Sometimes Fans Forget Players Are Human, Too

Albert Belle was putting his life together. He was taming his combustible temper and controlling his drinking problem. He wasn't drinking. He wasn't exploding at the first sign of disappointment. He even changed his name from Joey to Albert to symbolize this fresh start.

He was hitting better than .300 for the Cleveland Indians. But that wasn't good enough for one Cleveland fan, some bleacher creature named Jeff Pillar. From the nearby bleachers, Pillar taunted left-fielder Belle.

Who knows how much he said, or how personal he got, or how long it took to reach Belle's combustion point. But Pillar finally got to Belle when he barked, "Hey, Joey. Keg party over at my house after the game."

With the accuracy of a Dennis Eckersley fastball, Belle, about 15 feet away, wheeled and delivered his answer to Pillar - a high, hard one into his tormentor's chest.

"I saw that on replay on television, and for some reason, I cheered Belle," said Maurice Lucas, a former NBA power forward. "I thought it was about time a player paid back some of these jerks.

"Players are human, too; and sometimes when a fan gets on you, you think, `Don't push me to my limits. I have limits, too, as a human being.' "

Pillar pushed Belle beyond the limit and then looked for sympathy after Belle responded. American League President Bobby Brown suspended Belle for a week.

"That jerk was bringing back all of Belle's bad memories," said Lucas, who was a favorite target of fans during his 11-year NBA career. "It's tough enough to fight back without having fans constantly reminding you. Too many people in the stands don't realize that."

More often than ever, players are being pushed past their breaking points. Fans are better informed. Newspapers and television report every aspect of athletes' lives, both public and private. If a player has an Achilles' heel, the fans will know what it is.

Jose Canseco charged the Yankee Stadium box seats near the Oakland A's dugout last week, after a fan got personal. Canseco, who recently reconciled with his wife, Esther, had been photographed leaving Madonna's New York apartment.

The fan supposedly yelled to Canseco, "Hey, Jose, how's Madonna? Where's Esther?" Oakland teammates restrained Canseco as the fan and he argued several feet apart.

Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers was suspended after he spit in the direction of a New Jersey Net fan and accidentally hit a young girl.

These incidents and several others raise questions about players' rights and protection. When a fan pays $10, what editorial rights come with the ticket?

"I don't agree with what Barkley did," Lucas said, "but I don't like the way some of the fans get their jollies off by going off on players."

Lucas remembered an incident in Detroit when he played for New Jersey. A Pistons fan was taunting the Nets' Bob McAdoo. Lucas told the fan to keep quiet.

"The guy told me to shut up or he would kill me," Lucas said. "I said, `You and what army?' Then he opened up his jacket and I saw his gun. That cooled me out real quick."

Players and coaches in all sports are easy targets. From the supposed safety of their seats, fans can yell abuse with little chance of retaliation.

For their $10, they should be allowed to boo their lungs out. If they are unhappy with a player's performance, angry at the inflated salaries, they should boo themselves hoarse.

But the ticket doesn't allow them to pick, like magpies, at a player's personality, or rage at a coach's race.

"I never minded fans criticizing me about my coaching," said Bernie Bickerstaff, former Sonic coach. "That just tells me they're in the game. They know what's going on. Sometimes, those guys are right."

But Bickerstaff has felt the sting from the stupids. During the 1987 playoffs in Houston, he listened to racial taunts from a spectator, who sat in back of the Seattle bench.

"A lot of those people are cowards," Bickerstaff said. "I remember turning around and looking back at that little guy in Houston and seeing him ducking into the seats.

"Fans don't have the right to get personal. There are idiots who say stuff about your family or make racist comments. People tell you to block that stuff out, but it's hard. It hurts you.

"You know, they're always talking about players being role models, but what about the fans? A lot of times you see these idiots making the comments and they have their kids with them."

A $10 ticket isn't a license to slander. It should be plainly printed on the backs of tickets that personal abuse toward the players could result in a fan's ejection.

Ushers, police and the fans who care should make people such as Jeff Pillar pay for their loud mouths, before Albert Belle has to mete out his personal form of frontier justice.

Like Maurice Lucas, I watched a replay of Belle's throw. I wasn't happy he threw the ball into the stands, but I was thrilled when he got his man.

"When you hear that stuff, you try to stay focused," Bickerstaff said. "You don't want it to get to you, but sometimes you can't help it. All of us have a breaking point. None of us is that cool."

Steve Kelley's column usually is published Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in The Times sports section.