1981 Donruss, Kevin Bell

#39 Kevin Bell

Next up is the former White Sox and A's player, Kevin Bell. It is hard to tell by the photo, but Kevin was once a first round draft pick. Who would have thought? Even more surprising is that he was drafted in the first round out of a junior college. Bryce Harper aside, how often does that happen?

Kevin was never able to live up to the first round hype (was there even first round hype in the '70s?). He had a decent rookie season with the Sox in 1976 when he hit .248 with 5 home runs and 20 RBI as the everyday third sacker for the second half of the season. Even more impressive than the 5 dingers was that he legged out 6 triples, as well. Unfortunately, those 230 at-bats that season were the most that he was ever going to see as a Major Leaguer. He got into more games in 1979 and 1980, but he never got more than 200 at-bats. He also never topped that .248 average as he finished his career a .222 hitter.

Kevin finished his Major League career in 1982 by playing in four games with the A's and going 1-9.

I sent this card to Kevin in November and I had it back ten days later.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 92/100