I have an 88 Buick Electra Park Avenue. I was able to start the car twice and I had to remove a battery cable for a period of time for the car to start. Once it starts it runs smoothly. When I start the car later on it will almost start but stalls out and any more attempts at starting results in the engine just cranking. This condition started when I replaced a dead battery as this car has a short somewhere draining the battery. I checked for fault codes but none show up, had a major tuneup in dec replacing the ICM, plugs and wires. I have checked for spark and looks good. I can smell fuel when the car just cranks.

I have some suspects but I want to know what you think the problem is.

Sounds like a computer problem. If you have to disconnect the battery for a length of time in order for car to start. The computer must be misinterpreting or not recieving an input from one or more sensors while it's driving, so when you go to start it the next time, the computer maybe going into some sort of a protection mode.
the next time it won't start, pull out a plug, put the plug back into the wire and crank the motor to see if there's spark. The ignition in those cars i believe is all electronic, this may be your problem.
Another thing to try is to crank the motor over, and when it sounds like its about to start, floor it, and it may start. If there is an idle air control solenoid on the motor, it may be choking off the air supply due to the above computer problem i mentioned.