Heath Bell's First Pitch With the Diamondbacks Was a Homer That Smacked a Lady in the Face

Among the things Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers took some heat for this off-season was trading for 35-year-old reliever Heath Bell (and the remainder of his gigantic contract) after a miserable season pitching for the Miami Marlins.Bell's debut with the Diamondbacks Tuesday night could not have gotten much worse...

By Matthew Hendley

April 3, 2013

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Among the things Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers took some heat for this off-season was trading for 35-year-old reliever Heath Bell (and the remainder of his gigantic contract) after a miserable season pitching for the Miami Marlins.

Bell's debut with the Diamondbacks Tuesday night could not have gotten much worse -- his very first pitch was a home run that smacked a lady square in the face, and a guy who appeared to be this woman's husband cowered behind her.

See also:
-Arizona Diamondbacks Crushed By St. Louis Cardinals in 6-1 Loss
-Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers' "Moneyball" Strategy Isn't Madness

Check out the video below of the 440-foot blast to center off Bell by the St. Louis Cardinals' Pete Kozma (his third career homer, and the man who gets scared by the ball that hits his apparent wife:

And here's the breakdown (thanks to MLB.com):

While contemplating whether this was more embarrassing for Bell or the guy whose wife got hit in the face, Bell proceeded to walk the next batter, then give up a homer to Jon Jay (his 19th career home run), before giving up a double to Matt Carpenter, striking out Matt Holiday, and giving up a single to Allen Craig -- a slight victory for Bell on the embarrassment scale.

Bell was then pulled from the game, starting off his season with an earned-run average of 81.00, as the D-backs lost to the Cardinals by a score of 6-1.

As erstwhile D-backs color analyst Mark Grace would say, Thanks fer nothin'.

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