Jay Bell Honors Fellow Pensacola Great Don Sutton In Return To Blue Wahoos Stadium 

The fans who recognize Rocket City Trash Pandas manager Jay Bell this week at Blue Wahoos Stadium may have noticed his uniform number.

He is wearing No. 20. It has a powerful meaning.

That was Don Sutton’s number.

The one Sutton famously wore all those years, after rising from a Tate High senior in 1964 to Major League Baseball immortality as one of the game’s greatest pitchers and member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

When Bell, who followed Sutton 20 years later at Tate into his own fame in professional baseball, was named in 2019 as Trash Pandas manager, he asked Sutton if he could wear that number.

Of course, quick approval followed.

“He was such an inspiration to all of us,” said Bell, reflecting on Sutton, who passed away earlier this year.

Wednesday night, more special connections occurred. The current Tate High baseball team had a group outing at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Tate coach Karl Jernigan threw out a first pitch before

Bell knows how those high school memories carry forever in life. In 1984, Bell helped lead the Aggies to the Class 4A state title, which was then the highest classification level in Florida.

He equates the feeling to also being one of the few players in Major League Baseball history to score the walk-off, winning run in Game 7 of the World Series. He did that in 2001 with the Arizona Diamondbacks against the New York Yankees.

“It is just pure elation,” said Bell, whose Rocket City team evened its series with the Blue Wahoos on Wednesday night with a 2-1 win. “At Tate that year we were ranked No. 1 nationally and I think it was just few years into when they started those kind of rankings. We were 38-1. Had four guys drafted off the team.

“I may be biased, but I think that World Series Game 7 was the best games I have ever seen. You had (Roger) Clemens (Yankees) and (Curt) Schilling for us going at it on the mound.”

These are the gifted kind of experiences Bell now tries to impart on his players.

“I am managing guys that are my kids’ age,” said Bell, 55, who lives in the Phoenix area with his wife, Laura, who was his high school sweetheart at Tate. “My oldest, Brianna, will be 30 in August. My youngest, Brock is 23. I have that range on my team. I have guys between 20 and 29.

“I relate. I relate to what they are going through. It’s like talking to my kids.”

Bell is part of Pensacola’s extensive link to professional baseball. Don Sutton led the way and became of Pensacola’s all-time greatest sports figures and ambassadors.

The area has been rich with baseball talent. At Tate, which leads the legacy of professional players, Bell is one 60 graduates who were drafted into professional baseball.

Three other teammates off his 1984 senior team joined him, including Mac Seibert, who later became the manager of the Pensacola Pelicans.

Bell has distinction of being a first-round pick in 1984, eighth overall selection, when chosen by the Minnesota Twins. As fate would have it, he was then traded to the Cleveland Indians.

Two years later, his first at-bat with the Indians in his major-league debut became a home run against the Twins, hitting it off Bert Blyleven – the pitcher the Twins traded Bell to get. It’s all part of his decorated 18 year career in the major leagues.

Early into his MLB career, Bell began planning long-term and thinking of being a manager.

“It is one of those things that since the time I was about 21 or 22, I never thought I would be playing very long at the big league level,” said Bell, whose two sons, Brantley (Reds organization) and Brock (Red Sox) are now in the minor leagues. “I felt like I would do a fine job as a manager.

“I think it probably goes back to ‘88 when I was in Cleveland,” he said. “In ‘86 I had week-long spurt of excellence, then all of a sudden in ‘87 -- the time I was up then -- and in ‘88 I did not do well. I really didn’t have a ton of confidence in my abilities at that time.

“I felt I was a pretty good minor league player, but was not sure what I was going to be as a big league player. But I looked around and thought that I know I can manage. And after a nice long career, I love it.”

Bell was the bench coach with the Cincinnati Reds, then joined the New York Yankees organization and was manager at the Yankees’ three-highest level affiliates, including Triple-A, before the Los Angeles Angels tabbed him as manager of their new Double-A affiliate Trash Pandas.

The team was formerly the Mobile BayBears, before relocating to Madison, Alabama, near Huntsville.

“We want that franchise up there in north Alabama to be what Pensacola has meant to the southern part of the league,” Bell said. “And I believe that is what we’re doing. I’m excited to bring them down here.”

While in Pensacola, the good memories flow. Bell’s mother lives here. So does his wife’s mother, along with other family ties.

He’s been able to reconnect with friends like Kevin Saucier, the Blue Wahoos’ concierge for MLB scouts and himself a past World Series winner with the Philadelphia Phillies.

Saucier, an Escambia High grad, is part of the fraternity of former high school players in the community who rose into MLB stars, then stayed in the game to work in a different capacity. Saucier was formerly an MLB regional scouting director.

Bell is enjoying his second career.

“It is an interesting time we are working in,” said Bell, referring to the past 14 months and effect of the coronavirus pandemic. “But I love it. Because it is something I was raised to do. I was raised to figure out ways to give back to something that has given so much to me.

“I want to make sure I can do as much for this game as I possibly can. I am coming up on 40 years (as player or coach-manager in pro ball). It seems like a long time, but it’s crazy. I really enjoy it.”

His satisfaction as a player, now manager is the same.

“I love coaching every bit as much as I did playing. It is just different. As a player, you tend to be a little self-consumed which is normal. That is just the nature of the business. You do what you can to make yourself better so you can progress at different levels to get the big leagues.

“From a coaching standpoint, my job is to take care of 35 guys daily. And it’s a ton of fun. I love everything about it.”