Belle Lashes Out At Storm; Nbc Staffer Files Complaint

Major League Baseball, already reeling from late World Series games ending after midnight in the East and with no collective bargaining agreement for next season, is apparently in no hurry to deal with Albert Belle.

Belle, Cleveland’s enigmatic left fielder, laced into reporters before Tuesday’s game at Jacobs Field, calling NBC’s Hannah Storm a harshly derogatory term several times. Storm filed a complaint with Major League Baseball.

For years, Belle has been abusive to just about anyone who happens to be in his way. But it’s just now that baseball is getting ready to address the problem. “We’re investigating the situation,” MLB spokesman Rich Levin said.

Guys like Belle, perhaps?

From former slugger Andre Thornton, a wildly popular player for some terrible Cleveland teams in the 1980s, to the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper: “There are so many more unhappy players now, guys with a chip on their shoulder. I see too many young stars who have a poor relationship with the game and the people in baseball. That’s sad, because the thing I treasure the most about my career are my relationships with the people I met through baseball.”