By: Joey Bova

Dan Hart, 45, Evans City PA, Director of Media Relations 

Meghan Macioce, 21, Murrysville PA, Social Media Coordinator at AT&T SportsNetwork/ Live Production Assistant at ACC Network 

Allison Schubert, 21, Butler PA, Media Relations Intern

Photo By: Joey Bova

Meghan Q1: I think Josh Bell being named to the All-Star team is well deserved especially after his career month in May. Not only that, but most people don’t know that Bell never played 1B throughout his playing career until he came up to the major league and his playing has gotten so much better over the last two seasons there. To the team, it means a lot. After Cutch was traded and JHay left last offseason, I think this was exactly the uplift the team needed. You can see on the Pirates Twitter page that pitcher Joe Musgrove is campaigning hard for Bell. It’s great to see this bring the team together.

Meghan Q2: After the All-Star break I expect Bell to start a new hitting streak and continue to blast home runs. In the future, I think you’ll see him become the leadoff guy or in the number 3 slot in the lineup. He has a lot of power and a big heart so I can see him offering hitting advice to future prospects. 

Meghan Q3: Dedicated.

Allison Q1: I love that Bell is an all-star, and I think it brings a sense of pride to the bench and to the fans. Bell is a great guy on and off the field, so he definitely deserves the recognition.

Allison Q2: I think we can all expect to see a lot of the same from him. He’s a fantastic player, but he doesn’t let that get to his head. He’s not the type of guy to have an ego about how talented he is, so I think he’ll be just as consistent as he has been so far this season. 

Allison Q3: Illustrious 

Dan Hart Q1: He’s very deserving of it, he’s put up some amazing numbers every day when we write about him. The things we’ve been writing about are he’s intertwined with some of the greatest names in Pirates history like Paul Waner, Kiki Cuyler, guys who massed a lot of extra-base hits in a short amount of time. Guys who drove in a lot of runs in the teams first 70 games, so he is in amongst all of those guys, and he has the most home runs by a switch hitter in Pirates history prior to the All-Star break. He’s five extra-base hits shy from Nate McLouth extra-base hit record prior to the All-Star break. So he’s putting up some All-Star worthy type of numbers so his teammates are behind him and clearly the city of Pittsburgh and our fanbase has been behind him because he finished second in the first round of voting so now he’s onto the starters election. He’s very deserving amongst a group in the National League that has the best players in the position when it comes to talent. He also put up numbers that are worthy of starting in the All-Star game.

Dan Harts Q2: Knowing josh he stays even-keeled and works hard every single day. He doesn’t change, he stays true to his approach so we’re rooting for him to maintain all those great numbers and to continue to help us make a push towards the postseason because he’s one of our great players he’s a homegrown Pirate. We drafted him in the second round in 2011 so it’s great to see how he’s coming on his own this season as a Pirate. 

Dan Hart Q3: Humble is an easy word, but consistent as a baseball player. Consistency when it comes to what kind of person he is because he’s been a great person to work with my whole career and one of the favorite parts of my job is to see a guy when we bring him in for his press conference, when he gets drafted by us and that was eight years ago already, and to see how they make their way up the farming system and fulfill their dream to make it in the big leagues. Josh has been a good person to work with from the day we drafted him, and the day we signed him. We work with these guys throughout their minor league progression and how they make it in the big leagues. So it’s always great to see them fulfill their dream. So getting back to the question consistency because he’s never changed and he’s always been a hard worker and humble person. Someone you just pull for and root for to have success 

Photo by: Joey Bova