Bill Bell pitched in four games for the 1952 Pittsburgh
Pirates and came back for one more inning with them in 1955. He was born in
North Carolina in 1933 and by the time he graduated from high school in 1951 he
had been signed by Branch Rickey for the Pirates. 1952 was easily his best
season, as he went 11-3 with a 2.09 ERA for the Bristol Twins of the Class D
Appalachian League despite walking 113 in 112 innings; he struck out 194 while
allowing just 60 hits. He then pitched in four games at Class B and his four games
in Pittsburgh. He missed the next two seasons in the military, then pitched his
one 1955 NL inning in April before being sent down to Class A. He was never the
same pitcher as he had been before his army stint, but the Pirates kept giving
him minor-league chances (and he kept walking between six and ten batters per nine innings) until releasing him in 1959. He died in 1962 of
injuries from an auto accident.
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