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Today In Brewer History: Happy Birthday, Jerry Bell

On this day in 1947, Jerry Houston Bell was born in Madison, Tennessee. He was 21 years old when the Seattle Pilots selected him in the second round of the 1969 January draft and two years later he made his major league debut as a member of the Brewers, joining the team as a September callup.

Bell played parts of four seasons in Milwaukee between 1971 and 1974, working primarily as a reliever but making 25 starts in 1973. He was really pretty effective (3.28 ERA in 283 innings), but he was sent back to the minors after five appearances in 1974 and had an awful season, moving himself off the big league radar. He was done as a major leaguer at age 26, and pitched just one more year in the minors.

While he was with the team, though, Bell was pretty good. Among pitchers with at least 250 major league innings, only six Brewers have lower career ERAs:

Pitcher IP ERA
Ken Sanders 321 2.21
Rollie Fingers 259 2.54
Bill Castro 411 2.96
Mike Fetters 334.1 2.99
Bob Wickman 315 3.20
Dan Plesac 524.1 3.21
Jerry Bell 283 3.28

Bell turns 64 today. With help from the B-Ref Play Index, we'd also like to wish a happy birthday to: