@@Cleveland Guardians

Is Mandy Bell the Hammy of baseball journalism?

  • April 11, 2024


Seriously, just read the article about the Naylor brothers killing the White Sox.

https://www.mlb.com/news/josh-bo-naylor-homer-in-same-inning-on-national-siblings-day

She takes a baseball factoid — “brothers hit HRs in the same inning for the same team!” — and constructs a concise but compelling article that weaves in little details about the Naylor childhoods, Josh’s attitude towards his brother, and Vogt’s mindset … all seamlessly with recounting the game events and the historical stats. All of her articles are like this as far as I can tell. It’s just a really a great writing style and voice for this stuff.

With all this talent, Cleveland baseball has to be the luckiest team to have a 76-year championship drought.

13 comments

  2. Short answer, no. Honestly she’s not even top 10 from MLB beat writers. 

    Castrovince was the best beat writer we’ve had. Meisle is close from the Athletic. 

  3. Mandy Bell is awful lol literally just a mouthpiece for the team. Provides no actual insights that most of us don’t already know. Her articles are generic as they come. Only source I care about Cleveland wise is Meisel.

  4. I enjoy her writing and thinks she’s doing great. However, she needs a long time of doing this to get to Hammy level, which is Mt Rushmore of Cleveland sports broadcasters.

  7. Everyones being real tough on Mandy, but if the team isn’t giving her the info we want, I’m not sure what you all expect of her. You can be upset about that all you want, but you’re crazy if you think she’s a bad writer. She loves baseball and is excellent at exemplifying that “how can you NOT be romantic about baseball?!” attitude extremely well. She’s a lot of fun to listen to and read imo. If you can’t see that, you’re letting your frustration about the lack of new news color your view.

    EDIT TO ADD since I didnt spell this out and y’all seem to not get it

    **she literally works for Major League Baseball. Not the Athletic or any other independent publication. Of course she isn’t uncovering any dirt or anything they dont want her to. DUH**

  8. I like Mandy’s writing a lot! Feels like she gives a positive perspective on everything which is nice to read

  9. Meisel is the the GOAT of beat writers. He’s just a joy to read and I usually actually learn something about the team.

  10. She’s great at recaps and puff pieces but she’s not really a journalist. I’m not trying to be mean here, she does her job very well. But her job is marketing, not journalism. She’s not exactly out there digging for scoops or anything that the team/league wants to keep out of print. 

    Not coincidentally, this is why so many fans like her. She won’t say anything people don’t want to hear. 

  12. All these naysayers are simply wrong. Mandy Bell has been a wonderful addition to the Tribe/Guards beat. She tells compelling stories, often show a lot of heart & care for the game in her writing, and she’s a great photographer/editor. Bastian was good, Castrovince & Meisel are great, and I think Mandy Bell has really proven her worth. Hope she stays on the CLE beat for a long time!

  13. Mandy is good, but Meisel is significantly better. One of the only writers who I’d pay to read.

Leave a Reply