Two years ago, a former Pirates first baseman approached Josh Bell with an opportunity.
Kevin Young, who played 11 of his 12 MLB seasons in Pittsburgh, had participated in the Willie Stargell Celebrity Golf Tournament in Wilmington, N.C., for a few years running, and he wanted to invite Bell to the next one.
It was for a good cause — the proceeds went to the Willie Stargell Foundation, which helps ease the financial burden on those fighting kidney disease — and had a guest list that included retired athletes, Pirates manager Clint Hurdle and several other faces from the team’s front office. Bell was in.
“It was like, ‘Hey … unreal event. Can’t miss. I want you there,’” said Bell, who is playing his third full season at first base in Pittsburgh. “And I made time for it, and he was right. Awesome family, awesome cause, really good turnout and just a lot of fun.”
On its own, the invitation extended by Young to Bell was a small gesture. But in the grand scheme, the golf tournament — and Bell’s involvement in it — means so much more to Young because of the man the tournament honors.
“What connects us all is baseball and Willie,” Young said, “and at the end of the day, first base.”
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In Young’s time in the majors, he relied on Stargell for advice. That sentiment likely holds true for just about anybody who played with “Pops” or for the Pirates from the 1970s to Stargell’s death in 2001.
Young and Stargell shared their position at first base, a natural gateway into a mentorship.
“He poured into me as a young player, and then as I grew, it was something that I recognized I could familiarize myself with, just how you impact others in that clubhouse,” Young said. “Those are your brothers for six months, you know, sometimes longer. And so how you impact the game is decided by what you do individually [for others].”
Young’s career was good — a .258 average with 606 RBIs, 144 homers and 83 stolen bases in his 12 seasons — but he was playing in Pittsburgh at the start of the Pirates’ 20-season playoff drought.
Still, at his best, Young was a .300 hitter with power, and you could make the argument that the Pirates haven’t had as good a first baseman since Young’s days. Some might even argue the only better Pirates first baseman in history was Stargell, though that might speak more to the fact that only one Pirate other than Young played more seasons with 100 games at first base in the live ball era. That was Gus Suhr, who was in Pittsburgh in the 1930s.
Nonetheless, Young isn’t concerned with past accolades, but rather passing down the things he learned from Stargell to the next generation of players.
That’s where Bell comes in.
In 2014, he began the transition from right field to first base. Starling Marte, Andrew McCutchen and Gregory Polanco figured to hold down the outfield spots for the foreseeable future, so if the Pirates wanted Bell to see the big league field, it would have to be elsewhere on the diamond.
Around the same time, the Pirates hired Young as a special assistant in the baseball operations staff. His main responsibility? “Helping guys transition from a lot of positions to first base,” Young said.
In the five years since, Young and Bell have grown closer.
What that means for Bell is exactly what you would think. With Bell’s career trajectory changing so much in such little time, Young can provide perspective on the dos and don’ts.
“Whenever I need any sort of advice or just some feedback on what’s going on, he’s just always one of the top three guys I go to,” Bell said recently. “I could literally text him, ‘What do you think I should have pregame right now to eat?’ And he’d probably give me a solid answer. I’ve been talking with him for, shoot, five years now? Six years? Talked about relationships, we’ve talked about funneling the ball and throwing to second base, so both sides of the spectrum.”
The lessons come from Young, yes, but some of them might be things Young learned from Stargell.
“It’s that giving part of the game, and I’m really thankful to be a part of that and continue to pass that down, and that’s what I got the opportunity to pass down with Josh,” Young said. “Josh will never have a time to sit down and speak with Willie Stargell. But, like I shared with him, I said, ‘What you do get the chance to do is sit down with somebody who did get to sit down and spend time with Willie Stargell.’ ”
“It’s huge,” Bell said. “Just having someone that’s been through the wringer a little bit, you know, been through the ups and downs of the game. Hindsight’s 20/20 vision.”
If it’s true that Young is the best Pirates first baseman since Stargell, then what Bell has done so far this season is at least enough to consider the possibility of that changing.
Bell entered Tuesday leading the National League in RBIs, doubles, extra-base hits and total bases. He just made his first career All-Star team as the Pirates’ only representative, and he’ll participate in the Home Run Derby next week, too.
A lot has to go according to plan for that kind of success to continue. For his part, Bell realizes he’s a long way from reaching that level.
“I think I have a long way to go to fill those shoes,” Bell said, “but just to be in that scenario, being a part of that family, that’s definitely special to celebrate the life and continue the legacy that he created.”
Added Hurdle: “I love the fact that he honors history. There’s so much we can learn from history. The fact that he’s got some common fabric as a first baseman, as an African American first baseman. There’s been many times when we’ve shared thoughts, like ‘Pops’ is smiling down on you right now.”
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Bell admits he didn’t know about the lineage of Pirates first basemen before he became a part of it. It’s hard to really blame him for that. Beyond Stargell and Young, there isn’t anything too notable to know about.
Perhaps that’s why Bell’s season is made all the more tantalizing. The way Bell has been mashing balls into stands — and sometimes out of stadiums — is the same way Stargell used to roll. On Monday, Bell became the first Pirate to hit three homers in a game from the left side of the plate since Stargell in 1971.
For now, on the field, Bell’s focus is on continuing to learn and grow to maintain his numbers. Young is there to help with that, too.
“Now you punched the league in the mouth, and they’re gonna punch back,” Young says. “So what does that punch back look like, and how do we adapt to it?”
Off the field, intentional or not, Bell is already making baby steps to extend Stargell’s legacy.
“While he was [in Wilmington], Josh took a tour of the Willie Stargell Dialysis Center,” said Margaret Weller-Stargell, the widow of Willie Stargell and member of the board of directors for the Stargell Foundation, “and following that tour, he said to me that we can count on him being here every year as one of our celebrity players.”
Holding true to his word, Bell will be back in Wilmington in November for the 17th annual Willie Stargell Celebrity Invitational. He said he’s aiming to recruit a teammate this year, too.
And down the road, who knows? A lot has to go right, but perhaps Bell ends up in a position to teach Young’s lessons from Stargell to another young first baseman trying to find his way.
“[Young] says that’s a big part of the game … funneling the knowledge down through the years,” Bell said. “He had ‘Pops’ as a mentor, and he’s mentoring me, so hopefully, in 10 or 12 years I can do the same for somebody else.”
Mike Persak: mpersak@post-gazette.com
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First Published: July 3, 2019, 12:30 p.m.