Destructive

Throughout his major league career Albeit Belle has demonstrated a distinct pattern: When the surly slugger gets P.O.'d, baseballs get K.O.'d. His latest offensive barrage—10 home runs and 20 RBIs in the first 10 games following the All-Star break-came after he was left off the All-Star team for the first time in six years. That home run binge was the most recent of many cases in which Belle has successfully channeled his frustrations into epic hitting displays.

But the anger that seems to drive Belle on the field has sometimes landed him in trouble off it. On Sunday night the Chicago White Sox leftfielder was arrested at the home of a woman acquaintance for allegedly hitting her and ripping her phone from the wall as she tried to call for help. Belle was charged with domestic battery, criminal damage to property and interfering with a report of domestic battery—all misdemeanors—but he denied the allegations, was released on $3,000 bond, reported to Comiskey Park for a game on Monday night and hit yet another homer, his 29th of the season.

Belle's latest on-field explosion came on the heels of what he perceived to be a snub by American League All-Star manager Mike Hargrove of the Cleveland Indians. When Belle found out Hargrove had not added him to the team as a reserve, he lashed out at his former skipper, for whom he had played six seasons. "If Hargrove was his own man, I would have been picked," Belle said. "He is another person who doesn't appreciate what I did for him."

Though Belle finished 13th among American League outfielders in fan balloting, he arguably had the offensive numbers (.278, 18 homers and 66 RBIs before the break) to merit inclusion as the White Sox' representative. But with Hargrove selecting the reserves, Belle never stood a chance. Last season Cleveland hosted the midsummer festivities, which were tainted by Belle's childish efforts to avoid showing his face to fans at Jacobs Field, who still resent his leaving the Indians as a free agent following the 1996 season. After being booed during introductions, Belle went so far as to ask American League manager Joe Torre not to play him unless he was needed. "He was chosen for the All-Star Game last year, and he didn't participate in anything," said Hargrove. "I'm not going to waste a spot on somebody who doesn't want to play." So Hargrove tapped another White Sox player for the squad, second baseman Ray Durham, who was hitting .283 with seven homers and 20 stolen bases at the break.

When Cleveland visited Chicago last weekend, Belle got his revenge. On Friday night Indians righthander Charles Nagy kept Belle in the yard in his first two at bats. Then, in the sixth inning, during Belle's third plate appearance, some fans began mocking Belle with chants of "Jo-ey, Jo-ey," the name he used to go by (his middle name is Jojuan) until insisting in 1990 that he be called by his given name, Albert On a 3-1 count, Belle hit one into the White Sox bullpen for his 10th tater in 41 post-All-Star at bats, a stretch in which he had batted .778 with men in scoring position, raised his season batting average to 300 and moved into the top three in the league in homers and RBIs. "Everybody's streaky," says Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar, Belle's teammate with the Indians for seven years. "Some people are streaky bad, then streaky hot. Guys like Albert, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, they get streaky hot hot!'

In the last four years Belle seems to have gotten hot hot on the field whenever an opponent has slighted him. While with Cleveland in July 1994, Belle had his bat impounded by umpires at the request of then White Sox manager Gene Lamont. In the 20 games between the confiscation and the strike that ended the season—seven of which he missed because of a suspension after an X-ray revealed cork in the bat—Belle hit .476 with 10 homers and 23 RBIs.

After homering in Game 1 of the '95 Division Series against the Boston Red Sox, Belle had his bat seized again at the request of the Red Sox. This time, the bat was sawed in half and no evidence of tampering was found. Belle avenged that harassment by hitting .333 and driving in nine runs in seven games against Boston the following April. When he returned to Jacobs Field on June 3, 1997, for the first time after signing his five-year, $55 million free-agent contract with Chicago, Belle was booed and verbally abused by fans. His response: three hits, including a homer; three RBIs; and one obscene gesture.

Though White Sox manager Jerry Manuel has a rather mundane explanation for Belle's latest batting tear—"I think the rest over the break really helped him"—those who have played with Belle over the years say that the outfielder tends to tap into a reserve tank of orneriness. Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel, a former teammate, once described the eruptions of Mount Albert that usually accompanied a Belle hot streak: "Something every day. Throw the cooler, break the phone, cookies all over the place."

Since Belle arrived in Chicago, his early-season play has nearly made White Sox fans toss their cookies. He hit .206 with four homers in April 1997 as Chicago staggered to an 8-17 start. Belle had another miserable start this year, batting .239 in April as Chicago went 10-15. At week's end the White Sox were a dozen games out of a playoff spot and pondering whether to unload pricey veterans for the second summer in a row. Belle, however, won't waive his no-trade clause, and it's not as if teams are lining up to acquire him.

Sunday's arrest makes him all the more undesirable. The three misdemeanor charges each carry a penalty of up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. The woman Belle allegedly struck, Stephanie Bugusky, 25, with whom he had a "dating relationship," according to police, won a temporary order of protection against him at a hearing on Monday. Police in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, where Bugusky resides, said Belle allegedly damaged a door, a window and telephones in her apartment. Belle did not resist arrest, police said, and Bugusky did not need medical attention.