Story on high school baseball coach fighting ALS from May 6, 2012.
When they heard he was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease, 19 of
Howard Bell's
friends each threw $100 into a card and delivered it to his Springfield
house — to show their buddy that they would be there for him.
Dozens of times since that December day, strangers and friends
of the Glendale High School baseball coach have contributed to help Bell
fight this deadly disease, ALS, short for amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis.
It's a disease that gives anybody a moment of pause — a neurological disorder, and incurable.
But gifts like the one he received this past Tuesday mean just as much to Bell.
At Glendale, a sophomore gave the coach an envelope from her mother. In it, he found a letter and a coin.
The note detailed how Bell's guidance had changed the girl's life,
how his assurances and other positive messages made a difference.
The gold coin was meant to be passed to someone who has inspired you and made a difference in your life.
"I've never met this woman in my life," Bell said Wednesday, "and she gave it to me."
Then, the teenage girl and the 48-year-old baseball lifer hugged and cried together in the middle of a crowded school cafeteria.
But if anyone assumes that Bell is letting ALS brush him back in life without a fight, think again.
The coach is spending these days being positive, showing strength and giving hope.
Then again, what would you expect from a former overachieving
baseball player who survived a life-threatening car wreck? Or from
someone who, despite all the tough days, still jokes that he wooed his
high school sweetheart away from Brad Pitt, her middle school beau who
went on to be named the World's Sexiest Man by People magazine in 1995.
"We live very positive lives," Bell said. "I'm not going to sit here
and dwell on it. The one thing I'm not going to do is be a negative. I'm
going to be a positive, 24/7.
"I'm only going to worry about things I need to do, or things I can do to help other people."
This Tuesday will be Bell's final game as Glendale coach at Don
Provance Field. The regular season ends this week and district playoffs
start against Parkview on Saturday in Nixa.
It's the end of Bell's seven-year run as head coach, four of which
resulted in Ozark Conference championships. Through American Legion and
high school ball, this is Bell's 29th season involved in the Glendale
program.
How he musters the energy to keep fighting is inspiring.
Bell's voice is soft and his weight is down to 117 pounds. Monday,
Bell will have a feeding tube inserted through his abdomen wall.
"Some people look at the feeding tube as a last resort, but it's good and it's positive," said his wife, Kim.
"It will help his weight and his energy. And he'll be eating anything he wants."
Specialists at the University of Kansas Medical Center have said a
patient likely has six months to two years to live once breathing levels
deteriorate to 50 percent, Kim said.
Bell's levels are not yet that low, but are dropping.
But friends and family say it's not changing Bell's attitude.
"If there's a guy who could have a chip on a shoulder, it's Howard,"
said Drury University baseball coach Mark Stratton, who coached with
Bell at Glendale for a decade. "But he's never complained, not one
time."
Career derailed
Bell is a baseball lifer in every sense of the word. The irony that
his disease is most often associated with Hall of Fame New York Yankees
slugger Lou Gehrig is not lost on him.
A Parkview and then-Southwest Missouri State standout, Bell won the
Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year award in 1986 as a shortstop
for coach Keith Guttin's Bears.
Bell worked out for big-league clubs but did not get drafted. He then
began a new life with his high school sweetheart, marrying Kim.
But less than a year later, Bell was involved in a serious traffic
accident on U.S. 65 and spent several months in the hospital. He
underwent numerous surgeries, including a spinal fusion and plastic
surgeries to repair facial damage. The major league dream was over,
which Kim said was hard for Howard to deal with.
"At that time, he only measured himself by baseball," she said. "Even
though that's who he is now, too, he realizes there's more to him than
that. His worth isn't measured by his batting average."
The diagnosis
When back pain returned in late 2009, Howard thought it was just more fallout from the accident.
With his oldest daughter Keshia's wedding approaching last May, Bell
received injections and treatments so that he could walk her down the
aisle. That same month, pain free, he also celebrated his 25th
anniversary and the Glendale graduation of his daughter, Kameron.
But the pain returned again, and Bell underwent hand surgery then
back surgery in early November. He also lost 50 pounds during this
stretch.
On Dec. 14, Bell was diagnosed with ALS, and it naturally left the family stunned for a couple of weeks.
There is no proven cause for ALS, but some researchers speculate
reasons could include head or back trauma, excessive athleticism and
exposure to certain fertilizers in grass, doctors have told Kim Bell.
Howard Bell's story lines all up with all of those factors.
But during a visit to Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, the Bells
saw hospitalized children, some terminal. The Bells vowed that day to
not feel sorry for themselves again.
