Hamlet Nalbandyan
Since the age of 4, there was never any doubt: Baseball was going to
be Trevor Bell's pastime.
"This is it," said the recent Crescenta Valley High graduate,
pointing to the diamond at Stengel Field. "There's nothing else that
I've wanted to do."
The sportswriters and editors of the Glendale News-Press, Foothill
Leader and Burbank Leader understand what it's like to be so sure.
Because when it came time to naming the All-Area Player of the
Year in baseball, the choice was obvious. Bell, for the second
consecutive year, would be it, and no one else stood a chance.
Sure, the four-year Falcon standout didn't have the most wins in
the area as a pitcher, nor did he drive in the most runs or hit for
the highest average.
But as far as pure baseball talent went, Bell was in a league all
by himself.
That was reaffirmed on June 7, when the Los Angeles Angels of
Anaheim selected the 18-year-old fireballer with their first
selection in the 2005 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
By being the 37th player selected overall, Bell became the
second-highest local ever drafted by Major League Baseball --
Glendale Community College pitcher Kelly Lifgren was selected 31st
overall by the San Diego Padres in 1988 -- since the draft's
inception 40 years ago.
But the national media attention that soon followed wasn't the
only reason Bell was a no-brainer for this paper's top baseball
honor.
That list is ever-growing.
*
As a pitcher, Bell was dominant. He capped his senior season with
an 8-3 mark, despite pitching against the who's who of Crescenta
Valley's tough schedule.
Arcadia three times, Mater Dei, Riverside Poly, Tesoro, Long Beach
Wilson, Long Beach Poly, Hoover -- teams with strong resumes in CIF
-- were all, for the most part, baffled by Bell's right arm.
Against competition that featured a CIF champion, CIF runner-up
and three other teams that won 20-or-more games, Bell sported a
ridiculous earned-run average of 0.97 on the season. He struck out a
career-high 113 batters in 80 innings, while walking just 11.
And he did it all while being under a microscope.
Every time Bell took the hill, he was surrounded by professional
and college scouts, who were just as in awe of his mid-90s fastball
and sharp-breaking curveball as the throng of fans who came to watch
him pitch.
But pitching wasn't the only thing Bell did well.
At the plate, he struggled -- by his standards -- early on in the
season only to finish with an area-best eight home runs, which tied a
