Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Jerry Crasnick: Welcome to the Players Association Stitch by Stitch podcast where we talk to current and former players about union history, baseball, and the bond that players share across generations.
[00:00:18] Jay Bell: Deep drive, left field, way back. Warning trap. Wow. You can touch him off Jake Bell. It's a grand slam and he does it again.
[00:00:28] Jerry Crasnick: In this episode, we connect with Jay Bell, a two time All Star Gold Glover Silver Slugger and 2001 World Series champion over 18 major league seasons. Jay was active in union leadership for much of his career and played a pivotal role in 1994 and 1995 when players held firm during a 232 day strike in opposition to a salary cap.
As National League player representative, Jay articulated many of the players positions publicly while constantly dispensing information and keeping his fellow players focused and unified behind the scenes.
[00:01:10] Jay Bell: We do work hand in hand to make this industry extremely strong and we can't do it without one another. And that's the point of the Players association that, that's the point that was always pushed to us, is that in order to make it work, we have to stay together and we have to have conversation with ownership and we have to understand this is a partnership more than anything else.
[00:01:38] Jerry Crasnick: Three decades later, Jay reflects on his experiences and some of the lessons he learned during the most protracted and difficult labor fight in the game's history.
[00:01:50] Jerry Crasnick: Welcome, Jay.
[00:01:51] Jay Bell: Thanks, Jerry. I appreciate it.
[00:01:52] Jay Bell: Good to be here.
[00:01:53] Jerry Crasnick: Yeah.
[00:01:54] Jerry Crasnick: First of all, I think with everybody, it's good to talk about their formative influences.
And you were a kid who grew up on a military base. Your father was a master sergeant. Can you talk a little bit about how that shaped your mindset and your attitude toward work?
[00:02:13] Jay Bell: Well, you know, one of the things that, that I loved about being a kid was growing up on military bases.
There were three things that I wanted to be whenever I was growing up. I wanted to, of course, everybody plays baseball, wants to be a major league baseball player. So that was certainly one of them.
The second one was because I was around military bases, even though my dad was not a pilot, always wanted to fly, wanted to be a military pilot. So that was number two. And then the third one, I loved numbers. My dad was a realtor. His partner in real estate was. Her husband was a contractor. So we had house plans on our kitchen table all the time. And I loved looking at a house plan. So I wanted to be somebody that either built houses or either, you know, that designed them. And so I really thought about those three things. And unfortunately, you know, for my military career, my baseball screwed up everything for Me, So I was not able to do that, but nonetheless ended up after I was through playing, got a chance to fly airplanes, but loved everything about growing up on military bases.
My dad and mom both were from Pensacola, Florida, and he was stationed back at Herbert Field, which is just off of Eglin Air Force Base there, near Fort Long Beach. So he commuted. We moved back to Pensacola in 1971, and he commuted back and forth over to Herbert Field the last couple years of his career.
His last assignment was to Alaska, and at that point he had 22 years, and he said, I'm good. We had started playing. My brother and I had started playing some baseball, and he didn't want us to miss out. So he put in his papers to retire.
So that's how we ended up in Pensacola full time. But it was a great opportunity to watch my dad and how he interacted with people and the small community of the military. And being in the Air Force really kind of prepared me for the baseball life as well. Ron, I guess, was your dad. That's correct.
[00:04:22] Jerry Crasnick: And Betty was your mom.
[00:04:23] Jay Bell: That's correct. Well done.
[00:04:24] Jerry Crasnick: Did you move around a lot?
[00:04:26] Jay Bell: We did. So I was born at Eglin Air force base in 1965, and then two years later, when I was about 20 months old, we ended up moving over to Italy. We were just outside of Milan, a little town called Gallarate, Italy, and we lived there for three years. And dad worked at little base right there just north of Milan.
And we were there for three years and then moved to Germany and Birkenfeld, Germany, for a year, moved from there to North Bend, Oregon, which is just outside of Coos Bay, and we were there for a year. There was a radar facility at the top of the mountain there at North Bend, and then he ended up moving back to Herbert Field after that. And so we finished up. We ended up moving back to Pensacola in 1971, and from 71 to 89, I was there in Pensacola and played baseball the whole time and found my high school sweetheart and married her and went on from there.
[00:05:32] Jerry Crasnick: Sports can be the icebreaker for a lot of kids. Like that was it for you?
[00:05:38] Jay Bell: Yeah, it was to a certain extent.
My dad was always fond of. He was not. Even though he wasn't very athletic, he was still fond of athletics, and so he encouraged it and pushed it. I had an older brother, Jeff, that played, and so I kind of. I wanted to fall in his shoes also and tried to keep up with him as much as I could.
And we had. Being there in Pensacola in the panhandle Florida, the sports scene was very, very good and solid. A lot of good athletes out of there.
And one of the things that was kind of pushed was athletics. And so whenever you look around you see guys like Don Sutton and Travis Fryman and, and shoot so many other guys that came out of that area.
You know, it was something that was, it wasn't forced on it, but it was encouraged. And so it was, it was, it was always a lot of fun to play, play athletics in that part of Florida.
