The Bell tolls for, uhm, Bell

I have a strange fascination with David Bell. (The Daily News does, too, but theirs has an explanation: his name is easy to put into witty headlines.) He appears to be the saddest player in professional baseball. Seriously, look at his official Phillies headshot:

Did somebody kick David Bell’s dog before they took this photo? What, his 4-year, $17 million contract with the Phillies isn’t enough to make him smile? He gets paid to play baseball. I’m smiling right now, and I just get paid to blog.

I don’t know what’s up. Maybe he needs some Wellbutrin.

Anyway, after making fun of him in the sidebar of my story in this week’s PW for grounding into an average of 13 double plays a game, he goes and hits a two-run single in today’s day game for the Phillies against the Mets up at Shea, which started without me noticing.

I expect Tomas Perez to hit me in the face with a pie next.

Update: Phillies win, 3-1, and are now undefeated in September and still atop the Wild Card standings.

Phillies-Mets Box Score [Y! Sports]
Game Thread - Mets vs. Phillies [PhilliesPhans.com]