'I was pissed': Why move to DH fuelled Bell’s historic Opening Day for Blue Jays

In 1987, George Bell delivered one of the most iconic seasons in Toronto Blue Jays history. The then-27-year-old smashed 47 homers, drove in 134 runs and hit .308 on his way to winning the club’s first-ever American League MVP award.

Despite Toronto’s late-season collapse in 1987, you’d think that Bell’s relationship with the Blue Jays, coming off his landmark season, would be rock solid when they returned for spring training in 1988.

But when the Blue Jays showed up for camp in Dunedin that following spring, there was a clear tension simmering between the Dominican outfielder and the team. All because the Blue Jays had made the decision to move Bell to the designated hitter spot for the upcoming season. 

“Well, there’s a lot of thought going into this idea,” then-Toronto manager Jimy Williams said in archival footage in Part 2 of the Sportsnet documentary, The Blue Jays Way, commemorating the franchise's 50th season. “Overall, our idea’s a good idea. I’m in full agreement with it, and we’re gonna go on.”

(The second part of The Blue Jays Way: Bell of the Ball will air on Sunday, July 19, following Toronto's game against the San Diego Padres on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.)

There was no mistaking Bell for a slick-fielding defender in left, as he led all major-league outfielders with 32 errors between 1985 and 1987, but still, the reigning MVP felt slighted by the team’s decision to take the glove off his hand.

“I was not a Gold Glove winner in the outfield,” Bell said in the documentary. “But I went out there and tried.

“In 1988? I was mad. I was pissed,” he later added. “Come on, it’s a joke.”

For a player to have put up a season like Bell’s in 1987, being named their league’s top performer, and to come back the next year and, in essence, lose their job was perceived as a slap in the face by not just the three-time all-star, but his Blue Jays teammates as well.

As for who made the final call to pull Bell from the field, there was some debate on whether it came from Williams in the dugout or then-general manager Pat Gillick in the front office — a question that appeared to be answered in The Blue Jays Way.

“Jimy wanted to do it,” Gillick said. “Defensively, we’d probably be better. That’s the only reason I would think to have George DH.”

No matter where the decision came from, things reached a boiling point almost immediately as the Blue Jays ramped up for the regular season.

Bell was slotted in as Toronto’s DH for the opening game of spring training against the Boston Red Sox, and when the stadium announcer introduced the right-handed hitter for his first trip to the plate? No one was there to take the at-bat.

“Where’s Georgie?” Lloyd Moseby, centre-fielder and Bell’s fellow member of the Killer B's, recalled. “Oh, he’s in the bullpen.”

Poor Rance Mulliniks, who had been on the bench for that spring opener and was shuffled into action as Bell lay on the grass in foul territory, much to Williams’ dismay. The Blue Jays skipper ordered Bell into the clubhouse, and the outfielder was suspended and fined shortly afterward.

“I got a job, and when I come in for spring training, I got no job?” Bell said. “I (felt) betrayed. I was mad because of the way I was treated.”

Bell’s agent, Randy Hendricks, would arrange a meeting between the Blue Jays outfielder, Williams, Gillick and team president Paul Beeston later that spring to turn down the temperature on the brewing conflict. And although Bell ultimately agreed to begin the year at DH, he was still unhappy serving in what Hendricks called at the time “a lonely outcast position.”

Regardless, Bell got the DH assignment once the regular-season opener against the Kansas City Royals finally arrived, batting cleanup as the Blue Jays prepared to face ace right-hander Bret Saberhagen.

And what followed was a historic opening-day performance.

Bell took Saberhagen deep three times in the game, blasting homers in the second, fourth and eighth innings as Toronto won 5-3 in Kansas City.

“We’re laughing about it, because that’s George Bell, right?” Moseby said. “For him, he (told) everybody, ‘Up yours.’ And that was beautiful stuff, man. You can’t make that kind of stuff up.”

The performance made Bell the first hitter in MLB history to hit three home runs on Opening Day — a feat that has been matched only three times in nearly 40 years since.

“(It) sends a message to everybody,” right-fielder Jesse Barfield said. “Don’t mess with me. Let me play the game.”

When Toronto and Kansas City resumed their season-opening series two days later, Bell found himself back in left field. In fact, he played left field for the remainder of that series against the Royals and served as the designated hitter in only six more games for the rest of the season, putting to rest any lingering controversy from spring training.

In that opening-day lineup, Bell’s slide to DH coincided with a move for Moseby to left, with rookie Sil Campusano taking over the duties in centre field. The then-22-year-old ended up playing in 73 games for the Blue Jays in 1988, but his performance wasn’t quite enough to make Toronto’s Game 1 alignment one that Williams returned to often.

“Probably from our standpoint, it was a mistake trying to move (Bell) out of left field and into the DH spot,” Gillick said.

With his role in left secured, Bell went on to hit 24 homers and drive in 97 runs in that 1988 season, but did see his OPS fall to .751 from his MVP-level .957.

Although he never returned to the heights of his 1987 season, Bell’s opening-day show in Kansas City added another memorable chapter to a legacy that earned him a place on the Blue Jays’ Level of Excellence in 1996.