[00:06:37] Jerry Crasnick: You fast forward got drafted in the first round by the Minnesota Twins, so you didn't sneak up on anybody. You also dealt with the pressure of being a first round draft pick and you struggled.
Can you reflect on that time and
[00:06:52] Jerry Crasnick: what that meant to you?
[00:06:54] Jay Bell: Well, I appreciate you saying that. I struggle and I did and it was actually kind of beneficial, although it was not, it was not desired at all. But you know, I came out of my senior year of high school, I played, you know, I ended up excelling as a 12 year old and continued to excel through high school and then got drafted by the Twins. And my local scout was my first manager, a guy named Fred Waters. And Fred was a, was a, he had a little bit of, had a cup of coffee in the major leagues in the 50s, I think. But I went and ended up signing and went on to play rookie ball and Elizabethan for Fred. And he taught me how to be a major leaguer in rookie ball. Even though I didn't play like a major leaguer, he taught me how to act like a major leaguer in rookie ball.
But I, you know, came off of a terrific season my senior year of high school. Matter of fact, we ended up 38 and one or thereabouts and had four guys drafted off the team. And so we had a great deal of success. I had a lot of success, ended up playing in the Florida all star game. And so I was one of the best of the best in the area that I was from. And then I got to pro ball and I realized, you know what, I'm just one of them. I'm not the best of the best anyway, I'm just one of them and got to play with guys like Sean Abner and Jeff Blauser and Jeff Pico and Tom Glavin and rookie ball and shoot young Greg Maddox. And you know, I'm, I'm looking at these guys thinking they're pretty, they're pretty good players.
And so I ended up hitting.220 my first year and, and realized that I had a lot of work to do and came home and worked hard and.
And, you know, my career just kind of. Kind of went on from there, but it was, it was. I, you know, I really appreciated all the struggles that I went through. Now, I didn't like it at the time, but nonetheless, as I looked back and saw the 53 or so errors in a ball before I got traded and went to AA and made another eight or so, those times, they influenced who I was as a hard worker and know somebody who figured out how to persevere through some tough, tough situations.
[00:09:25] Jerry Crasnick: So you became involved with the Players association quite heavily.
But your early years, I guess your formative years would have been with Minnesota and the minors, but more with Cleveland and the big leagues. Were there guys who ingrained some of the history in you?
Do you remember it being discussed?
[00:09:47] Jay Bell: Yeah, a little bit in Cleveland. Not much. There was a little bit, of course, the, you know, the 81, 82 strikes, they, they. I think that's what the years were. But, you know, those, those. Those work stoppages during those early 80s, you know, they were. They were still. They were still talked about a little bit, but not a whole bunch. Whenever I was in Cleveland, it wasn't until I got into Pittsburgh that it started becoming a little more. I had a little more understanding of what was going on. I was just trying to make it. I didn't know if I was going to make it in the big leagues at all. I thought I'd be a coach sooner than I was just because I didn't have much success early on. But I remember those early days, whenever going to the meetings and listening to Don speak about the history of the union and to listen to Gene Orza and listening to Michael Weiner and listening to some of the guys that had been around talk about the past and what it meant for us today because of what had happened in the past.
But whenever I got to Pittsburgh, I had some guys that were a little more active. Andy Van Slyke was a little more active in the Players association, so he talked a little bit about it.
But whenever I became the player rep in Pittsburgh, you know, I had. You know, it was in going in the off season to have the winter meetings and to listen to a little bit more about what was going on and the business aspect of baseball, you know, that's whenever I kind of started paying attention a little bit more and understanding a little bit more about the interacting aspects of baseball. It wasn't just about getting out on the field and performing.
I understood the business side a little bit more.
[00:11:45] Jerry Crasnick: What did you learn in those early years about what being the team rep, the responsibilities it entailed?
[00:11:54] Jay Bell: Yeah, it was just early on, it was more about making guys aware of what was going on and helping Don, along with making sure they understood the history.
And, you know, that was part of it. It was also kind of a unique situation because you could have a conversation with the team president or the team owner or the team general manager differently than you would just as a player. And so you talk about the business aspects of it, and you got to see their perspective and their, you know, how they.
They looked at things. And it was interesting. It's just like following politics, and it doesn't matter what side you're on. It's. You know, you have a different perspective. You're still trying to get to point C, but you're coming at it from point A and point B. And so that's how it is in baseball. Also, when you look at ownership and you look at players, we do work hand in hand to make this industry extremely strong, and we can't do it without one another. And that's the point of the Players Association. That's the point that was always pushed to us, is that in order to make it work, we have to stay together and we have to have conversation with ownership, and we have to understand this is a partnership more than anything else.
[00:13:31] Jerry Crasnick: 1990, I think, was a bit of a dry run for 1994.
And the big issue was arbitration.
[00:13:40] Jay Bell: Correct.
[00:13:41] Jerry Crasnick: If I'm correct, trying to get it back from three years to two years.
Did you learn at the time that there are different perspectives for players and sometimes not everybody's going to be on the same page?
[00:13:54] Jay Bell: I think. Yeah, absolutely. Players want to play. There's no doubt about it.
