When the Bellingham Bells’ season kicks off on May 31 against the Edmonton Riverhawks, they’ll have a new face in charge. The Bells, who compete in the West Coast League, consisting of collegiate baseball players getting in extra work during their respective teams’ off-seasons, hired Bob Ralston to replace departing head coach Jim Clem.
“I was actually coaching at St. Mary’s College and Stephanie, the general manager, she got a hold of our head coach Greg Moore and she asked if he knew anybody that would be interested possibly in the manager job,” Ralston said in a phone call with the Bellingham Herald. “And he recommended me, so that’s how I got the opportunity to interview, and go through the process.”
Ralston joins the Bells after 30 years of coaching baseball across the youth, high school, college and minor league levels. Most notably, he led Cal State East Bay’s baseball program for five years, including a school-record 33-win season in 2016. His wide range of experience is what made him stand out over all the other candidates the Bells considered, according to general manager Stephanie Morrell.
“I liked his experience,” Morrell said over the phone. “He had experience at literally every level. He coached a 12 [and under] travel team this year just for something to do, but he’s also done [Division] I, [Division] II and Minor League Baseball.”
For all his experience across nearly every level of baseball, Ralston hasn’t coached a collegiate summer league team before. But he’s not too worried about the adjustment.
“I coached in the minor leagues as a manager, so it’s probably pretty similar to coaching a minor league team because you play everyday, you’re on the bus, you’re competing everyday,” Ralston said.
2024 Bells roster
While the Bells’ coaching staff will look different this season, their roster will look familiar to anyone who watched the team in 2023, with 13 players returning from last year’s squad.
“We’re returning a few more guys than normal this year,” Morrell said. “Normally, it’s more like four to five.”
According to Morrell, convincing players to return can be very difficult in collegiate summer baseball.
“The nature of the beast with college baseball is that it’s really an experience. So our college coaches that we work with at the NCAA level, they like their guys to have a little bit of a different experience every year. So getting a multi-year player is pretty rare,” Morrell said.
Even more rare is getting a player who returns for all four summers of their collegiate career. That’s what Ryan Beitel, a fourth-year pitcher at the University of British Columbia, will do when he returns to the Bells this year. Beitel first agreed to join the team for a ten-day trial during the summer of 2021, but he’s stuck with the team ever since.
“I had to fly to Seattle and take the charter bus down, because the border was closed. … I just never left, to be honest. The 10-day extended out for the full summer,” Beitel said. “I had the most fun I’ve had playing summer ball probably through my whole career that year.”
“There’s quite a few returners that are pitchers. … They pitched extremely well so I’m looking forward to how we’ll do this year,” Beitel said. “I think we’ve got a good core of starters that are coming back, and relievers.”
The Bells also return catcher Colton Bower, who started 15 games for the University of Washington this season.
Morrell expects the Bells’ infield to be a strength too, with a pair of southern California stars making the trip north to join the team.
“We have UCLA’s shortstop [Roman Martin], we have USC’s second baseman [KaiKea Harrison]. Both of these guys hit over .300 in the Pac-12, and the Pac-12 is no slouch,” Morrell said.
The Bellingham Bells play at Joe Martin Field on June 24, 2021, in Bellingham, Wash. Warren Sterling The Bellignham Herald
Bellingham will host WCL all-star game
If any Bells players reach the West Coast League’s all-star game, they won’t have to travel very far – the game will be held in Bellingham on July 17. It will be the first WCL all-star game since 2019, after the league stopped holding the event during the pandemic.
Previously, the all-star game was a relatively small event, according to Morrell, with hosting duties rotating between each of the league’s teams. But when the WCL brought the all-star game back this season, it decided it wanted a higher-profile event.
“This year, the league decided… we really need to do an event. So what they did was they put out a bid process. They said that people could apply to host,” Morrell said.
Daniel Schrager is the service journalism reporter at the Bellingham Herald. He joined the Herald in February of 2024 after graduating from Rice University in 2023.Support my work with a digital subscription
