Church bells, Josh Bell and Odin the dog
Church bells were ringing, a big white dog was howling and Josh Bell was slugging for the Pirates. Life was good on the North Side four weeks ago.
Then I had to open my big mouth. Let me tell you how this went down. Way down.
I was walking to work July 3, a Wednesday, when I bumped into Barry Bier and Odin, his 3- yearold Siberian Samoyed, over by the tennis courts.
The pair of them are in the dog park in Allegheny Commons Park every morning and evening, and Odin is a big fan of the bells of St. Peter Church. When they chime, Odin howls. And howls. And doesn’t stop until the bells do.
Mr. Bier couldn’t help but make the connection with Mr. Bell. The Pirates first baseman had spent most of the season blasting balls out of PNC Park, even getting a couple of them wet in the Allegheny River.
The Pirates should put a shot of Odin howling on the jumbotron every time Mr. Bell hits a home run, Mr. Bier told me, and shared video evidence on his phone.
Beautiful, I thought. “Text me that,” I said. Then I walked down the hill to the office and called Jim “Jimmy T” Trdnich, the Pirates director of baseball communications.
Mr. Trdnich was dubious, but I told him this was the kind of
goofy stuff that Pirates play- byplay man Greg Brown loves as much as I do. I emailed Jimmy T the video and added as an afterthought, “If Bell ever slumps, Odin can go into the Witness Protection Program.”
That afternoon, Mr. Brown emailed to say he received my forwarded message and he not only likes Odin’s howl, he might contact St. Peter Church to “find out how we could ring those bells when JB goes deep!”
Short of another Vatican Council, I don’t see that happening, but Mr. Bier and I were happily listening when Brownie and Steve Blass shared the story of Odin with the Pirates radio audience. Mr. Bell hit his 26th homer that night, and his 27th two nights later, and Odin had his doggone 15 minutes of fame.
Fast forward four weeks. Mr. Bell is hitting .162 without a home run in his past 68 times at bat. The Pirates have lost 16 of 19 games since the All- Star break. The bells at St. Peter Church are on the fritz. Odin cannot be reached for comment.
I called Mr. Bier, on the lam in Florida. He said he noticed before he fled town that the church bells aren’t ringing the way they once did.
“Somewhere in that period, that bell broke,” Mr. Bier insisted. “We all know there’s no cosmic connection — but the facts speak for themselves.”
I talked with Father Anthony Gargotta after the noon Mass Monday at St. Peter, which on July 1 became part of Christ Our Savior Parish with other North Side churches. Around that same time, Father Tony said, he must have hit the wrong button on the bell programming because The Angelus stopped ringing at 6 p. m.
“I have to call the bell company to fix it,” he said.
The spell was broken when the bell was broken. Odin, though named for a Norse god, clearly had fallen hard for the traditions of Roman Catholicism.
The Angelus bell at 6 p. m. — a triple stroke repeated three times, with a pause between each set of three — was followed by “a bell chorus,” as Mr. Bier described it.
“That is what generated the howling,” he said.
It’s possible The Angelus stopped ringing days before I ever contacted the Pirates. Josh Bell’s slump, and his team’s July collapse, may have nothing to do with Mr. Brown and Mr. Blass sharing the story of Odin with the fans four weeks ago. Nor can I blame Father Tony for fiddling with the bell programming; with the reorganization, he’s had more on his plate than he can say grace over. I also know he adopted a three- legged cat named Trinity, so he must be granted absolution for any petrelated miscues.
But life was better for Mr. Bell and Pirates fans when The Angelus was ringing and the big white dog was howling. I’m hoping Father Tony calls the bell guy. This Bell guy needs to get another ball wet, and soon.