[00:13:57] Jay Bell: That's.
[00:13:58] Jay Bell: That is. That is our objective. That's our job. We want to get out there on the field and play as much as we possibly can and. And enjoy what we've done since we were age 5.
And a lot of times what most players don't understand is that this is a business. This is, you know, part of the reason that we get paid. What we get paid is because there is that business aspect of it. A lot of times what players do is they. They hand over everything to the. To their agents and say, y. You deal with that. I just didn't want to deal with the. The playing aspect. And so whenever. Whenever work stoppage happens, you know, guys are antsy. They want to get out on the field.
But what is important about the Players association, the people that have come along, the leadership within the Players Association. Our job is to make sure that everybody understands, hey, this is necessary.
Just hang on just a minute. Just try to be as patient as you possibly can. Calm down, continue to work, continue to get ready. Because once we get ready, it's going to be as exciting as it ever has been.
And that's the biggest aspect. And a lot of times whenever we talk about even the ownership, you know, there's different, different owners out there too. There are some of those, those owners that are extremely, they are fans of the game. They want this game to thrive.
And so whenever you talk about a Bud Selig in the position that he was in, I will never, ever say anything bad about Bud. There were, there were times I was disappointed in some of the stuff that he did. But I tell you what, he was a huge advocate for of the game itself. He was a fan of the game and I always admired him because of it.
[00:15:47] Jerry Crasnick: We'll continue this episode of Stitch by Stitch after this short break.
The MLBPA launched the Leave It Better campaign to celebrate the union's 60th anniversary and spotlight players efforts to grow the game, mentor future generations and strengthen the baseball community.
Take a listen as Paul Goldschmidt reflects on the mentors who helped shape his career and inspired him to leave the game better than he found it.
[00:16:25] Jay Bell: We all know how fortunate we are to play this game and it's because of the players that came before us, the younger player. You watch the older players and what their routines are, how they go about their business, and you start to emulate that.
[00:16:36] Jay Bell: Paul kills it deep left field. Big league home run number one for Paul Goldschmidt.
[00:16:44] Jay Bell: Thankful that I had a lot of good leaders that helped me when I was a younger player, a lot of veteran players. When I came up with the Diamondbacks, we had guys like Lyle Overbay and Xavier Nady. Both those guys played first base and you know, from the outside they could have said we were competing for playing time, but it never felt like that. They mentored me, they helped me, they taught me so many things. They told me about mistakes they had made and kind of got me ahead so I didn't have to make those same mistakes. And JJ puts and Willie Bloomquist were 10 year veterans. I had my locker right between those guys. So seeing how they prepared mentally and physically every day, being able to ask them a lot of questions and, you know, the way they treated me now, kind of being in a similar role as a veteran guy on this team, try to, you know, share what I learned through from those guys to players that I play with.
The longer you've been around, you have, like, a bigger picture view of the game. I think just to have someone to come up with that perspective of just saying, hey, I know this was a tough game. I know maybe you made a mistake or didn't perform, but hey, we still got your back.
You feel like a family. You feel like a brotherhood, and that obviously helps the team play better. We all try to take care of each other as best we can. We come from all over the world. The game's gotten even more global now and just trying to be there for each other. And you want to be proud of the legacy that you leave, and part of that is just continuing to pass it on to the next generation.
[00:18:01] Jerry Crasnick: You can check out all of the leave it Better player features on the MLBPA social channels and our YouTube page.
[00:18:11] Jerry Crasnick: So we get to 1994.
By that point, you're the National League Republic.
You rose through the ranks. Were you enlisted or did you campaign for this?
[00:18:24] Jay Bell: No, I think a lot of times when you get voted in as a league rep because guys don't want it. And so the only nice thing about being the player rep is that at the winter meetings you get a suite. And that's kind of nice, but, you know, it is. It's a tough job because, because you're, you are on the phone a lot. You're speaking to players a lot. You're speaking to players association leadership a lot. You're speaking to the leadership within your particular organization a lot.
And you're, you're trying to make sure that everybody sees your perspective and understands, hey, what, what, what we. What you have to do.
And it's not a position that I would say is for everybody. It's not. It's a miserable job.
But nonetheless, it was pretty exciting. It was pretty exciting to go through that process and to go and share your values and your ideas with not just, not just people within the, the baseball world, but go to the White House and you share stuff with the President, United States and the Vice President, and you go to, to Congress and you walk through the halls of Congress and you talk to legislators, you know, about, about what we're trying to do and what we're trying to accomplish.
[00:19:57] Jerry Crasnick: I remember that time being very fraught, a lot of tension as that August 12th date approached. Andy Van Slyke brought out the lineup card for the final Pirates game before you went on strike. I don't know if you Remember that?
[00:20:12] Jay Bell: I don't.
[00:20:13] Jerry Crasnick: Jim Leland said, bring it out. Yeah, but you were going through a tough time. Personally, if you don't mind me asking, I think your wife was expecting and that was not easy to be going through a personal family situation and being the face of the players when a lot of people didn't like players.
[00:20:36] Jay Bell: Yeah.
[00:20:36] Jerry Crasnick: Can you reflect on that?
