sign in sign up
<<
Home , Great American Ball Park, Gus Bell, Jerry Narron, Joe Rossi (baseball), Lou Piniella, Manager (baseball)

Reds Press Clippings October 23, 2018

THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1975-30,000 people jam into for the parade and presentation of the world championship trophy. A few schools close at noon to allow students to attend MLB.COM Reds name new By Mark Sheldon MLB.com @m_sheldon Oct. 22nd, 2018

CINCINNATI -- The moment that the Reds front office placed a No. 25 uniform on the back of new manager David Bell on Monday was the clearest sign that no one was hiding from his legacy in Cincinnati. Twenty-five is the same number that his grandfather, , wore for the Reds in the 1950s and his father donned in the 1980s.

And now it's worn by the third generation of Bells in Major League and Cincinnati. The Reds named Bell as their new manager on Sunday and introduced him during a Monday news conference at Great American Ball Park after they signing him to a three-year contract through the 2021 season with a club option for '22.

"It's what I always wanted and what I dreamed of," Bell said. "To have an opportunity to work with people you respect and like and truly are in it to be all together with one goal, this is what I was hoping for."

Bell, 46, was also strongly considered for managerial vacancies in Texas and Toronto, but he knew which team he really wanted to work for when the Reds first contacted him about three weeks ago. He didn't hesitate once the job was offered after two rounds of interviews.

"There was no thinking involved," Bell said. "There was no decision to make, because of the connection. It was something that was in my heart. It was an amazing phone call to get."

The Giants' vice president of player development during the 2018 season, Bell will be a first-time manager in the Major Leagues in '19. However, he does have four years of managing experience in the Reds' farm system. He was at the -A level with Carolina from 2009-11 and at -A Louisville in '12.

Bell grew up in Cincinnati and played baseball for Archbishop Moeller High School, where he was a member of the 1989 state championship team.

A Cincinnati legacy is nice, but of course, none of that tops the importance of winning. Can the Reds -- a last-place team in the Central the past four seasons -- become contenders again under Bell? He liked the idea of taking a team that's been down and helping it rise.

"It is a great challenge. We have people and players in place," said Bell, the 63rd manager in Reds franchise history. "It's just a matter of bringing it all together and bringing out the best in people. I see that as an incredible challenge, it's going to make us better."

Bell was raised in baseball and has a player development background, but he made clear that he doesn't fear advanced metrics and analytics that are now prominent.

"To succeed in anything at any point, you have to evolve," Bell said. "And they were doing that in the '50s. There are certain things about this game that will never go away. It's about the people and about competing. Outside of that, you're trying to get every edge you possibly can, and that comes from people, information, analytics -- there are so many advances that we have to be open to."

Although his 12-year Major League playing career as a and from 1995-2006 did not include a stop in Cincinnati, Bell played for the Indians, Cardinals, Mariners, Giants, Phillies and Brewers. He reached the once, in 2002, with San Francisco.

Bell was the third-base for the Cubs in 2013 and served as the Cardinals' bench coach from 2014-17.

"When you talk to people who have worked with him, you constantly hear the words loyal, smart, tough and dedicated," Reds president of baseball operations said. "In fact, one of the former Cardinals I spoke to called him, 'the Silent Assassin.'"

Bell's bug for managing began shortly after he retired as a player. In 2009, then-Reds general manager offered him the chance to manage in Double-A.

"Right away I fell in love with it. I knew right away," Bell said. "Of course, then I thought I could [manage in the big leagues]. I'm glad I didn't because I've learned so much.

"It was the connection to the players and the connection to the staff and being able to just find ways to help and support them to be the best that they can be."

Bell left St. Louis for the front office in San Francisco after the '17 season and was in charge of about 300 players and 80 staff. To Williams, that was a big separator from the 11 other candidates and the two other finalists for the job -- and . Williams declined to say whether Girardi was the frontrunner -- as was reported -- before he pulled himself from consideration.

"It's a huge risk to take that uniform off and take a front-office job," Williams said of Bell. "I've seen other guys go upstairs and become a special assistant or advisor and sort of float around and [say], 'Hey, I'm going to learn the ropes.' Running player development is a 24-7, 365 job. You're managing a huge amount of players and staff and getting into management of people and the business. For him to have that vision now of what goes into the decisions we have to make and be able to see the whole field is really unique."

