David Gus "Buddy" Bell (born August 27, 1951)
Played for: Cleveland Indians (1972–1978), Texas Rangers (1979–1985, 1989),
Cincinnati Reds (1985–1988), Houston Astros (1988)
Buddy Bell: Baseball Reference [Player] — Third baseman (3B)
2,514 hits, 201 home runs, 1,106 RBI, .279/.341/.406 slash-line in 2,405 games, 66.3 WAR
5× All-Star (1973, 1980–1982, 1984)
6× Gold Glove Award (1979–1984)
Silver Slugger Award (1984)
It seems only yesterday that I was checking the all-time hit totals for players in the Top 100 for MLB (as one does when following Jose Altuve, the greatest Astro of the 21st century*).
Oddly enough, his first season saw him play in the outfield (left/right) most of the time. He didn't get a hit on Opening Day, but he did get his first knocks on April 19 (three games later) with a three-hit day while also stealing two bases against the Boston Red Sox. He hit his first home run three days later in Cleveland against the Baltimore Orioles off Eddie Watt. In 132 total games that year for a team that finished 72-84, he had 119 hits (.255) with nine home runs while having the first of eleven seasons (minimum 95 games) where he had more walks than strikeouts. The trade of third baseman Graig Nettles to the Yankees gave Bell the chance to be the starter at the position, where he would play all but 91 games (not including pinch hitting/running) of his following career. He raised his totals a bit that year, batting .268 with fourteen home runs and 59 RBIs while being named to the All-Star Game for the first time. For whatever reason, the 1975 season saw him actually reject an All-Star Game selection, as his finish of second to Nettles initially led to the selection of Bell as a backup, but he declined it. In his seven seasons in Cleveland (for three managers), Bell was part of a winning team exactly once: the 1976 team (where they finished 81-78). By the end of the 1978 season, he was a 27-year-old player with 1,016 hits in 987 games.
His peak, so to speak, would come quickly. In December, he was traded to the Rangers for Toby Harrah in a swap of third basemen. He played every game of the 1979 season and had his lone 100-RBI and 200-hit season while batting .299 and earning a 10th place MVP finish while being named a Gold Glover. Bell's tenure with the Rangers produced one winning full season with the 83-79 team in 1979 that finished five games behind the Angels for the West title and a close one of sorts with the 1981 split season where they finished 1.5/4.5 games behind in the halves of a season that saw them ultimately finish out of contention. Bell had a six-year run of Gold Gloves (interpret for the advanced folks about how that works out here) and even added a Silver Slugger Award in 1984 by batting .315 in 148 games with 83 RBIs. On April 26, 1985, he joined the semi-exclusive club of players with 2,000 hits (at the time, 162 people were on the list). Ironically, his latter seasons saw him actually play on teams that won more than they lost, starting in that year with a trade to Cincinnati for Jeff Russell and Duane Walker. He batted .266 in four years with the Reds, which at least saw him have a season of 3.5 in WAR for 1986 to go with his only 20-HR season.
The Astros traded for him in exchange for a minor league prospect in June of 1988. He batted .253 in 74 games, with the one highlight being a home run on September 11 that saw him reach 200 for a career - he was one of only 15 players to play 50% of their games at 3B with 200 home runs at that time. He was subsequently released in December. He signed as a free agent at 37 with the Rangers in 1989. In the Opening Day game on April 4, he reached 2,500 hits against Detroit. The struggles came early and never stopped, however, as he batted .183 in 34 games before electing to retire in June. At the time, he was one of just 65 players to have 2,500 hits in MLB history. From 1986 to September 23, 2026, he was in the top 100 all-time for hits. His four All-Star selections for the Rangers (1961 in Washington, 1972 Arlington) was at one point the most in their young history. His 2,405 games played ranks as the fourth most for those who never reached the postseason, with no player coming even 300 games close to that mark since Bell's retirement. He didn't walk much (836) but he also didn't strike out much (776). Owing to his durable nature, he played in 95 games in 17 of 18 seasons, going to 140 with 11/18 seasons and as a result is one of less than 100 players with 2400 games played in MLB history. He became involved in minor league instructing for a number of years before becoming an infield coach with Cleveland for 1994 and 1995, with the latter year seeing him take the field with, well, a postseason run. He served as a manager for three different teams (Tigers, Rockies, Royals) and managed the American team at the 1999 Pan American Games to a second-place finish (by doing so, the Americans qualified for the Olympic Games in 2000). He served in the front office for Chicago and Cincinnati for a number of years, with the latter tenure seeing him watch his son David become manager from 2019 to 2024.
In 1989, do you know how many players with at least 50 percent of their tenure at third base had both of 200 home runs and 1,000 RBIs? A measly total of eleven (ranging from the famous Mike Schmidt and Eddie Mathews to the underrated Darrell Evans & Nettles to HOFers Brooks Robinson and George Brett, for example), and the total has only grown to 28 since. For those interested in WAR and quibbling over the differences for offense and defense, Bell recorded 23.8 Defensive WAR, which actually ranks 25th all-time (for fun, there are just 12 players with at least 10,000 plate appearances and 20.0+ dWAR); 48.1 offensive WAR is no slouch thing to do at the position either. This isn't me going crazy to say that Bell is a deserving member of the Baseball Hall of Fame (better folks have tried), but for heaven's sake, he deserved more than one year on the ballot, as he received less than two percent of the vote in 1995 (receiving the same amount of votes as Evans; twelve players from that ballot eventually ended up in the Hall). He may have slipped through the cracks, but the Rangers inducted him into their team Hall of Fame in 2004 as the second class of inductees, which may be more than enough for his baseball life of curiosities. Let's just end on a quote of the time from Bell dwelling on the end of his career:
"The fun, the friends -- God, the ballparks you got to play in -- the old clubhouse men you met, who are the greatest people in the world. They're the goofiest guys. I think I'm going to miss them most of all."
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Buddy Bell to the Hall.
N O T E S
*Respectfully (well, sort of), haters about Jose Altuve can kiss my ass. He's going to make the Hall of Fame despite petulant whining from losers, so the less time it takes to hear those great big words, the better.
*Guardians really is a cool name.
*To plug my totally silly OMNI, Bell has 4,583 OMNIs, not too shabby.
*I probably should give it more character, but I also have a database trying to log in players that joined the 2,000 hit club - enjoy.
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