[00:20:39] Jay Bell: Well, you know, there was, I go back to 1989, Laura got pregnant, or my 19. Let me think about this. 1988 and 89.
And we lost our first child in 1990.
And then Laura got pregnant again in 91 and we had, or maybe the tail end of 90, and our daughter Brianna was born in 91, but she had six months of bed rest with Brianna.
With the next two children that we had, Brantley and Brock, they ended up, she had to have six months bed rest for them too. So Laura was pregnant at the time when we went on strike.
She was in bed rest at the time. And so, you know, I'm, I'm thinking about her once we went on strike and then the meeting started and that kind of stuff. And of course I'm, I'm kind of committed to travel and, and you know, so I'm, I'm leaving her behind, traveling to New York or to Washington D.C. or to Arizona to have all these meetings. You know, I'm, you know, there was, there was, you know, I was, my, I was, I was dual minded. I had, I had other stuff that I was, you know, life, life was happening along the way, but this was important. And you know, fortunately we had a lot of help and it worked out great.
[00:22:05] Jerry Crasnick: When you set that August 12th date, it seems like you thought, okay, this will put pressure on to get something done before the World Series.
What do you recall about how things unfolded?
[00:22:20] Jay Bell: I think one of the things that we, during that process, I think one of the things that we tried, we thought was that because it was the playoffs were upcoming, that ownership would be reasonable and we would work stuff out and we might lose a few games, but it wasn't going to be that much at all. And then during that process too, you know, we were, we were losing the PR game as well, you know, because again, as a fan of the baseball now or of baseball now, you know, I love watching baseball and so I don't want to lose any games. I want, I want to enjoy the boys of summer. And whenever we went on strike and it wasn't, you know, the fans weren't able to watch the game, you know, there were, it was starting to get a little more tense.
And the longer we went, it continued to get more tense. But again, I really felt, and I think everybody felt like that everything was going to get settled before, you know, the playoffs started.
Unfortunately, it didn't.
And that was one of the things that was extremely disappointing day. And I can't remember who was with me in the meeting, but the day that Bud told us that we were done and that we were going to the season was over, it was a very, very disappointing and sad day for me personally. I'm looking at Bud and Bud again.
Bud was a huge fan, and I think he struggled with it and matter of fact, to the point where he couldn't look the players that were in the meeting or Don in the eye. I remembered him sitting in his chair, looking up at the ceiling and talking to us, not looking at us.
And I think it was as difficult on him it was for us to hear, because I don't think that any.
I think there were a few owners that wanted to bust the union, but I think there were a lot of owners that did not. But I think the bigger voices at the time were.
Were the ones that wanted to put us in our place.
[00:24:38] Jerry Crasnick: For people who say, gee, I love baseball, I'd play it for free. These guys make millions. Why do they do this?
What would you say to those people?
[00:24:51] Jay Bell: One of the things about life is that we all strive to be the best at what we do in the major leagues. Whenever I look at the players that are playing out there, they are the best in the world.
They have earned every ounce of playing time that they've got along that same line because the industry has grown so great.
The salaries have gone up and they've gone up according to the interest of tv, the interest of fans coming into showing up for the games, Rising revenue, rising revenue. And because of that, the owners have made more money. The players, in turn, they will make more money as well. And whenever you look at some of the salaries, absolutely, they're huge.
But at the same time, they are based upon. They are based upon the revenue. And whenever you see guys that work as hard as they do, they are huge fans of the game, most of them.
Most of the guys that play are huge fans. They've been fans since they were 4 and 5 years old. They've worked towards this, they work towards excellence.
And because of that, they earn a big salary. It's not unlike any other business.
If a business is thriving, then the people that work in that business are going to make more money. And that's just how baseball has gone over the years. It's how most sports have gone over the years.
[00:26:31] Jerry Crasnick: After your investment in this emotionally, when the teams, when Judge Sotomayor made her ruling and the players returned, was it happiness, relief? What do you recall you felt?
[00:26:48] Jay Bell: I think when we returned, and I think that there was a bit of everything. There was a bit of a relief, There was a lot of happiness. We're getting to see, we're getting to get back out on field and play the game.
The business aspect of it was over forced to a certain extent, not fully, but to a certain extent. And we could let Don and Rob do their job without us having to be in meetings and we could get back on field and we could work. But some of the fallout was still there. And that was the difficult thing for me. It's one of the things that was always important for me. Again, I loved playing in Pittsburgh. My years as a player there was amazing.
The town was amazing.
I saw it get rejuvenated and grow into what it is today. Two of my children were born in Pittsburgh.
I consider myself in part, you know, a, you know, you know, a Pittsburgh or because it's a blue collar town, because, you know, a lot of these people couldn't quite understand what we were doing. And it was. They. They considered that we were just. That we were out for money.
You know, it hurt a little bit, but at the same time, you know, one of the things about Pittsburgh was extremely forgiving people. They always appreciated hard work. They always appreciated good eff.
And you know, I think after everything was done in 95, whenever we started and played, I think that it took a little while, but we got back in good graces again.