The Reds dismissed former manager in April after four-plus seasons when the team started with a 3-15 record. Bench coach was named interim manager and was one of the candidates for the permanent position.

Coaches from Price's and Riggleman's staff -- and the Minor Leagues -- will get consideration to be retained under Bell. Williams said that the process would begin immediately.

Bell learned to love baseball from being around his grandfather Gus and hearing stories about the game in the 1950s era.

"We were like best friends, or at least I thought he was my best friend," Bell said. "He spent so much time with me. I learned so much about the whole approach to the game, and, really, the love of the game came from him and the love and enjoyment of being around those teammates."

Buddy Bell, a senior advisor for the Reds since last winter and a former manager for three big league teams, recused himself from his son's interview process for obvious reasons. David quickly called him when he was offered the job.

"My first reaction was, 'God, I wish my dad was here.' Him and David were so close. He'd be really proud," Buddy said.

Finalists for broadcasters' Frick Award named By Matt Kelly MLB.com @mattkellyMLB Oct. 22nd, 2018

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced the ballot finalists for the 2019 Ford C. Frick Award, baseball's highest honor for broadcasters.

Pulling from the "Broadcasting Beginnings" category -- one of three eras considered in a year-to-year rotation -- the Hall of Fame announced the following eight finalists Monday: Connie Desmond, Pat Flanagan, Jack Graney, , Al Helfer, , Rosey Rowswell and Ty Tyson.

Final voting on these candidates will be conducted by an electorate comprised of the 11 living Frick Award recipients (, , Jaime Jarrin, , Denny Matthews, Tim McCarver, Jon Miller, , Vin Scully, Bob Uecker and Dave Van Horne) plus four baseball historians and columnists: David Halberstram, Barry Horn, Ted Patterson and Curt Smith. The winner will be announced Dec. 12 at the Winter Meetings in Las Vegas, and will be honored at next summer's Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony on July 20 as part of Induction Weekend in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Desmond called games for each of New York's three Major League teams from 1942-56. Flanagan was among the first to re-create road games from a ticker for Cubs broadcasts, and called the first MLB All-Star Game in 1933. Graney was the voice of the Indians for 21 seasons following his playing career in Cleveland. Heilmann, already in the Hall of Fame as a player, called Tigers games for 17 seasons from 1934-50. Helfer toured the Majors as a voice for eight different teams, and called a total of 14 no-hitters. Hoyt, a Hall of Fame , parlayed his career as a Yankee into successful broadcast work for the Reds. Rowswell was known to Pirates fans for 19 seasons. Tyson spent 22 in the Tigers' booth, and was one of baseball's first radio voices beginning in 1927.

Costas, now an MLB Network personality, is the most recent winner of the Frick Award, and was honored in Cooperstown this past July.

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER

How David Bell's experience as farm director will help him as the manager Bobby Nightengale, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 3:48 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 | Updated 4:08 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018

A year before David Bell spoke at his introductory press conference as the Cincinnati Reds’ newest manager, he wrestled with a decision to move from the to the front office.

Bell always had a goal of managing and described Monday as a dream come true. But last offseason, he was offered a different challenge. The wanted him to be their farm director and lead their player development staff.

Following a 12-year playing career, Bell spent four seasons in the Reds’ organization as a minor league manager. The next five years were on Major League coaching staffs, including three seasons as the St. Louis Cardinals’ bench coach. Moving into a front office? A completely new experience.

Bell was named San Francisco’s farm director in Oct. 2017 and he oversaw around 300 players and 80 staff members.

“I can tell you, running a player development department is not easy,” said Dick Williams, the Reds’ president of baseball operations. “It’s 24-7 and it is a real challenge. That really, to me, told me something about his determination and his ability to manage people in situations. When you take on a department head role like that, you’re dealing with a lot of situations that people don’t normally confront.”

It wasn’t easy to give up a bench coaching position, especially for a new challenge. Bell knew it would give him a different perspective on the game and he hoped it would help his prospects of earning his first Major League managerial gig.

With the hope of streamlining the Reds’ organization, Bell’s front office experience helped him stand out. The Reds interviewed more than a dozen candidates and president of baseball operations Dick Williams said the initial list had about 90 names.

