Even $50,000 Poorer, Belle Doesn’t Get It

The thing about Albert Belle is that he has no regrets.

“My situation is I’m the kind if person where I can do 99 great things and as soon as I do one bad thing it overshadows the 99,” Belle said during a rare interview Sunday in the lunchroom of Cleveland Indians camp.

Belle didn’t say which one bad thing he was talking about. He didn’t say whether he meant the time he corked a bat, the time he charged the mound or the time he threw a ball at a fan. He didn’t say whether he meant the time he was demoted for not hustling, the time alcohol problems landed him in rehab or the time he chased would-be trick-or-treaters in his car and actually knocked one down with the vehicle.

Most likely, Belle was referring to the time he tried to boot NBC-TV reporter Hannah Storm from the dugout with a profanity-filled tirade before World Series Game 3.

Again, Belle is in the eye of the storm. Belle was making strides toward rebuilding an image gone bad, stealing the show at a pennant celebration here Sunday by blowing kisses at fans and occasionally revealing a humorous side. Then word came that acting Commissioner Bud Selig was going to fine him $50,000 for the Storm incident, and Belle became upset again. He stopped talking. “Laying low” was the way Indians spokesman Bart Swain put it.

Thursday, Selig levied that fine, the largest single-player fine in baseball history. And for the first time, Belle expressed remorse over the outburst. “I very much regret the incident and the ill feelings it has generated,” he said in a statement, contradicting his comments four days earlier.

The fifty grand shouldn’t be too debilitating because Indians management, engaged in contract talks with agent Arn Tellem, already has offered to top the three-year, $18.6 million deal Boston star Mo Vaughn received. Except Belle has been saying all along that he shouldn’t be punished. Belle cited precedent Sunday, mentioning that “there’s never been a player fined or suspended for roughing up a reporter - worse than what I did.”

But in a phone interview, Selig responded a couple of days later, “I’m not sure that’s relevant. We’ll do what we think is right.”

Selig’s goal is to make baseball the beloved national pastime again. “We are in the midst of the early stages of a very powerful recovery of major-league baseball,” Selig said. “We have to show a deep sensitivity to all people we interact with.”

Belle is taking it seriously, too. Speaking of the tirade, Belle said on Sunday, “It was a situation where it wasn’t only one person. It was a situation where reporters were in the way. I felt the players’ territory had been invaded.”

According to Storm’s story, she was sitting in the corner of the dugout, waiting for her prearranged interview with Kenny Lofton, when Belle screamed something like, “All you (bleeps), get (the bleep) out of the (bleeping) dugout.” Belle was within four or five feet of her, according to Storm’s report, and he was brandishing a bat.

Four days later, before Game 6, Belle apologized to Storm. Then they crossed paths in the dugout tunnel, and Belle told her, cryptically, “You have to cut your hair. … The way your hair is cut, you look like Lesley Visser.” Belle said in a later interview that he mistook Storm for Visser, whom Belle apparently despises. He did not explain why.

But Thursday, in an apparent contradiction to the haircut comment, Belle said in his statement, “At no time whatsoever was the presence in the dugout of an individual reporter the cause of my actions. I was upset with the sheer number of them in the dugout and not any particular one.”

Everybody here is concerned about Belle’s image. Everybody but Belle, that is. Belle said, “Some people like Albert Belle. Some people love Albert Belle. Some people don’t like Albert Belle. Some people hate Albert Belle.” Belle said it in such a way you knew he wasn’t taking a census.

Indians people will more heavily promote his charitable activities, including the RBI and Rookie League programs for inner-city youth. They have encouraged him to see club psychologist Charlie Maher. They say he will talk after some games, but never before. This was a tough negotiation, much like the contract talks, in which Tellem originally requested topping Ken Griffey Jr.’s $34 million deal.

“We recognize he has an image problem. But we don’t pay Albert to have a good image,” Hart said.

Belle says he’s looking for a “happy medium” with the media. But so far, he’s had mostly unhappy extremes, like the time he charged a Cleveland columnist after the columnist wrote a seemingly flattering anecdote about how Belle keeps notes on all opposing pitchers on index cards; Belle thought the columnist was poking around too much. Belle credits his brilliant 1994 season, in which he hit .357, to not speaking to reporters all year. But when it was pointed out that he was just as brilliant last season, becoming the first player with 50 home runs and 50 doubles, he did not credit his occasional talks with reporters.

Belle also became the first player ever to go 50-50 and not win the MVP, a slight Hart and Belle are convinced was caused by Belle’s image. Based on his numbers, and Vaughn’s, they may have a point.

In a question-and-answer interview with Indians beat writer Jim Ingraham, Belle blamed all these people for his troubles, image and otherwise: Indians beat writers, American League President Gene Budig and past President Bobby Brown, Red Sox Manager Kevin Kennedy and GM Dan Duquette, umpires Joe Brinkman and John Hirschbeck, Selig, the city of Richmond Heights, Ohio, where he hit the trick-or-treater, the judge in that case, and non-understanding fans.

When asked Sunday if he has any regrets, he answered, “No, I wouldn’t change anything.”

With a nudge from Indians management, Belle was working on his media relations, anyway. Two days before word of the fine leaked, he was only playing hard to get, delaying a prearranged interview by a couple of hours. This was an improvement.

Belle began the interview by sitting a table away from reporters in the lunchroom. “Arm’s length,” he explained. But soon Belle warmed. He was polite, even charming. Once, he paused when a reporter’s tape recorder shut off. Finally, he was showing signs of turning on.