And, you know, a lot of it had to do with Sammy and Mac. But, you know, there in Pittsburgh, you know, for sure, it was about the effort that we put on, you know, we put forward on the field. And, um, it was just a. It was. Again, it was. It was great to be back out there.
[00:29:02] Jerry Crasnick: And yet it's not all sweetness and light. Immediately, one of the things you had to deal with was navigating the hard feelings between players who might have crossed the picket line, guys who were teammates as a leader and a team rep.
What was that experience like for you?
[00:29:24] Jay Bell: Yeah, it was a little raw. You know, there were some guys that crossed over and.
And you know, there were different reasons why guys crossed over. And once everything got settled, that was the. That was the biggest thing, you know, because there were. There were some. Some feelings that were hurting that and it was, it was raw.
But at the same time, it was one of those things where we had to come to. We had to figure it out to come together as a team.
And, you know, so some of those guys that did cross over, you know, we had to have conversation, you know, as a team. And now some of those guys ended up forfeiting some of their, the benefits of being in the Players Association.
But as far as being teammates and on the field and trying to work towards the goal of winning, we couldn't let some of their decisions impact what we felt once we got on the field. And I think that we handled it pretty well. I think overall, you know, the stories that I had heard, you know, throughout baseball, I think most of the player reps, I think that we, we.
I think we, we kind of smoothed things over pretty, pretty well.
[00:30:38] Jerry Crasnick: They didn't have social media back then, but they did have fans standing outside the, the gates. When you came in, did you find as a prominent face that you might have been singled out for some pretty nasty comments from people?
[00:30:55] Jay Bell: To a certain degree, you try not to listen to the negative stuff. Although they had some fans throw money on the field and yell and scream. And again, my MO has always been to try and see their point of view, but at the same time, it's like, you know, you don't want to be a. Be a pushover either.
And you know, most people, whenever they respond out of emotion, they're not going to be reasonable anyway. And so you just try and be kind and, you know, smile and just be on your way.
But for the most part, I think that again, especially there in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh is such a unique place and a wonderful place to have had the opportunity to play. Those people are extremely forgiving and they do understand union, the union aspect of life, and they appreciate the fact that we were a bunch of players made up as a union. And so they valued that. They might not agree necessarily because of the salaries that we had. They said, well, you're making plenty of.
And, you know, why don't you just come back to work? But at the same time, I think from a fan's perspective, I think that there was a little bit of love, hate for us also, you know, going through it. And, you know, one of the things that we did not do a very good job of, you know, during that 94, 95, was we did not win the PR battle very well. You know, the owners were, they were out there. They were, you know, they, they let, they let the world know, hey, this is what's going on and they, they spun it to their side more than we did.
And, you know, I think that we fought for better representation throughout the media, but we just didn't. We didn't quite get it. And.
But I think that, you know, I think that over the course of time, I think the fans understand a little bit more.
At least I hope they do, is that, you know, whenever the business aspect of baseball goes on, it is not. It is. It is. It's necessary. It's a necessary part of it.
And, you know, but, you know, from a player's perspective, we want everything. We want everything that the fans want. We want to be out on the field and play. And that is ultimately what we're trying to get to.
[00:33:16] Jerry Crasnick: We'll continue this episode of Stitch by Stitch after this short break.
[00:33:22] Jay Bell: High drive, left field. Did he get enough? Gave his time. And Bell delivers again.
This team is such a.
They are suffering.
[00:33:34] Jerry Crasnick: You did play through a hugely chaotic period in baseball with steroids and explosions and statistics. And how do you reflect on that time as a former player, navigating all the different emotions and things that you went through?
[00:33:55] Jay Bell: Yeah, listen, it was one of those things where there were a lot of things that were going on during that period of time. The HGH stuff was out, the steroids were out. It's not unlike what happened in the 70s and before. Also, steroids wasn't a new thing. It was just more of a scientific thing. You had stuff prior to the performance enhancing stuff, the amphetamines and the red juice and all that kind of stuff going back generations in baseball. And so it's always been around. It wasn't. Everybody didn't do it. And that was the problem.
That was a problem in baseball and the media and that everybody got lumped into to the same category. Well, you must be this. If you had a good year, you had to have done this. And one of the things that is disappointing is that people don't take the individual and say, well, let's look at this. They just kind of lump everything together. From a player's perspective, whenever you look at some of the things, things that were going on, you knew it was around, you knew it was happening and you had conversations about it as players.
But one of the things that you try to do is you try to maintain your own individual integrity, whatever that might be.
And for me, as a Christian baseball player, a Christian person from age 10 and now, I'm trying to balance how do you be competitor and how do you, how do you manage your faith along with it, there is a balance there. And so you have to be very careful and you have to make sure that you walk of the line, because I don't want some of the things that I do affect who I profess that I am.
And so that was, what was disappointing for me was whenever you get lumped into that and you have a good year now, you have some media, you have a lot of fans, especially in today's day, where you, where you have social media, you know, still, like, you know, I, there are times where I get beat up for having, having a very good, a very good season. Then back in 99, they don't take into consideration the guys around you that help you have the season you have. We can't do anything individually unless we have somebody else to help us.