“It was an incredible experience,” Bell said of his farm director job. “That makes me excited in this job to bridge that gap and make sure that everything being worked on in the front office is part of what we do on the field and all the way through player development and scouting. There’s a real edge to be had there.”

Former players with front office experience are part of the new trend of managerial hires whether it’s (Milwaukee), A.J. Hinch (Houston), (Philadelphia) or Brad Ausmus (), among others.

Bell’s dad, Buddy, is a special advisor with the Reds. The proud father remembers discussing the Giants’ farm director offer with his son last offseason.

“I was like, ‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ ” Buddy Bell said. “He was like, ‘It’ll help me be able to manage people more.’ You talk about the masses of people that you have to take care of is incredible. At the end of the day, I thought it was a good move just because of that. I always felt like he wanted to manage at some point, but I also think he sort of fell in love with that job too.”

Near the start of Bell’s opening press conference Monday, he started buttoning a No. 25 uniform over his dress shirt and looked toward the sea of cameras.

“Wow,” he said to himself twice. He will become the 63rd manager in franchise history, wearing the same number that his grandfather, Gus, and his dad wore during their playing days with the Reds.

Owner , Williams and general manager Nick Krall discussed all the traits that they saw in Bell as a manager, believing he can help pull the organization out of a stretch of four consecutive 90-loss seasons.

“We want to win,” Krall said. “This isn’t a, 'We want to compete,' it’s to win. This is something where taking a guy like this, we feel it should help us.”

Bell has experience at all levels of the sport. He embraces the analytics and the way the game has evolved in recent seasons. Those around him are confident he has everything he needs to succeed.

“We’re going to use information, all resources, all the great people in this organization to do everything we can to be excellent in the way we prepare and the way we compete every day in every of every game,” Bell said. “We’re going to play hard.

“Most importantly, we’re going to be a team. Not just on the field but throughout the entire organization. We’re going to be aligned and work together and we’re going to make each other better. That’s the difference.”

Cincinnati Reds: Keeping it all in the Bell family John Fay, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 3:24 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018 | Updated 4:07 p.m. ET Oct. 22, 2018

The Reds named David Bell manager Monday. But they might as well have named Gus Bell.

“We were like like best friends – at least I thought he was my best friend,” David said. “He spent so much time with me. I learned so much about the game. The love of the game, the love of being around your teammates in the '50s."

Gus is David’s grandfather, the first generation of the Bell family. Buddy, David’s dad and one of six Bell kids, was the only one who played baseball – at least successfully.

The coolest thing I got out of the press conference was that David’s son was named “Gus.”

“David, Gus,” The boy reminded me. His wife, Kristi, went to St. Ursula.

David played in the big leagues from 1995 to 2006. That first at-bat came in ’95 when Gus, the guy who 206 home runs and drove in 942, came up.

“I think dad was listening for first David's at-bat,” Buddy said. “They were so tight. They were so close. Dad was just hanging on.”

Bell is a good choice for the Reds manager. He’s been preparing for this job all his life. He’s been a coach, manager, a player. And he has a lot of relatives in the Cincinnati area.

“We’re pretty much all here,” Buddy said.

“I’m so grateful,” David said. “There was no thinking involved. With this team.”

“It’s something you think about. I’ve had a lot of different roles in this game. This is a job that I care tremendously about, Then to know where I might end up in Cincinnati…”

THE ATHLETIC

David Bell wants to align Reds organization, from front office to the field By C. Trent Rosecrans Oct 22, 2018

CINCINNATI – The manager’s office at Great American Ball Park is across a hallway from the team’s clubhouse and adjoins a staff meeting room, which is connected to the coaches’ locker room.

The Reds’ front office has offices upstairs in the building running along Second Street, with a bridge connecting it to the lobby outside the press box and then down the elevator to get to the clubhouse and the manager’s office.

That’s been sufficient for the entirety of the nearly 16-year history of the Reds’ home ballpark.

New Reds manager David Bell has asked Dick Williams, the team’s director of baseball operations, for an additional work space upstairs, to be to the off-season action.

Bell, 46, was named the Reds’ manager on Monday and like any other new manager, said he’d like to get to work right away.

Part of that will be assembling a coaching staff, something Bell said he would be starting on Monday, and other parts will be working with the Reds’ front office.

Bell spent the last year as the Giants’ vice president of player development, his first year inside a front office after spending the previous years in uniform – as a minor-league manager, and at the big-league level, an assistant hitting coach, third-base coach and bench coach.

