Lester Rowland "Les" Bell born: 12-14-1901, died: 12-26-1985
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Les Bell played in the Majors for nine seasons on three different teams. From 1923 to 1927 he played mostly third base for the St. Louis Cardinals. In his first two years, he only played in a total of 32 games. In 1925, when Howard Freigaw, the regular third baseman was traded to the Cubs, Les move into the starting lineup and batted .285 with 11 home runs and 88 RBIs. His best season was in 1926 when he hit 17 round-trippers, 100 RBIs, and ended with a .325 batting average. That was the same year that St. Louis beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. In the World Series Les had 7 hits and 6 RBIs.
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Les playing time dropped off in 1927 and he was traded to the Boston Braves before the 1928 season began. He played in 153 games at third base in 1928 and 139 games in 1929 and had a .277 and .298 batting average respectively. However, the Braves placed him on waivers and the Chicago Cubs picked him up.
Unfortunately for Les, in 1930, Woody was having his best year playing third base so Les only got into 74 games. In 1931, Woody moved back over to short stop and Les shared the third base duties with Billy Jurges. In 74 games, he hit for .282. The following year, Les was purchased by Louisville of the American Association.
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