And, you know, one of the things that, that I think that baseball has done to remedy some of the things that happened back in the 80s and 90s was that, you know, the, the, the testing has been a little bit better. And that's, that's, that's always, it's always a positive thing.
But, you know, did it affect me? Not really. I mean, I, you know, I, you know, you, you get beat up from somebody that, that has no idea who you are and never. And doesn't care to know who you are, and whenever they lump you in there with guys that have, that have tested positive or whatever, you just kind of go on your way and does it bother you? Yeah, a little bit, but not, not great. There's again, whenever people talk about you or talk about a situation out of emotion rather than logic, then, then, then that's, that's not on you, it's that, that person.
[00:37:09] Jerry Crasnick: Yeah.
[00:37:10] Jerry Crasnick: And just to Clarify, you had 38
[00:37:12] Jerry Crasnick: home runs in a season, and all of a sudden, because of the time maybe you start getting asked about it or getting questions. Was it difficult to navigate that or hear that?
[00:37:25] Jay Bell: Yeah, nobody. I think there were enough people that understood who I was and what I professed that they didn't come out and they didn't say directly to my face.
There was one particular reporter that implied something, but the. Never, never, never came out and directly said it to me.
And, but, you know, so, so as far as navigating it. No, I mean, I think that I, my reputation and who I said I was, you know, it, I maintained that throughout the course of my career. And so it wasn't, it wasn't much of a question.
Although, you know, I, you know, nobody said anything. I would, I am, I, I'm the exclusive category. I think I'm in the 38. 38 club, 38 homers and 38 sacrifice bunts. You know, of course my career. So.
But it was, it was, you know, nobody ever said anything to me about steroids back whenever I was Bunning 38 times either. So. But you know, it was just, again, it's, it's one of those things where you can't control people. You, you do your best to, to again, the golden rule, right? You treat others the way that you want to be treated, but not everybody's going to treat you, you know, not everybody's going to treat you back the same way you treat them. So I mean, it's one of those things where you just kind of deal with and you, you, you have your integrity, you have your, you know, you profess something and, and you either live up to it or you don't. And, and you know, one of the things that I've done my best to do is, is to, is to live up to who I said I am.
[00:39:01] Jerry Crasnick: Just a little fun.
[00:39:02] Jerry Crasnick: J.
[00:39:03] Jerry Crasnick: Bell Baseball Trivia Ozzie Smith won 13 consecutive Gold Gloves at shortstop.
Who was the guy who broke that streak?
[00:39:14] Jay Bell: Yeah, it wasn't supposed to be the guy who did it, but it was supposed to be Barry Larkin. But it ended up being me. And just so happened that I had a really, really good year in 93.
And yeah, so I broke the streak.
And it was one of those things where I loved.
It was a lot due to Jim Leland. Jim Leland put me in the lineup every day. He didn't take me out. The days that I was out of the lineup, I was going to go in and play. And so from a defensive standpoint, I had a group of pitchers that were very, very good. They threw quality pitches. I could position myself according to the hitters tendencies because they were so good.
I think there were several years where I led the league in total chances and in 93 ended up having a really, really good year and ended up winning my first Gold Glove. First and only Gold Glove.
And so it should have been Barry.
And after I interrupted the streak, Barry took over, ended up being the guy for a long time.
But for me to be associated with Blazi and with Barry, who I am extremely fond of both of those guys and both of those guys helped me out in my career a ton.
I'm thankful to have kind of squeezed in there and gotten one. It's one of my highlights after making so many errors in my career, nearly 500 over the course of my Career. To have had an opportunity to win a Gold Glove was pretty special.
[00:40:52] Jerry Crasnick: A few other notes of distinction for you.
First player to sign a contract in the history of the Arizona dive backs, correct? Five year contract.
[00:41:03] Jay Bell: Yes. Yeah, that was one of the things that, you know, to have had the opportunity to come to Arizona, to be part of this organization was extremely special, although it almost didn't happen.
I'd gotten a phone call from my friend Trey Hillman, who was working with the Yankees at the time, and he asked me if I was interested in signing as a free agent to go to New York to play alongside Jeter, and.
But they were going to wait until after the expansion draft to make a determination one way or the other.
Prior to the expansion draft, I got a call not soon after that, that conversation with Trey from the Arizona Diamondbacks or from my agent. And he told me, asked me if I was interested in going out to Arizona to be their first player.
And I looked at the situation.
Buck Showalter was the manager.
I had known Buck since my freshman year of high school. He grew up in a little town called Century Florida, which is where my dad grew up.
My dad was a student of his father.
And so I had worked out with Buck over the years.
He was a guy that. Matter of fact, whenever I ended up going into coaching and managing, I modeled a lot of what I did, managerial wise, based upon him.
I valued him. And so whenever I called my friend Al Martin, asked him about Jerry Colangelo, and his.
Al's comment to me was that Jerry Colangelo was the best owner in professional sports.
Al was a huge Suns fan, so he saw it from that standpoint.
And so I decided with. With, not only did they knock my socks off with a contract offer, but with Jerry Colangelo having the reputation that he had, along with Bucks Showalter being the manager, I chose to come out here to be their first player.
