EG>TOM YOUNG was seen kissing Large Marge and telling us:
Only to keep her distracted while u stole Schottzie. :-)
EG>Albert Belle has his problems but most of what you described happened 
FTER
EG>had signed AND New York did quite well, thank you, with an alcoholic power
EG>hitter by the name of Mickey Mantle (Whose transgressions were kept from 
the
EG>public for many years until Bouton published Ball Four). Albert Belle was 
no
EG>more of a risk than Mantle. Mantle got to answer a lot of softballs being
EG>thrown at him by the press (even by New York standards) and his life 
asn't
EG>under the kind of scrutiny that Belle (or any other athlete today) has had 
t
EG>endure.
And Albert didn't have to put up with a tyrannical g.m who could and
would and did cut his salary when he did not improve each year.  MAntle
did not have a long term GUARANTEED contract like the players of today,
Nobody back then did.  I agree Mantle was an alcoholic, heck even he
agreed.  As far as the press is concerned, Belle made his own bed there.
There will always be media people who will slam a player, but for the
most part the media as a whole will present the player in a favorable
light, unless the player's actions dictate otherwise.  Even the players
with the worst off field lives, Mantle (since u made this comparison),
Strawberry, Gooden, Howe, Welch, Ferguson Jenkins, et. al. have not
committed the boneheaded on and off field actions Belle has.  I really
don't want to make this sound like a slam of Belle, I enjoy watching him
at bat, and hope he'll do well in Chicago.  It was intended to debate
the issue of Cleveland not upping the ante for Belle as a reward for
his "sacrifice."  Just one final statement on that, do u truly believe,
that with the offer they had already made for Belle, Cleveland would not
have matched Chicago's offer if they really felt Belle could put them
over the top?
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ This tagline is umop apisdn
TM>     Time Warner's TBS will likely lose its right to broadcast Atlanta 
Brave
TM>games, reports Variety.  This potentially devastating news for TBS comes 
fro
TM>Dave Almsted, senior VP of acquisition rights for the Fox Sports Networks, 
w
TM>says ESPN and Fox's FX, both of which share an exclusive national cable 
pack
TM>of Major League Baseball games, are negotiating a dramatic phase-out of 
Brav
TM>games on TBS.
Wouldn't this also mean the end of Cubs/White Sox games on WGN and Mets
games on WOR?  And Yankee's games on MSG?
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 þ SLMR 2.1a þ hAS ANYONE SEEN MY cAPSLOCK KEY?
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