“It makes me more well-rounded going through that,” Bell said Monday. “I learned a lot in the last year. You’re managing almost 300 players and a lot of staff, constantly developing, having conversations and bringing out the best in people. Also setting up an alignment so there’s consistency throughout the organization. It’s really important.”

Bell will move his family to Cincinnati, and while it came off as parochial, it’s actually practical for the type of synergy he wants to have with the team’s front office. Moving here will be good for his family and it helps that both he and his wife, Kristi, are from Cincinnati and their kids will be close to their grandparents. It also keeps him in Cincinnati during the offseason, when decisions on the roster and other issues are made.

Williams introduced Bell on Monday and read off a list of attributes the Reds were looking for in the new manager:

“Experience managing people and teams, experience playing and coaching in a big-league dugout and communication and leadership skills, dedication to the community that we and our fans live in, a sincere appreciation for the history of our franchise and a vision to where we can take it,” Williams said while introducing Bell. “The ability to unify the message to the players throughout our organization as to what it means to be a Red and what it means to be successful both as a player and a person. But probably the single most important trait that we wanted was someone who could use all available tools at our collective disposal to maximize the performance and value of each player as an individual while also maximizing the performance of the team as a unit.”

Bell was also interviewed by the Rangers and the Blue Jays for their open positions. Bell said since he started managing at Double- A Carolina in 2009, he knew he wanted to be a manager. To do it at home? That was a dream. A dream that he couldn’t turn down when he got that offer last week.

But he said he’s also optimistic about the team he’s inheriting. He spent four years in the Reds’ minor-league system, then worked the next five years at the big-league level in the , first with the Cubs and then with the Cardinals.

Bell’s optimistic the team can escape the current trend of 90-plus-loss seasons, “soon.”

“Because of the core,” he said. “The core – when I say that, I mean the position players, but I also see a core of that if the right combination gets put in place, it could surprise a lot of people. I think it’s a good group of young pitchers and some veterans, too.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I want to be with this group and then you look at the player development system, and I learn more about that every day, we’re set up for the long term.”

It didn’t hurt that Reds CEO Bob Castellini told The Athletic on Monday that his team would have a record-payroll for the 2019 and “we’re going to get the pitching.”

Castellini at one point came over to shake Bell’s hand as he headed out of the room, interrupting Bell’s interview with The Athletic.

Castellini expressed his happiness with Bell’s hiring and his optimism for future success.

“You can have a big part in that,” I said, “by getting him players.”

“We’re going to do that,” Castellini said to me. “I told you that.”

Baseball has moved away from the monocratic manager over the last several years to a model utilizing input from the front office. We’ve seen managers with World Series rings, like fellow candidates Joe Girardi and , fired and relative newcomers take their place.

Those less experienced managers haven’t had less success. Three of the four managers in the league championship series this year were in their first jobs. The fourth, Houston’s A.J. Hinch, was one of the first of the new breed of managers to be hired without previous managing experience.

Bell, compared to those four managers – Hinch, Boston’s , Los Angeles’ David Roberts and Milwaukee’s Craig Counsell – actually has more experience than any of them before his first managerial position.

Hinch had four-plus years in the front office before he was hired as the Diamondbacks manager in 2009 to replace by , now the A’s manager. (When Hinch was hired, then-Diamondbacks pitching coach Bryan Price resigned before joining the Reds in the same position for the next season.)

Cora had one year as Hinch’s bench coach after four years of broadcasting experience when he was hired by the Red Sox to replace Farrell. Roberts had two years as a bench coach, three years as a third-base coach and a year as a broadcaster and another as a special assistant before he was hired by the Dodgers. Counsell worked three years in the Brewers’ front office before he was hired as their manager.

All four of those managers, like Bell, were born in the early-to-mid ’70s, making them anywhere from 43 (Cora) to 48 (Counsell). That puts them near the sweet spot of having played at the same time as maybe some of the oldest players, but not been contemporaries of many. They also all came of age during the advent of analytics.

A recent survey by The Athletic showed the Reds’ analytic department of 11 full-time staffers ranks as one of the largest in the game. Bell was questioned during the interview process about using analytics and how he’d implement them as part of his managerial style.

