Anniversary of the Belle controversy

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Mystery over Belle's lumber still a corker

 

 

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By Paul Sullivan

Tribune staff reporter

 

July 14, 2004, 9:41 PM CDT

 

There will be no commemorations or in-game back-patting from Commissioner Bud Selig during the White Sox game in Oakland on Thursday, although July 15 marks the 10-year anniversary of one of the great capers in baseball history.

 

When the Indians' Albert Belle stepped in against Jack McDowell in the top of the first inning, with a late-arriving crowd just having settled into their seats on a sultry Friday night at "new Comiskey Park," Sox manager Gene Lamont made a bold move that instantly cranked up the volume on a long-dormant rivalry.

 

 

Lamont calmly walked up to plate umpire Dave Phillips and asked to have Belle's bat checked. After examining it and conferring with fellow umps Joe Brinkman and Tim McClelland, Phillips handed it to Comiskey clubhouse attendant Vinny Fresso.

 

"By rule, he's allowed to have one bat checked and confiscated," Phillips said later. "I visually checked it, and I couldn't see any place where it was tampered with."

 

Lamont said he had a "hunch" Belle was using a corked bat, although speculation swirled that the Sox had taken his bats and X-rayed them the night before. Fresso took the bat and placed it in a locked office where the umpires dress and relax before games.

 

The bat was to be sent to the American League office for a thorough examination, as I wrote in my first game story as Sox beat writer for the Tribune: "Unless the Chicago post office manages to lose it en route to New York, Dr. Bobby Brown, the league president who leaves office on Aug. 1, will make the final decision."

 

To my surprise, it was discovered the following morning that the corked bat had disappeared, although no U.S. Postal employee could take the fall.

 

Sometime during the sixth or seventh inning of Friday night's game, an unknown Cleveland player had crawled through the ceiling from the visitor's clubhouse to the ump's office, carrying a "safe" bat with him.

 

Like a scene out of "The Great Escape," he carefully removed the ceiling tile and jumped down into the office, where he exchanged the new bat with the confiscated one before crawling back through the ceiling and into the Indians' clubhouse.

 

When Fresso checked the office and noticed someone had come in through the ceiling, the umpires spoke to Indians management. After Saturday's game, Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove handed over the missing bat and general manager John Hart blamed the theft on an unnamed employee with "a misguided sense of loyalty to a teammate."

 

The bat was sent to Brown's office in New York, but Detroit manager Sparky Anderson theorized the Indians didn't return the original bat.

 

"You'll never see that bat again," Anderson said. "Long gone. Looooooong gone."

 

Before being swallowed up by the labor debate that ultimately led to the players' strike in mid-August, the corked bat controversy garnered national headlines, and Belle became more notorious than ever. Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen even warned that Belle was not the only major-league player using an illegal bat.

 

"Believe me, he's not the only one corking his bat in this league," Guillen said. "The main thing is, he got caught. It's just like Watergate."

 

Belle was found guilty after X-rays showed the bat was corked. He was suspended for 10 games, but the sentence later was reduced upon appeal. The "Batgate" scandal had a short shelf life, unlike Sammy Sosa's corked bat episode last year. Belle's big bust basically was forgotten about one month later when the game abruptly stopped and disgruntled sports fans turned their attention to the NFL and college football.

 

The episode resurfaced briefly on June 3, 2003, when Sosa was caught with the corked bat that split into pieces in front of thousands of eyewitnesses at Wrigley Field. The only mystery to that one was why one of the greatest sluggers of all time "mistakenly" had placed a corked bat in the bat rack.

 

After years of speculation, pitcher Jason Grimsley eventually revealed himself to The New York Times as the culprit who had come through the ceiling and exchanged bats in 1994..

 

But questions remain unanswered, 10 years later. How did the Sox know Belle's bats were corked? Was it simply an educated guess, or did general manager Ron Schueler find out through stealthy methods?

 

Belle is retired and living in Arizona after breaking down with a bad hip. He has received his college degree and currently is waiting to be rejected, unfairly, by baseball writers in voting for the Hall of Fame.

 

Belle's numbers merit induction, but he nuked a lot of bridges with sportswriters, so it'll be an interesting talk-radio debate, to say the least. Lamont always has said the true story has yet to be revealed. Let's hope someday everyone will come clean, for history's sake.