[00:43:08] Jerry Crasnick: Which culminates in you scoring the winning run in the World Series.
How many times have you seen that video clip?
[00:43:17] Jay Bell: Because I live in Arizona, I've seen the clip of me scoring a lot. And so it is still. It's one of those things. Again, everybody's riding the carousel of their careers and trying to reach for that golden ring, and in our case, it's that World Series ring. And to have had the opportunity to be part of a team that was built to win and to see the guys that have come in, we talk about guys of character. Not. Or the guys of character. Not characters.
You know, it was. Whenever you look at the guys that we brought in, the Randy's, the Curt Schillings, the. The Tony Womacks, the Mark Graces, the Matt Williams, you know, so many other guys that have come in and been part that. That was part of that World Series team.
You know, it was. It was pretty special.
The cool thing for me was, again, I can look back, there were a lot of things that happened during that period of time. You know, whenever I scored the winning run in the World series and then 2001, first of all, to jump into Matt's arms, it was. He and I were the first two Diamondbacks was really special.
To be able to go out there and to share that moment with the team. You know, we had two groups, one at home plate, one with Gonzo at first base. I'd known Gonzo since he was in college.
And to be able to go and to celebrate together and then to see my family walk on the field and to celebrate with them and to see the tears in their eyes and to realize for the first time how important the game was to them was an epiphany to me. I had no idea. I just had never seen it like that.
And then, of course, we had a house full that night. And Laura and I, our three kids, ended up sleeping with us. And so Laura and I, we can't go to sleep. And we got home after the celebration in the clubhouse about 2am or so. And so we're sitting there, we're just chatting about the journey because she and I dated in high school.
She was with me from rookie ball on. So she saw the entire journey.
And so it was just. It was thrilling for both of us. We decided to go to Krispy Kreme the next morning, take Yuta, grab some donuts for everybody to eat.
And she stayed in the truck. I went inside. And as I go inside that next day, that next morning, this is literally four hours from the time that we got through celebrating to picking up donuts.
I walk into this Krispy Kreme doughnut shop, and there's a reporter and a cameraman, and she sees me whenever I walk in, and she rushes over to me to ask me to do an interview. And so I said, absolutely, I'd be happy to do it.
And so I sit there and, you know, when she starts the interview, she says, the World Series. What a game last night. Were you there?
And I said, as a matter of fact, I was. I said I had wonderful seats. I said, it is a game that I will never, ever forget.
Get through with the interview. I go get my donuts. I walk out. There's this donut box that's up on the wall. It's got my signature. I was there for the opening of the Krispy Kreme Donuts. I walk outside, put the donuts in the truck. I close the door. I pull out to drive away, and this reporter comes. Comes running out to.
And gets on her hands and knees to beg me to stop, to redo the interview, really. And so I get out and. And I redo the interview. But the moral of the story, Jerry, is you better enjoy it while it lasts, because it's going to be over and they're going to forget you in a hurry.
[00:46:52] Jerry Crasnick: Well, four hours is not a very large shelf life.
[00:46:56] Jay Bell: Absolutely.
[00:46:56] Jerry Crasnick: That's incredible.
[00:46:57] Jay Bell: It was. It was. It was one of. One of my. One of my most enjoyable stories about the entire experience, for sure.
[00:47:03] Jerry Crasnick: Krispy Kreme, the Breakfast of Champions.
[00:47:06] Jay Bell: Absolutely. It is.
[00:47:07] Jerry Crasnick: Yeah. That's amazing. Well, it's nice that you redid it because at least she could stand.
[00:47:12] Jay Bell: Boy, it was good. It was good.
[00:47:15] Jay Bell: Yeah.
[00:47:15] Jerry Crasnick: Jeez. The only other thing I came across in looking up your stuff, you hit a home run during a game in a promotion to win a woman a million dollars.
[00:47:28] Jay Bell: My number one highlight in my career was the thing that happened in 1999. I was having a good year at the All Star break. I was battling out with Craig Biggio, who's going to be the starting second baseman for the 99 All Star Game. And the Sunday before the All Star Game, we're here at home and we're playing.
We're playing the A's.
And Jimmy Haynes was pitching that day. And we had had a.
Had a promotion at the ballpark that year called Grand Slam Sunday.
It was sponsored by Shamrock Farms.
And they had put this kind of two in one kind of promotion together where it was Grand Slam Sunday. On Sunday. And they came up with this ice cream called Grand Slam Sundae ae.
And so the promotion went kind of like this. You had the opportunity to make a phone, call it to a radio station that was associated with it. If you were the right.
If you were the correct caller, then you had the opportunity to go to the ballpark and stand up on top of the dugout pre game, choose a player, and the inning that that player would hit a grand slam. If you chose the right player and you chose the correct inning, then that person would win a million dollars.
And so this lady named Guylene Hoyle stood up on the dugout pregame when we were out there Doing our pregame stretches, and she picks me to hit a grand Islam in the sixth inning. And I'm looking around, I'm seeing Matt Williams and Steve Finley and Gonzo, and I'm thinking, why in the world would she choose me?