“We’re going to do everything we can to create every edge we can,” Bell said during his press conference. “We’re going to be excellent in how we prepare. Like Dick mentioned, we’re going to use information, all the resources, all the great people we have in this organization to do everything we can to be excellent in the way we prepare and the way we compete every single day and every single inning of every game and we’re going to play hard. But most importantly, we’re going to be a team, not just on the field, but through the entire organization. We’re going to be aligned and make each other better.”

How the Reds whittled 90 names for manager down to David Bell By C. Trent Rosecrans Oct 22, 2018

CINCINNATI – David Bell’s name was one of more than 90 that sat in a spreadsheet kept by Dick Williams, the man ultimately charged with picking the new Reds manager.

This list wasn’t born April 19 when Williams, the Reds president of baseball operations, fired Bryan Price following a 3-15 start to the 2018 season. It may have been shorter then and had less urgency, but it had existed for years.

Manager positions aren’t akin to Supreme Court assignments, they’re much closer to drummers in a rock band – essential while they’re there, but utterly (and often) replaceable.

That’s why even before Price was hired, there was a list. The list is a living document and an important one.

Williams said at the time Price was fired the team would do a full and exhaustive search for the next manager, something that hadn’t been done in Redsland for years. Price was the only person interviewed after the firing of in 2013. Baker and Joe Girardi were interviewed in 2007. The two managers before that, and , were interim managers who had the interim tag removed.

The last Reds manager hired after a full search was in 2001, who took over after and turned down the job.

The Reds did their homework throughout the 2018 season on the “90-plus” names, talking to people in the industry, checking references, doing homework, shedding names along the way. The team couldn’t contact the vast majority of the candidates until at least the end of the season. That’s when teams are allowed to ask other teams for permission to interview those still under contract.

Between April 19 and the end of September, the front office compiled a list of the traits they wanted in a manager. It came to around 20, and they’d looked for as many of them as possible in a potential manager. The list included managing in the big leagues, coaching in the big leagues, playing in the big leagues, an appreciation of the Reds’ history, a vision for the future, the ability to unify the message not just of the big-league team, but throughout the season, familiarity with advanced analytics and so on. That informal list was transferred to a whiteboard as the season wore on, written in dry erase, guiding the search to come.

The timing – and the decision to stick with holding a full search despite some outside pressure to hire interim manager Jim Riggleman full-time – allowed the Reds to jump on the interview process as soon as the season ended. That last week of the season, the Reds had asked for permission to interview candidates and even schedule travel plans.

The interview process started in Miami, on the Reds’ final road trip of the season, when three coaches on staff got their interviews – bench coach , first base coach Freddie Benavides and third base coach . Reds scout John Farrell interviewed the weekend of the season’s final homestead. Riggleman then interviewed on the Monday after the season.

More candidates followed. Bell, former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and former Tigers manager Brad Ausmus in the first week. The second week saw Rays bench coach , Giants bench coach Hensley Meulens, Pirates bench coach Tom Prince and Rays coach .

Williams noted they talked to “a couple” more candidates, but only those 12 came into Cincinnati to interview in person.

Each day started the same – the candidates would stay at the Queen City Club, a short walk from Great American Ball Park, but also an out-of-the-way, unexpected place that wouldn’t bring much attention. Williams would pick them up around 9 a.m., grab some coffee with them and then start the interview process.

They’d meet in groups and the Reds front office group had a packet about 20 pages deep with the questions they wanted to ask – not rat-a-tat one after the other, but things they wanted to make sure they touched on in their conversations.

The group usually included Williams, General Manager Nick Krall, Vice Presidents Sam Grossman and Buddy Bell, as well as Jeff Graupe, the senior director for player personnel. Sometimes former general manager and current adviser Walt Jocketty and others would join. Bell recused himself from his son’s interview.

Those interviews were recorded on video, which CEO Bob Castellini reviewed and were also used as a reference, especially when preparing for the second round of interviews.

“It wasn’t listed topics, but we’d go from areas like to an area like pitching philosophies. You’d jump around,” Williams said. “You’d go as deep as you could, spend as much time as you could with that candidate as you could. Then we’d have a breakout that was a more analytical group to have them talk to and get more perspectives.”

The group would go back to the Queen City Club for lunch, back to the ballpark for more interviews and then back to the Queen City Club for dinner.

“By like the sixth or seventh time there, I was like, ‘whatever your special is, I’ll have it, because it’s the only thing I haven’t had,'” Williams joked.

