Adrian Beltre may be having a bad season, but he denies being a bad guy. From the Tacoma News Tribune’s Larry Larue :
Adrian Beltre™s telephone didn™t stop ringing Friday, and he could be forgiven for not answering every call.
All day on ESPN there was video “ and an incorrect report “ saying Beltre and teammate Ryan Franklin had scuffled in the Seattle dugout Thursday night.
Not surprisingly, those who knew Beltre were surprised.
œI think 10 guys from the Dodgers called today and said ˜What did you do?™ Beltre said. œI guess now I™m a baaaad man.
Beltre laughed, but try explaining to dozens of people that no, you weren™t in a fight and that all the video showed was Beltre moving Franklin away from a loud argument in which no blows were thrown or landed.
œI™d like to think ESPN would have called somebody with the organization just to ask about the facts, manager Mike Hargrove said. œThey didn™t and apparently they didn™t talk to anyone who knew what had happened. The film clip they got was Adrian playing peacemaker, and they made something of it that it wasn™t.
What it was “ a brief flurry of loud words between Franklin and pitching coach Bryan Price, who was trying to quiet Franklin in the dugout “ ended quickly because players “ including Beltre “ broke it up.
œThat™s how reputations get started, Beltre said. œI remember in ™98 I was on deck and Gary Sheffield got hit by a pitch and went to the mound, he said. œI ran out there to break it up, but I was still carrying my bat. I wasn™t even aware I had it.
There’s more on the incident from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s Ted Miller.