And so we go through the game and the fifth inning, I hit and make an out, and I'm over on the bench.
I'm not thinking about it at the time, but, you know, later on I'm thinking, well, shoot, I'm not going to hit the next inning.
So the next inning comes up.
We ended up rallying and had a few guys, I think we scored a couple runs or whatever it was, ended up getting first and second with one out.
And our pitcher, Omar Dahl, comes up and he sacrifices the guys that were on first and second to second and third.
And then Tony Womack walks up, and Tony never walks, and he ended up walking on four straight pitches. So I know as I'm walking up the home plate that if I hit a grand slam, that I'm going to win this lady a million bucks.
And so, you know, after three balls, the count was two, two and one because the umpire missed, missed, missed. One of the pitches ended up being, you know, it was. Instead of two and one, it was. Or a set of three, and, oh, was two and one.
And the next pitch was.
Was a. Was a ball.
And. And so I get in the, you know, as I'm standing out and getting ready for the next pitch, I, you know, I said, man, I got to swing the bat. So I step in and. And, you know, I. I swing in the next pitch, high fastball, foul it, straight back, it goes just over the back, stop.
And. And so I step out, and next pitch, and as I step into the box, my legs start shaking, and. And so I step out, and the only thing that I think of is just quick prayer. So, Lord, I don't know what the theology behind this is, but all I want is just calmness. Just. Just let me be calm just for a second.
And so step back in the box. Another. Another high fastball, swing, foul it, straight back again, and step back in the box again for my next three, two pitch, another high fastball. I get on top of it, hit it about 10 rows deep into left field. And I think it's the only time in my career that I ever showed any emotion rounding the basis.
It was not about the fact that I just hit the grand slam and tied the game.
It was about the fact that I got to change somebody's life doing something. I Loved. And it is by far. And I've had the opportunity. We talked about it today.
Scoring the winning run in the World Series was a highlight, and it was a.
It was a major highlight. To have the opportunity to have hit a home run on the first pitch I saw in the major leagues was a huge highlight.
But to change somebody's life by doing something I love was. Was something that, that impacted me in a way that it is my number one moment in my career for sure.
[00:52:23] Jerry Crasnick: Did you have a chance to meet her and speak to her afterward?
[00:52:26] Jay Bell: And had a chance to see Guylene and her husband and kids after the game, got to meet them and then 10 years later had a chance to talk to them a little bit more about what they had done. And it was amazing. Some of the things that they'd done, they'd paid off bills, they bought some property.
Gailene went back to school, got her master's, got the higher paying job, had the opportunity to send the kids to school on some of the money that they made through that experience.
And so just a lot of amazing things happened.
[00:53:03] Jerry Crasnick: One of the things we've seen with this project is the importance of players paying tribute to the previous generations and paying it forward.
How can you speak to that just based on your personal experience? And how important do you think that is to know the history?
[00:53:23] Jay Bell: One of the things that I believe that every player should understand is the history of baseball.
Not just of the Players association, but the history of baseball.
Secondly, we should know who Curt Flood is and what he did for the game, who Marvin Miller was and what he did for the game, who Don Fear was, who Gene Orza was.
We don't think about those things too often because we do get wrapped up in just going out there and playing the game.
So one of the things that I always appreciated was that we players always came together. No matter what kind of conflict you have during the course of the season, no matter what kind of relationship we had with other players or other teams during the off season, whenever it came to this, this time, whenever the Players association came together, we were all unified.
And a lot of times it took conversation with one another to maintain that off season relationship.
And that's one of the things I would encourage this generation of players to do. Because, you know, whenever it comes down to it, although you're working again, we talked about it earlier, you, as players come from point A and the ownership comes from point B to get to point C. You're trying to get there, but you still see things from different perspectives in order to make it work because the owners are going to be unified to a great extent.
You players need to make sure that you maintain that relationship with one another, that off season relationship where you stay unified.
It is going to be a fight for equality. Whenever it comes down to that relationship with owners, they are going to want a bigger piece of the pie.
But one of the things, again we mentioned it earlier, I still believe that this is a collaboration. It's cooperation.
You need to work hand in hand with the owners.
But in order to do that you have to as players stay unified and I would encourage it. Again, you are making a lot of money.
Hopefully the industry continues to grow so that you can make more money. It is great that you are making the money that you're making today, but in order for it to continue to grow as it has, you need to stay unified.
[00:56:12] Jerry Crasnick: Thanks to Jay Bell for the look back at his baseball career and his years of service to the Players Association.
This has been an episode of Stitch by Stitch, connecting players from the past, present and future.
This episode was written and produced by Jerry Krasnick with research and production support from Pablo Okariz, Pablo Bauza, and Talia Sklar. This episode was edited and mixed by Mark Levine with additional video editing from David Hetty. A supervising producer was Rachel Gross, Emily Kless provided art direction and social media strategy and our executive producers were Roz Guevara and Gretchen Mueller. The Director of Communications and External affairs is Silvia Alvarez and our Chief Communications Officer is Orey Coren. The Stitch by Stitch podcast is an MLBPA Audio original.
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