Each member of the Reds interviewing group had their own scouting report on their candidates, each with their own ranking.

“It wasn’t like college football where you had a poll,” Williams noted.

Williams said he wanted everyone to keep their notes to themselves before the end of the first round because he didn’t want it influenced by groupthink.

The individual lists looked similar after the two weeks of interviews, and Bell, Girardi and Ausmus were brought back for second interviews.

Each of those candidates arrived at the Queen City Club to find an information packet sitting in their room for the next day. The packet contained a preview of questions to come, points of emphasis. It wasn’t a pop quiz, it was a take-home test. The Reds didn’t want to test their memory or thinking on their feet – preparation is a huge part of managing, as is taking in all the reports given to a manager before a game or a series and finding the best way to win.

The candidates also met with other parts of the organization, including ownership, the business office and the training staff.

Girardi was the last of the three in the second round to interview, that coming on Oct. 18.

As the Reds front office group discussed the three, Girardi withdrew his name (and it was later reported that he also withdrew his name from consideration from the Rangers’ opening). By that Friday night, Bell had gotten a call offering him the job – the only offer that was made in the search. He accepted and signed his contract Saturday. The hiring was announced on Sunday morning and at 11 a.m. Monday, there sat the new Reds manager at Great American Ball Park with a hat and his jersey, No. 25 – the one worn by his father with the Reds from 1985 to 1987 and by his grandfather from 1952 to 1961. It was, as he later noted, home.

After a long introduction by Williams, Bell put on the jersey, posed for pictures with Castellini, Williams and Krall and then sat down. Before saying anything else, he said, perhaps not realizing just how close he was to the microphone – “Wow.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Family affair: Rebuilding Reds pick David Bell to lead them By JOE KAY yesterday

CINCINNATI (AP) — David Bell buttoned his Reds jersey with the No. 25, the same one worn by his grandfather and his father. Buddy Bell stood in the back of the room, watching the scene as a proud papa. In the front row was young Gus Bell, named for the grandfather who was a star in Cincinnati.

The Reds reached into their family roots for their next manager, one who is expected to help lead the club out of its rebuilding doldrums.

David Bell was introduced as the Reds’ 63rd manager on Monday in the city where he grew up. How much he succeeds will depend upon the front office, which hasn’t been able to translate its high-profile trades into on-field success.

The Reds hope that having a member of an esteemed Cincinnati baseball family in the dugout will get fans’ attention for at least the short-term. Gus Bell played for the Reds from 1953-61 and is in their Hall of Fame. Buddy Bell was a popular player with the Reds from 1985-88. Now David has a third-generation place on the field.

“I used to go and watch his grandfather play,” owner Bob Castellini said. “His grandfather’s namesake is in the front row, little Gus.

“He brings a Cincinnati tradition back to us. The Bell family is a Cincinnati family.”

The city’s last shining baseball moment came in 2015, when it hosted the All-Star Game. The franchise then embarked on a massive overhaul, trading away most of its stars — including Todd Frazier, who won the All-Star Home Derby. The team had little to show for it at the major league level, losing 94, 94 and 95 games each of the last three seasons, its worst stretch since the Great Depression .

Attendance also has fallen each year. The Reds drew only 1.6 million fans last season, their smallest since 1984 at when they lost 92 games, fired and brought back — another Cincinnati native — as player-manager.

The starting rotation has been the main thing holding them back. Dick Williams, the director of player personnel, said at season’s end that the Reds will be looking to add veteran starters in the offseason, a departure from the last few years when they counted heavily on young pitchers to grow into jobs.

Bell was one of more than a dozen candidates interviewed, including Joe Girardi. Jim Riggleman, who took over on an interim basis when Bryan Price was fired in April, also was interviewed. Hall of Fame , another Cincinnati native, wasn’t interested in interviewing.

Bell’s experience with the franchise was a significant factor in his favor. He was a manager in the Reds’ minor league system for four years. He also was the Cubs’ third base coach, ’s bench coach in St. Louis and vice president for player development in San Francisco.

He always hoped to return someday.

“This city just means so much to me and my family,” he said. “This is something I’ve thought about for a long time and been preparing for for a long time.

“This time, we’re moving home.”