"We're seeing 3- and 4-year-old kids that are bald, have one leg or one arm,"
Howard Bell
said. "Kim and I, almost at the exact same time, said to each other
that we're never feeling sorry for ourselves again. Look at these little
kids, they don't stand a chance in life.
"I'm never feeling sorry for my condition ever again. Since then, life has been very good. I don't worry about it."
Not just a coach
Bell comes to Glendale most days for a couple of hours. Twice a week, that's after rigorous morning physical therapy sessions.
Bell has hallway duty and sits near the entrance of the cafeteria,
talking with hundreds of students a day. Many spend their lunch hour
with the coach.
"It's been a whole new thing to really get to know him personally,"
said senior shortstop Josh Bunselmeyer, a three-year player for Bell. "I
talk to him heart to heart every day. It's been a blessing in my life
to see the way he's been going through what he's had to go through."
Bunselmeyer has committed to play at Northeast Texas Community
College next season. But get this — Bell is still trying to snag him an
athletic scholarship to a four-year school.
"He doesn't have to do that but he wants to," Bunselmeyer said. "He loves to help people."
And not just the baseball players.
"He has that ability to affect kids that don't want to be at Glendale
High School, and he gets them on the right track," senior outfielder
Elliot Carlew said. "Even kids who aren't passionate about school care
about Coach Bell.
"That's a testament to how he affects people."
Following along
Bell has only traveled to a couple Glendale road games this year but is updated with cell phone text messages.
When he is away, the team is led by assistant coaches Mike Snodgrass
and Matt Walker. Bell will step down at the end of the season.
During Wednesday's game, Bell was called about a pre-game ceremony in which the Lebanon program donated $250 to his family.
"People are great, people are really good," Kim Bell said. "We
sometimes concentrate in this world about how awful people are, but
they're not. They're really good."
All along, Howard has maintained that he's lucky.
"Most people don't know what people think of them before they die,"
he said. "Fortunately, I found out what a lot of people think.
"This whole experience has been positive, and it's all happening for a
reason. That's the way I see it. Everything is positive, everything is
good.
"We'll live day to day and move on."
KEEPING UP WITH THE BELLS (break-out box)
The Bells have vowed to let Howard's fight against ALS be a public one.
Kim Bell started a Facebook page last Sunday night called "Help Coach Bell Strike Out ALS" to keep the community updated on
Howard Bell's health and happenings.
Kim said the family is taking cues from the family and friends of
former Kickapoo girls' basketball coach Stephanie Phillips, who died in
July 2010 after a three-year fight with cancer.
"I don't share my life or my world with everybody, but we got to
thinking, we love Coach Phillips, and we were all going through that
with her," said Kim, who works as a commercial account manager for an
insurance company and schedules her days around Bell's medical
appointments. "I think that a lot of people, they want to ask questions
but are afraid to bring it up. But afterward they say, 'I feel so much
better talking to you.'"
Howard Bell might be the most famous ALS patient in local history. But he's not the most famous man his wife ever associated with.
Back in her Cherokee Middle School days, Kim dated Brad Pitt.
Kim and Howard did not meet until they were 15: Kim was a couple of
years into Kickapoo and Howard at Parkview. But that doesn't change
Howard's story: She dated Brad Pitt. And then she chose Howard.
So, when Pitt was named Sexiest Man Alive in 1995 by People Magazine,
it was found out Kim was an old flame. She was approached by "The
Geraldo Rivera Show" to appear as a guest.
Kim flew with a couple of friends to New York City for the taping.
Rivera asked if Kim thought Pitt was, indeed, the sexiest man alive.
"No," she told the national television audience. "My husband is."
Bell opened the first day of health class with the video for his students for years to come.
At Parkview, Bell played third base and shortstop, starting four
years on varsity, including two with future big-leaguer Scott Bailes
during a golden era of Springfield baseball.
"What was interesting about him was how much power he had," said Mike
Snodgrass, a Glendale assistant for Bell, and former rival at Hillcrest
and former teammate at SMS. "He's a squirt. He had a lot of power and
just was a great hitter."
Bailes, a former 13-year Major Leaguer who played two years of
varsity baseball with Bell, said he was the best high school player he
ever saw.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (break-out box)
Other names: Lou Gehrig's disease, motor neuron disease
What: A progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the motor neurons in the brain, leading to voluntary muscle paralysis and eventually death.
Who: Approximately 5 to 10 percent of cases appear in people with a family history of ALS. There are about 25,000 people with ALS in the United States at any given time.
Symptoms: Early symptoms are subtle and include muscle weakness and wasting in the hands, feet or throat.
Prognosis: Fifty percent of patients die within 3-5 years, though about 25 percent of patients live more than five years after diagnosis. Source: National Institute of Health
