Patrick Reusse: Lawnmower man became Pohlad's confidant

Jerry Bell came out of the Navy in 1963 and landed a job in the recreation department in North St. Paul. "I cut the grass; I did the whole thing," he said.

Bell discovered that a city manager made substantially more money than a recreation director. This motivated him to seek a degree in political science at the University of Minnesota.

"I went to night school for 10 years," Bell said. "I didn't finish my degree, but I came close."

Close enough to get a job as a metro planner for the fledgling body called the Metropolitan Council. And when the Legislature approved a new domed stadium for the Vikings and the Twins, Bell was hired by the body created to build the stadium and serve as landlord -- the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission.

Don Poss was the commission's executive director and Bell was his assistant when the Metrodome opened in 1982.

Twenty-seven years later, there was a funeral for Carl Pohlad with the turnout and trappings you would expect from one of America's richest men, and the eight pallbearers included the former grass cutter of ball fields in North St. Paul.

"Every now and then, I've had that thought: 'How come we're friends?' " Bell said. "But we were, and that was what mattered."

There was no surprise in this -- not after hearing Jim Pohlad, Carl's oldest son, describing Bell "as almost a member of the family" in a previous conversation.

Bell became the executive director of the sports commission after Poss' departure in 1983. A year later, Pohlad bought the Twins from Calvin Griffith.

"Calvin was in position to break his lease through an attendance clause," Bell said. "It looked like the Twins were on the way to Tampa Bay. There were meetings led by the Chamber of Commerce on how to prevent this.

"There were business leaders there. Carl was always the quiet guy in the back of the room. The idea of buying tickets and just throwing them away -- in order to reach the attendance level -- was brought up.

"There was a long discussion. I remember Stan Hubbard from KSTP standing up and saying, 'There's no other choice. We have to buy the tickets.' "

"I would go over to the bank and have lunch with Carl once in a while," Bell said. "We had to come up with a new lease. He wanted a reduction in rent. We needed to lock into the team more solidly. We made a deal."

Pohlad's second full season of 1986 was a 71-91 disaster. "Carl wasn't happy," Bell said. "I remember him saying, 'We're going to change this. We need one guy to run baseball and another to run the business.' "

In November, Andy McPhail was promoted to general manager to run baseball. In January '87, Bell was named as team president to run the business end.

The results were satisfying to Carl: two World Series championships in five seasons and an average of 2.3 million in attendance from 1987 through 1993.

In the midst of this, Bell and MacPhail went to Pohlad with an idea: Get a modern spring training facility. Bell made a deal with the Lee County commissioners for such a facility on the edge of Fort Myers, Fla.

Approval came at the end of the 2006 legislative session. The ballpark will open in 2010. You can't wipe the smile off Bell's face when he sees either the on-site progress, or the model of what will be the finished product.

Speaking of which, Bell, 67, has found this interesting twist since the passing of Pohlad, long a hot-button target for criticism with the sports media and fans.

"I notice that since he died, everyone has been putting nicer photos of Carl in the newspapers," Bell said. "The ones that made him look like a grouch are gone."