The Reds started his managing career. Bell played 12 seasons in the majors with the Indians, Cardinals, Mariners, Giants, Phillies and Brewers. When he retired, the Reds offered him a chance to manage at Double-A. Bell quickly decided that’s what he wanted to do next.

“Right away, I fell in love with it,” Bell said.

Buddy Bell was hired as a senior adviser in 2017. He was part of the manager search process but recused himself from discussions and interviews with his son.

Buddy Bell managed the Tigers, Rockies and Royals. He and David become the fourth father-son duo to manage in the majors, joining George and , Bob and , and Bob and . Bob Boone managed the Reds, and Aaron played for them.

The front office is aware it needs to show fans that things are changing after years of trading away stars and talking about the young players’ development. It spent a lot of time adding to scouting and the minor league system.

“We have to translate those accomplishments to success at the major league level,” Williams said.

DAYTON DAILY NEWS

David Bell: Reds fans will be proud of team he puts on the field Reds introduce Moeller grad as 63rd manager in franchise history Updated 20 hours ago By David Jablonski, Staff Writer

CINCINNATI — A story that began on Oct. 14, 1952, when the traded Gus Bell to the Cincinnati Reds for , and Joe Rossi added a new chapter Monday when Bell’s grandson, David Bell, became the 63rd manager of the oldest franchise in .

The Bell family has had deep roots in Cincinnati since the days of Gus, who played nine seasons in the Queen City and made the National League All-Star team four times. Buddy Bell, who turned 2 years old during his dad’s first season with the Reds, joined the Reds in 1985 and played three seasons in Cincinnati.

Now David, 46, who already had some history in the organization as a minor-league manager with Double-A Carolina (2009-11) and Triple-A Louisville (2012), gets a chance to add to the family legacy. No one would have enjoyed seeing this story continue more than Gus, his son Buddy said Monday after the Reds introduced David in a press conference at Great American Ball Park.

“When (David) called me the other day and told me they had offered him the job, my first reaction was, ‘I wish my dad was here,’ ” Buddy said. “Him and David were so close. He’d be really proud, but I think he’d also be nervous at the same time. I came back here (as a player), and I don’t know if he was happy or sad. It’s the toughest thing to watch your kid play. But it’s the greatest thing as well.”

David Jablonski ✔ @DavidPJablonski Buddy Bell: His Dad Gus would be very proud of David. #Reds

11:42 AM - Oct 22, 2018 · Cincinnati, OH

Here are four highlights of Monday’s press conference:

1. Big challenge: Bell takes over a franchise mired in five straight losing seasons and four straight last-place finishes in the National League Central Division.

The Reds also haven’t developed the young pitching that would point to a recovery anytime soon. They finished 67-95 last season and haven’t topped 70 wins since 2014. This is a franchise that hasn’t won a postseason series since 1995 or a World Series since 1990, the year Bell graduated from Moeller High School.

“What we’re going to focus on are things we can control,” Bell said. “The way we prepare, the way we compete, the way we take care of each other and do everything as a team. The talent will take care of itself. The city’s going to be really happy and proud to watch how we go about it on the field.”

2. Owner’s reaction: Bob Castellini, the Reds chief executive officer, spoke at the press conference along with Bell and President of Baseball Operations Dick Williams and General Manager Nick Krall.

Castellini said a friend told him David is a tough guy who’s soft spoken.

“He’s tougher than people think,” Castellini said. “He’s smart. He’s done everything in baseball. He’s been a player, a coach. He’s been player-development person. I like the way he handled himself. He’s a one-on-one person. Those are comments a very astute baseball friend of mine passed on to me.”

3. Giving thanks: Bell replaces interim manager Jim Riggleman, one of more than a dozen people to interview for the job. In his opening remarks at the press conference, Williams thanked Riggleman and his staff for the job he did after replacing Bryan Price in April.

“Back in April, we asked Jim to step up and assume the interim manager role and guide this team for the rest of the year,” Williams said. “He’s a real pro. He and Danny Darwin and Pat Kelly took on roles they didn’t expect to have.”

4. Managing style: Bell is the son of a former big-league manager. Buddy now works in the Reds front office but previously managed with the , and . They are the fourth father-son duo to serve as big- league managers.

However, Bell picked up just as much about the game from the numerous managers he played under during 12 seasons in (1995-2006). He mentioned , , , Dusty Baker, and Charlie Manuel as managers who have influenced the way he coaches.

