King alum Derek Bell arrested on drug-related charges
This just in from Times staff writer Colleen Jenkins:
Former Major League Baseball player Derek Bell was booked into a Hillsborough jail early this morning on several drug-related charges.
Bell, 39, lives in Valrico and is listed as unemployed in jail records. He faces three misdemeanor counts of possessing drug paraphernalia and one count of failing to appear on another charge of possession of drug paraphernalia that he picked up this summer.
Click here to read more about Bell's arrest.
Bell was picked in the second round of the 1987 draft by Toronto. He played in the majors from 1991-2001, with stints with the Blue Jays, Padres, Astros, Mets and Pirates, and finished with 1,262 career hits, 134 home runs and a .276 batting average.
In 1995, he was 14th in the voting for National League MVP. That year, his .334 batting average ranked fourth in baseball.
According to baseball-reference.com, he earned more than $26-million in his pro career.
Keith Niebuhr, Times staff writer
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
The St. Petersburg Times High School Sports blog is written and compiled by the Times preps sports staff from Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco and Hernando counties. We invite your participation in the comments area.
