BELLE IS A MYSTERY TO SPIKE LEE.

Byline: Jack Craig Boston Globe

There has been so much written and said about Albert Belle that there may be nothing left to say except to call him a great hitter and a bad guy. Spike Lee thought differently and tried in vain to explain Belle in a 22-minute segment on HBO's ``Real Sports'' Tuesday night. Midway through, Lee confessed to host Bryant Gumbel, ``He doesn't trust me.''

Lee did obtain cooperation from Belle twice this summer, each for an extended period, something of a coup, considering that the outfielder usually ignores the media or, worse, confronts them. It was to Belle's advantage, because Lee's report for the most part was soft, even flattering, about baseball's angriest man.

``He had a lot of problems because he could not accept failure,'' was Indians manager Mike Hargrove's excuse for Belle's attitude. Cleveland general manager John Hart called Belle ``a great teammate.'' A panel of sportswriters who have covered the Indians basically shrugged when asked about Belle. Lee aired video of Cleveland kids raving about the hometown hero.

William Rhoden of The New York Times, who is African-American, went over the cliff defending Belle. ``Slavery has not changed. The salary has,'' he said. When pressed about Belle's attitude, Rhoden responded, ``If you're not angry, there's something wrong with you.''

Belle's slam into Brewers second baseman Fernando Vina that resulted in a suspension was rerun several times, accompanied by first base coach Dave Nelson's commentary, which suggested that Belle was merely following orders on the play, albeit enthusiastically.

Recounting the three other most notable incidents involving Belle during the last 12 months - hitting a Sports Illustrated photographer with a baseball, retaliating against trick-or-treaters on Halloween and a verbal assault on Hannah Storm of NBC - included no real indictments of the player. One might have emerged if Storm had accepted an offer to appear on ``Real Sports.'' She was smart to refuse, given the story line's approach.

Gumbel and Lee observed that Belle's attitude was not the bitter fruit of a childhood in the ghetto. His parents, both of whom have master's degrees, exercised discipline at home, said Belle, who was articulate during interviews on the show. When asked about the constant torment from fans on the road, he said, ``If you're going to say something, make me laugh, but they don't.'' He also conceded shortcomings: ``When you think about it, you wish you hadn't done it ... I was pretty rude in the past.'' But Belle also whined, ``If I do it, it gets blown out of proportion.''

Gumbel admitted to being puzzled by Belle: ``He's smart. He has to know, to realize that his attitude is beyond the bounds of propriety.'' Lee responded with one of the few insights in the program: ``I don't think he cares. Athletes put up the numbers. They think they can do anything. They slide through life.''

The Belle profile was not nearly as impressive as Lee's revealing of Georgetown coach John Thompson, which won an Emmy, as did his production for HBO five years ago on Mike Tyson.

This one-hour ``Real Sports'' included a familiar tale of drugs in the NFL, this time alleged by an anonymous ex-player, his face in shadows and voice disguised, who blamed drug problems on the league for its scheduled testing policy more than on the athletes for their transgressions. When asked how many violators there are in the NFL, he estimated 13-18 players per team.

There was a Walter Mitty finale to ``Real Sports,'' a profile of struggling PGA Senior golfer Robert Landers, who a few years ago was hitting golf balls on his struggling farm.