[The Wolf]

"For the third time in less than 100 days, Albert Belle, the Cleveland Indians' angry young man, has been disciplined by a Major League Baseball official. But unlike the other two actions, which resulted in a $50,000 fine and orders to undergo counseling, this time Belle was suspended for five games...[AL president] Budig suspended Belle for slamming Fernando Vina, the Brewers' second baseman, with a forearm in the eighth inning as Vina tagged him between first and second and for Belle's role in the ninth-inning brawl. 'The American League,' Budig said in a statement, 'will not tolerate an act that put in serious jeopardy the safety of a player. The physical well-being of our players must be of paramount importance to all responsible individuals associated with the game.'...Just 18 days earlier, Budig had ordered Belle to participate in 'immediate counseling' or face suspension as a result of an incident in which the player threw a baseball that struck a magazine photographer. Last Feb. 29, Bud Selig, the acting commissioner, directed Belle to have counseling and fined him $50,000 for his profane tirade at a television reporter during last year's World Series. Belle, 29, has been suspended four times before, twice for charging the mound (three games each in 1992 and 1993), once for throwing a ball at a fan in the stands (one week in 1991) and once for having cork in his bat (10 days reduced to 6 days and 7 games in 1994)." - NY Times