sports fan from Iowa City, Iowa. "What did 5-foot-nothing Vina expect when he ran directly into Belle's basepath? He took at least two steps after he caught the ball, instead of just stopping, turning and throwing easily to first base.

"He was as much as an instigator as Belle!"

BUCKSHOT: Johnny G, you forgot to mention how Vina's jaw inexplicably came up and bit Belle on the forearm.

"I AM SO SICK AND TIRED of listening to people (mostly reporters and talk show personalities) whine about Albert Belle because he won't talk," says Lamont Cranston. "There have been things he has done in the past that were wrong -- notably cussing out Hannah Storm and throwing baseballs at a Sports Illustrated (photographer).

"However, running down a second baseman even with a little extra elbow action (which having seen the play about 20 times in both normal speed and slow motion I have not been able to conclude what happened) is not one of them.

"No wonder Albert wants nothing to do with the media. No-name, no-talent, ignorant people who have never played a day in their lives have been trying to make names for themselves for years by intentionally goading the 'Problem Child' of major league baseball. And, when he does react, then he is chastised for being ill-tempered and surly.

"Well, too bad! I have heard the last I am going to take from people like you. Good-bye, I look forward to hearing of your collapse from your own hypocrisy."

BUCKSHOT: Why do you keep bringing up Albert Belle? Bye.

"THAT WAS HOCKEY, NOT BASEBALL," says Edward B. Rickless. "A 25-game suspension would be more like it."

BUCKSHOT: Or 25 minutes on the ice with Claude Lemieux.

"THE MAN IS MERELY a mental midget in life," writes Blair Chapman, a territorial government worker from Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. "Baseball is a sport -- not life. He has no clue what it takes to make it through life. He thinks the world owes him something.

"Well, he is making millions and that is what he earned. Real people earn things in life, like respect, class and a little dignity. However, Mr. Belle has not earned any of that -- only money. I was ecstatic Mo Vaughn and Cal Ripken Jr. stole the spotlight from him last year."

BUCKSHOT:The spotlight Belle belongs under is in a police lineup.

"SINCE BUD SELIG and the rest of the major league office is too spineless to do anything, hopefully a shrink or some high and inside fastballs will help," suggests Greg Nicklas. "As for the incident with the baseball, Belle needs to realize that the fans are what pay (his salary) and give him his job.

"I find it hard to believe that he could pick out a man who was verbally attacking him in a crowd. Belle is a selfish, conceited, paranoid SOB."

BUCKSHOT: You forgot cowardly.

"THE AMERICAN LEAGUE needs to have some consistency in its penalties because Mr. Belle appears treated more harshly than his fellow players," contends John Saunders of Cleveland. "The AL is way out of line with their suspension for the incident in the Brewers/Indians game.

"I almost get the feeling that the American League would do anything to prevent Mr. Belle from having a truly record season. Do we like him in Cleveland? A lot of us do."

BUCKSHOT: I'm glad you like him. But don't kid yourself into believing that the American League wants anything less than a superstar who gets his mug plastered on every magazine cover for breaking rules and records as he goes.

"YOUR ARTICLE MAKES me look at Belle from a different perspective," writes Mark Wakefield. "I previously saw him as a foul-tempered bully strutting through the playground daring anyone to cross his path. I still perceive Belle this way (also arrogant and disrespectful); however, I now also believe the man to be emotionally unstable.

"It's a shame for someone as talented as Belle to be such a disgrace to the game."

BUCKSHOT: That, Mark, about sums it up.

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