“They were all different,” Bell said. “They all had unbelievable strengths. As a player, you watch things. The most important thing is to be yourself. You find out what’s going to work for you. You see things maybe you want to do different. It was an incredible opportunity to play for each and every one of those guys.”

REDLEG NATION

Bell Hire: The Reds ran a great process | Steve Mancuso 10/22/2018

Before we get to the merits of the David Bell hire, let’s pause a minute to talk process.

Of course, with most billion-dollar businesses, this aspect would be a foregone conclusion. But as we learned with the last manager search, not so much for the Reds.

Dick Williams’ recent pursuit of a new manager began in April when they fired Bryan Price. Williams said they formulated a list of 20 criteria for the new manager, but the “single most important trait” was whether the manager “could use all available tools at our collective disposal to maximize the performance and value of each player as an individual, while also maximizing the performance of the team as a unit.”

That sentence alone should bring smiles to Reds fans.

Williams said his staff began with a list of over 90 candidates and spent months conducting a thorough, time-consuming background vetting process. They worked diligently to construct and structure the interview questions. You wouldn’t go through all this if you were going to hire David Bell all along.

The Reds talked to 12 candidates we know of, but Williams said today they “sat down with more than a dozen” so there might have been a couple we don’t know about. That’s to be expected with certain candidates who might not want their current employers or the public to know they were interested in another job. While the Reds interviewed four people who could be classified as internal, and John Farrell who was sort of internal but not really, more than half of the contenders were external candidates.

They talked to prospective skippers with a wide range of experiences, from established guys who had won World Series, to several who were younger, coming out of coaching staffs. David Bell was VP of Player Development for the Giants. The names in the Reds search seemed to track those questioned by other organizations.

The current process stands in stark contrast to the hiring of Bryan Price. Walt Jocketty interviewed just one person and announced that he’d heard enough. A little more than a year ago, I wrote this about the value of conducting a broad interview process and the opportunity missed in the fall of 2013:

“At a minimum, the front office could have used a broad search to hear the strengths and weaknesses of their own organization from the perspective of others, as well as learn new best practices of winning clubs. Listening to a half-dozen smart outsiders offer detailed analyses of the Reds roster could have helped break down their bias toward the familiar and reveal blind spots. For an organization with a recent history of insularity, there would have been gigantic value in hearing how other successful organizations operated. But the Castellini-Jocketty team, looking ever inward, didn’t care. They cut the process short, hired Bryan Price, and seemed proud of the brevity.”

Dick Williams put it this way today:

“We learned a lot about our selves and our team. And I think that’s an important part of the process. You have to go into these interviews willing to ask tough questions and willing to look in the mirror. It was a very enlightening process to go through.”

Bryan Price might have been the right guy for 2014. Point is, the Reds had no real way to know that at the time.

If the Reds hadn’t hired Price as manager, reporting indicated another club would have. There was a case to be made for continuity in the 2014 clubhouse, coming off 93 wins in 2013. Price knew the team and the front office knew it was largely going to go with the same roster the following season.

Bryan Price’s teams fell victim to injuries, roster shedding and mismanagement. But the Reds missed an enormous opportunity to listen to a wide range of other people, to make sure that Price was the best they could do. If nothing else, they could have listened to a bunch of smart people break down the Reds organization. The 2013 process was a lazy, embarrassing, clueless disaster.

Dick Williams said early on that he wanted to name a manager by the end of October. He stuck the landing.

Yesterday and today were chosen for the announcement and press conference because of the two-day lull in postseason games. The Reds were ready to go. Not all the other organizations searching for managers were. The Reds probably had Bell locked up earlier in the weekend, right before reports started circulating about candidates “withdrawing” and being told they weren’t going to get the job. You don’t start doing that until you know you have your guy in place. Today is Oct. 22, comfortably ahead of the self-imposed timeline.

The 2018 process Dick Williams ran was a welcome breath of maximum professionalism, the product of long hours and much thought, befitting a billion-dollar business. Again, this should go without needing to mention, but not here.

Whether the Reds landed on the right guy as their manager is another issue. Meanwhile, they should be congratulated for running a first-rate process.

Transactions

10/22/18 signed free agent OF Victor Mesa to a minor league contract. Miami Marlins signed free agent OF Victor Mesa Jr. to a minor league contract.