“You just remember that day when you’re bright-eyed and green and you have no idea what pro ball is like,” said Cole, now a starter with Houston, last week at the All-Star Game in Cleveland. “And the first guy you meet is just this giant out of Texas that got $5 million and hits the ball 5,000 feet.”
The radar-mapped metrics might quibble with Cole’s measuring, but whether it’s 5,000 feet or 500 feet it’s still a home run and Bell has thundered his way into record books this season with, arguably, the most powerful first half in baseball.