5 Chicago Cubs All-Stars you’ve definitely forgotten about

#4: Beloved Blue Jay George Bell gave the Cubs a boost

George Bell is a player that absolutely belongs in a “Cubs legend (insert player here)” tweet. Bell was a Hall of Very Good player that made a name for himself at the heart of the 1980s Blue Jays. His career reached the highest mountaintop in terms of personal accomplishment, winning an MVP in 1987 with a pretty monstrous .308/.352/.605 slash line.

Outside of that MVP campaign, Bell remained a force with the Jays until he eventually joined the Cubs for a single season in 1991. By the time he came to Chicago, Bell was starting to show signs of decline and wasn’t putting up the same power numbers he managed in his brief peak in Toronto. Not to mention he had a pretty public spat with fans and the front office that did a number on his time in Canada.

The Cubs would bring him on a three-year deal and the first year turned out pretty well for the North Siders with Bell slashing a really solid .294/.331/.490 in the first half and earning his third ever All-Star nod. He kept a pretty decent level of production throughout the entire year and finished out with an OPS+ of 117.

Of course, the All-Star nod is probably the least important part of Bell’s abbreviated stay on the North Side. With the Cubs still looking to improve and build a younger core, Bell would be traded to their crosstown rival White Sox following the 1991 season for a little-known player that I’m sure nobody remembers by the name of Sammy Sosa along with Ken Patterson, the guy everyone DEFINITELY knows.

Bell’s All-Star appearance for the Cubs is definitely the footnote in that story and it marked a moment of another franchise’s star getting one last hurrah at the Friendly Confines. Bell would retire after two lackluster years with the Sox, ending a short but fruitful career.