By Jason Mackey
https://www.post-gazette.com/sports/pirates/2019/07/05/pittsburgh-pirates-josh-bell-2019-mlb-home-run-derby-sports-illustrated-scout-nl-mvp-race/stories/201907030114
July 5, 2019
It’s the same smile, Myrtle and Earnest Bell will tell you.
When their son Josh was 12 or 13 years old, at a tournament in Oklahoma, he clobbered a towering home run, his third of the game. The picture that was snapped when he touched home plate elicited the same sort of reaction as the 2015 Futures Game, when Josh also homered, and Monday night, when he smacked three in one game, with Bell’s parents watching and cheering back home in Texas.
Then there’s the field across the street from where Bell grew up in Irving, a Dallas suburb. Now, whenever Josh drives by with his mom and dad, it elicits laughter and memories of nervous parents who always knew they might have to apologize for a shattered windshield.
In the Bell family’s junk drawer, there’s yet another example of their in-this-together approach to Josh’s career: a rejection letter from when he failed to make a travel basketball team.
Because of the parenting work done by Myrtle and Earnest Bell, and the insatiable appetite for baseball exhibited by their only son, here we are: Josh Bell tearing up Major League Baseball, charting a path that’s actually been years — no, decades — in the making.
“I had my priorities set out for me at a young age,” Bell said. “I feel like they kind of laid that foundation for me to make it to this point.”
The son of a college professor (Myrtle) and a computer programmer (Earnest, now retired), Bell was often held to higher standards than his peers, whether that involved athletics, academics or extracurricular activities.
All told, the process created a professional athlete who’s mature beyond his years, an “old soul” in his mom’s eyes and someone capable of leading the Pirates both on and off the field, their equivalent to Sidney Crosby or Ben Roethlisberger.
“His parents did a great job,” said Brian Jones, Bell’s baseball coach at Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas. “They set a foundation for him early on, raising him the right way. He’s caring, he’s a loving guy, and he’s very thoughtful.”
The letter might be the most ironic thing. It’s certainly the timeliest. The letter and its retention all these years later speaks to how seriously the family has taken Josh’s athletic pursuits, how it’s most definitely a group effort. Once, when Josh was struggling in the minors and feeling worn down, Earnest texted him a screenshot of the letter, reminding him that the bounce-back ability is there.
Even though Josh thinks his parents should’ve long ago tossed it out, the mentality at play here has guided Josh this season, when an anonymous scout made waves via Sports Illustrated’s baseball preview by ripping Bell for lacking power, an assessment that seems nothing short of ludicrous now.
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