San Diego Padres Closer Heath Bell Excited About All Star Invitation, Even If It Pisses Some People Off
July 9, 2009 – 6:00 am by Michael Bean
The starters and reserves for the 2009 Major League Baseball All Star game have been announced and San Diego Padres closer has made the squad. Bell, who leads the National League with 23 saves in 24 opportunities, joins teammate Adrian Gonzalez as the only Padres to make the squad in what has been a fairly dismal season for San Diego thus far. Bell joined XX 1090 in San Diego to talk about getting the necessary votes to represent the Padres, how he plans to have a ball at the weekend festivities and how he thinks the media is partly to blame for so many smaller market stars going unnoticed despite their accomplishments.
On whether or not he was surprised to get selected?
“I’m really, really happy but I was not that surprised because I was leading the National League and tied with the Major Leagues (in saves) but I was going to get really upset if I didn’t make it.”
On how he plans to take advantage of the accomplishment and really have a blast out there, even if it may offend some people:
“I don’t think everyone realized what they did, voting me into the All Star Game because we’re going to have some major fun there. I’m not going to say I’m going to piss off some people but I’m going to go out there and have a blast and I don’t think the guys that make the All Star Game year in and year out realize what they did because I’m going to go out there and have fun every moment I’m out there.”
On how he might potentially piss other players off?
“I think I’m going to try and jump in the Home Run Derby…I got the Mexican flag for Adrian when he’s in the Home Run Derby.”
On playing in a small market:
“Santana or Carlos Beltran, when they were in their small market clubs, people knew about them but they weren’t this huge mega star and this and that. When they went to this club, they just put up the exact same numbers they did in the small market, everybody knows who they are because you see highlights and highlights of them. You didn’t see any highlights when we were playing the Dodgers last weekend, you basically just saw Manny and his highlights and you didn’t see any of ours. That’s basically the press’s doing right there, going up there and not promoting everybody, that’s just promoting who they want.”
On promoting the Padres:
“I never wanted to go out there and promote myself, I just wanted to promote the team and try to get the San Diego Padres some recognition and get us some highlights here and there. That’s all I’m trying to do. We’re kind of in the entertainment business you could say. I’m just going to go out there and try not to tick anybody off but get to that fine line. A lot of people don’t say that, well ESPN doesn’t show any of our highlights. Well, it’s true but a lot of people don’t want to do that because ESPN will be negative and they won’t talk to them or this and that. You know what, I’m not going out there and trying to promote myself like I said, I’m trying to promote my guys and my team out there. I think sometimes they’ll talk about me, they’re like, “Hey there’s this crazy guy in San Diego right there,” and all of a sudden, people are thinking, “San Diego? The Padres?” They start thinking about it. I stirred things up earlier in the year and everybody was talking about us for a while.”
On the talent level on the team:
“If we had Jake Peavy still pitching and Chris Young, we have 4 quality pitchers. We got hit with a little injury. If we were at .500, we’d be like 2 or 3 out of the wild card right now. I think after the All Star break we can make a push for the wild card. We’re not that far out of that.”
Listen here to Bell on XX 1090 in San Diego
Tags: Heath Bell, MLB All Star Game, San Diego Padres, XX 1090
