Bell was not the hitter I remembered. He hit 20 homeruns once, right on the nose in 1886 with Cincinnati. He mostly hit in the teens with homeruns. He drove in 100 runs once, but never scored 90 runs in a season. He did twice score 89 runs. Most of his career he was a solidly above average hitter.
Bell did hit .329 in 1980. He never walked much so his on base percentage wasn’t great. In 1979 he hit 42 doubles. That was the year he had 101 RBIs.
He was great in the field though. Looking just at his statistics he deserved his six gold gloves. I saw Texas a lot when he played there as I was working a lot in Texas. I don’t ever remember making a great play, but he made the plays he did look easy. So along with his statistics for fielding being so good you have to say he was a good fielder.
Bell started in the majors at age 20, so played a long time. That gives him an edge on some of the third basemen below him.
