George Bell Popular American Baseball Player

George Bell is also known as Jorge (George) Antonio Bell Mathey. He was born on October 21, 1959 in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He is an American League MVP and left fielder in Major League Baseball. He played for approximately 12 seasons for teams that include Toronto Blue Jays (the year 1981, 1983-1990), Chicago Cubs in the year 1991 and Chicago White Sox from the year 1992-1993. George threw right handed and batted. Juan Bell is his older brother.

Currently, he is aged 48. He did his debut with Toronto Blue Jays in April 9, 1981. The final game that George Bell played was for the team Chicago White Sox in October 2, 1993. The total home runs he made were 265 and his batting average was 278. His total RBI was 1002. In the year 1987, he was awarded the most valuable player. He was an all-star in the years 1987, 1990, 1991.

He was also awarded the Silver Slugger Award in the years 1985, 1986 and 1987. The Philadelphia Phillies scout Epy Guerrero discovered George Bell in the Dominican Republic. In 1984, he had his first season as a regular. This was when Bell teamed with Jesse Barfield and Lloyd Moseby to form a very successful outfield for the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Blue Jays led to their first-ever American League East Division title in 1985 when some solid starting pitching took place because of that outfield. On October 5, George Bell caught a fly ball off the bat of Ron Hassey for the final out in the 5-1 victory over the team New York Yankees that clinched the division title for the Toronto Blue Jays. They lost to the Kansas City Royals, despite Bells 321 averages in the ALCS.

In 1987, George Bells best season came as he led the Toronto Blue Jays in a stirring race for the division title, ultimately falling two games short of the team Detroit Tigers. George finished with a .352 OBP, .308 BA, .608 SLG, 47 HR, 111 R and 134 RBI. That very same year he was awarded the American League MVP.

George became the first player in the major leagues to hit three home runs on April 4, 1988 on an opening day (all of them coming off of Bret Saberhagen), but the rest of the year was not up to his standard as compared to the past few years as he had some major conflicts with Jimmy Williams the Blue Jays manager. In the 1990 season George Bell became a free agent and finally signed with the Chicago Cubs.

George Bell suffered a poor season in 1993 due to a knee injury. In the ALCS he was benched against his former team the Blue Jays and was released at the end of the season after which he soon announced his retirement. Wikipedia