Bell brings wealth of knowledge in first season as manager
TRENTON » Jay Bell’s mind stores a wealth of baseball knowledge. He played for five major league teams across 18 seasons. He has coached within four professional organizations since 2005.
And so as he embarks on his first season as Thunder manager, Bell has a mental catalog from which he can easily retrieve the lessons and names of many who instilled his expertise.
Johnny Goryl and Charlie Manuel with the Indians in the 80s. Jim Leyland, Milt May and Tommy Sandt with the Pirates throughout the 90s.
During his playing days, Bell would even connect with the game’s greats on opposing teams and keenly ask questions, including Hall of Famers Ozzie Smith, Robin Yount, Alan Trammell and Cal Ripken Jr.
“I’ve plagiarized everything that I’ve learned in this game,” Bell said Tuesday at Trenton’s Media Day. “There’s nothing that I will teach that I didn’t learn from somebody, and that’s the beauty of this game.
“This game is not new. It’s 150 years old or so, and so the stuff that I learned goes back to the beginning. My passion is to teach, and as I have the opportunity to share some of the stuff that I’ve learned, that’s my intention.”
Bell, 52, is a former infielder most famously known for scoring the winning run of the 2001 World Series when the Diamondbacks beat the Yankees in the ninth inning of Game 7.
Seventeen years after New York’s dynasty of three consecutive championships ended, the Yankees are hopeful to begin another one with a core recently developed in the farm system.
The perspective is bittersweet for Bell. He always admired the organization from afar, and when he signed with Arizona as a free agent in 1999, then-owner Jerry Colangelo told Bell that he wanted to turn the Diamondbacks into the “Yankees of the West.”
“It’s extremely exciting to be a part of the New York Yankees at this period in time, and the reason being is because whenever you look up there and you see the guys around the lineup, you see so many guys that were homegrown,” Bell said. “It’s the first time in a lot of years that we’ve had that opportunity to say this is a group of guys that are talented players, but they know exactly what it means to be a Yankee from Day 1 of their careers.”
Following stints as a bench coach and hitting coach with the Diamondbacks, Pirates and Reds, Bell’s first managerial opportunity came last year with the Yankees’ Class A-Advanced affiliate in Tampa.
Bell was named Florida State League Manager of the Year after leading Tampa to an 85-50 record and the North Division title. He earned a chance to then manage the Scottsdale Scorpians of the Arizona Fall League, working with several Yankees farmhands including top pitching prospect Justus Sheffield.
Bell’s promotion to Double-A this year coincided with predecessor Bobby Mitchell’s ascension to managing Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“It’s easy when you know that the manager wants to win and that he actually cares for his players and not only himself,” Sheffield said. “Sometimes you can run into things like that, especially in the minor leagues. But ever since I’ve been playing, especially coming over with the Yankees, I’ve played for nothing but great managers and pitching coaches. The trend continues on, and I think that speaks high value for the Yankees organization.”
Bell notes how critical Double-A is for young players — typically the separator level where they prove themselves one way or the other. Of the 26 players currently on Trenton’s roster, 19 played in Tampa at some point last season under Bell.
Included in the former big leaguer’s simple daily message is respecting the game and playing hard while building camaraderie with teammates.
“I think that I can offer something to them from the standpoint that I know exactly what they’re going through,” Bell said. “Listen, I haven’t forgotten how hard this game is. It is extremely hard. What I want them to understand is that because I played, I understand that every day is a grind and you should take genuine pleasure in each other and put your arm around the guys that are struggling, empathize with their teammates.
“The one thing that I learned in my career was that you don’t truly enjoy it unless you are taking genuine pleasure in your teammates. I think you can balance the two. I think you can do both. I think you can be self-consumed and do everything that you can possibly do to elevate yourself and to advance in your career, but I think you can also be a great team guy.”
Tactically, Thunder fans can expect an aggressive small-ball approach from Bell, who led the National League in sacrifice hits in 1990 and 1991.
Bell says he loves bunting, even if it not glamorous or embraced by today’s sabermetrics. But beyond just sacrifices, he wants to develop well-rounded players who can bunt for a hit and hit and run to all parts of the field.
“One of the things that I learned from Leyland a long time ago was that if you have the opportunity to score that run early, take advantage of it,” Bell said. “It’s not rocket science. It’s just simple math. If you score one, they have to score two, and it makes it more difficult the more that you score.”