Ring My Bell

The Phillies come to Seattle for a three-game series beginning tonight, and so Philadelphia's David Bell, the Mariners' last competent third baseman, will be here for his first return engagement at Safeco.

After the Mariners 116-win season in 2001, team management decided that Bell, with his modest .260 batting average and 15 home runs, was the team's weak link. The Mariners traded him to San Francisco and signed Jeff Cirillo to play third base.

In 2002, Cirillo hit .249 with 6 home runs in 2002.

In 2003, he hit .205 with 2 home runs.

So the Mariners signed Scott Spiezio to play third base.

He hit .215 with 10 home runs.

This offseason, the M's spent $64 million to sign Adrian Beltre.

Beltre is hitting .244 with 5 home runs, and will likely miss this series because of a hamstring injury.

All of these players were stars before coming to the Mariners. Only Bell was immune to the curse of the M's hot corner. If we could only discover his secret.