Bell’s an Angel on the Giants’ Shoulder

David Bell should be an Angel.

He plays like an Angel. Whatever the Giants need, Bell does it.

“From the time Dave came to the Giants,” teammate Rich Aurilia said, “he was the kind of guy who worked hard at everything and who tried to fit in immediately. You could just tell that the guy wanted to do things the right way and he always has.”

Bell should be an Angel.

He comes off the field with his uniform dirty and his hands bruised and bloodied.

Bell should be an Angel.

He’s making $1.75 million this year, which might be a lot to you and me but is small change to most major leaguers and the kind of small change the Angels love to pay for productive players.

Bell should be an Angel.

The way he goes after the game, hard and smart, with everything he does for a purpose, with every move he makes for a reason, earned Bell the 2002 Willie McCovey Award.

This is important because the award is voted on by his teammates, coaches and training staff and it goes to the player considered the most inspirational. Bell, 30, is an eight-year veteran of the majors but in his first season with the Giants. It’s not easy for a new guy, one who’s not a star, who’s the No. 8 hitter, who steps into a clubhouse not known for its camaraderie and is chosen as the guy who works the hardest and best and who earns the admiration of his teammates.

“But that’s how Dave is,” catcher Benito Santiago said. “He does things the right way.”

Bell should be an Angel for then he wouldn’t have beaten them Wednesday night.

Facing Francisco Rodriguez, the extraordinary 20-year-old Anaheim relief pitcher, Bell did something no one had been able to do so far in the postseason. Give Rodriguez a loss.

In the bottom of the eighth, in a game tied 3-3, in a World Series the Giants trailed 2-1, on a 1-0 fastball, Bell singled to center. J.T. Snow, who had led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a passed ball, scored the winning run on Bell’s well-hit, well-placed single.

“I was just trying to get a pitch I could handle and hit it hard,” Bell said. “He’s had a lot of success so far. He’s done a great job for these guys. But for us, to get a win tonight was so important and I think for us to get a run off him was important too.”

This made up for a sin of commission Bell had made earlier. With his team already behind 3-0 and with the Series maybe slipping away, Bell led off the sixth inning by cracking a sizzling line drive near the left-field line off Ben Weber, who had just come in to relieve starter John Lackey.

Garret Anderson zeroed in quickly on the ball and stopped it from going to the wall. Bell knew he had hit a shot. “I never hit a ball like that, that wasn’t a double,” Bell said. He thought this was a double too and headed to second. But it was a single and Anderson threw Bell out at second.

“Garret did a great job of getting over and making a play,” Bell said. “I wish I would have stopped at first, but I’m glad we won the game. Otherwise I would have thought that might have cost us.”

It is that way Bell has, of owning up to a mistake and making up for the mistake by knocking in the winning run that has earned him so much respect from teammates.

“David came into spring training and we immediately saw what kind of work ethic he had,” Aurilia said. “He works hard. He goes down, gives everything he has every day.

“He’s a player who nobody really knows about in the National League, but he’s one of our MVPs this year. If you follow our team, what he did tonight, it wouldn’t surprise anybody. He’s come up with clutch hits all season.”

Bell joined the Giants this year after having been deemed expendable by the Mariners. It’s not as if Bell was the reason Seattle won 116 games last year and didn’t make the playoffs this year, but he is the kind of player who is often not appreciated until he’s gone.

So Bell should be an Angel because all he does is win. The Mariners apparently missed Bell more than they missed Ken Griffey Jr., or even Randy Johnson. Even in youth baseball, Bell won. His Cincinnati 15- and 16-year-old teams won national Mickey Mantle and Connie Mack titles and a year after that his Cincinnati Moeller high school team won the state title.

This isn’t a surprise. Bell is the grandson of a major league player (Gus) and the son of a major league player and manager (Buddy). Both his younger brothers play in the minor leagues.

Buddy had been fired earlier this season by Colorado and has spent significant time watching his son this year. Never in an obtrusive way, though. Always in the background, in the cheap seats, far away from being a bother or a point of focus.

“My dad,” Bell has said, “is my best friend.”

Bell should be an Angel because he’ll do anything. In 2000 for the Mariners, he played 81 games at third, 40 at second and even one at first. He’s Scott Spiezio, a man with a family history in the game and an appreciation for what being a teammate is.

Even last night, as Bell was being asked if maybe he gave Buddy grief because Buddy had never played in a World Series, Bell wouldn’t give the answer being requested, not even as a joke.

“My dad was a great player,” Bell said. “It’s no reflection on anything he did. It just shows how important being on a good team is and a team with a legitimate chance to win.”

Bell should be an Angel. He understands what’s important. The team. Nothing else.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Bell Ringer

San Francisco Giant third baseman David Bell, who drove in the decisive run in Game 4 of the World Series, is a third-generation major leaguer -- his father Buddy a third baseman in the 1970s and 1980s and grandfather Gus an outfielder in the 1950s and 1960s. Their career averages, per 162 games:

*--* DAVID BELL BUDDY BELL GUS BELL 8 Seasons (1995- ) 18 Seasons 15 Seasons (1950-64) (1972-89) St. Louis, Cleveland, Texas, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Cincinnati, N.Y. Mets, Milwaukee Seattle, San Fran Houston AB 540 606 603 R 69 78 80 H 138 169 170 2B 30 29 29 3B 2 4 6 HR 15 14 19 RBI 65 74 88 BA 256 279 281 SLG 402 406 445 BB 43 56 44 SO 80 52 59

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