Barry Bonnell roamed the outfield for 10 major-league seasons, including three years with the Seattle Mariners in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
Following his big-league days, Bonnell has been an airline pilot, a Mormon bishop, an importer and other things.<\/p>\n
Last Friday, he was a teacher, showing youngsters how to properly play the game he loves.<\/p>\n
“It’s fun and it’s good to give back a little bit to the kids and teach them some things they are not otherwise going to get,” said the 63-year-old Bonnell, who lives in Redmond and volunteers his time to coach youth baseball.<\/p>\n
Bonnell joined former major-leaguers Bob Reynolds and Joe Staton to lead the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association Legends for Youth Clinic at Kent’s Big League Edge indoor facility. The pros taught a group of 45 players, ranging in age from 6 to 16, how to hit, throw, field and run.<\/p>\n
Bonnell, Reynolds and Staton combined to play 18 seasons, accumulating 837 hits in 1,131 games in the majors. Bonnell, who grew up near Cincinnati, had a good career playing for the Atlanta Braves (1977-79), Toronto Blue Jays (1980-83) and Mariners (1984-86).<\/p>\n
The Seattle-born Reynolds was a former middle-relief pitcher who played for six major-league teams from 1969 to 1975. Staton, who also was born in Seattle, played first base for the Detroit Tigers in 1972 and ‘73.<\/p>\n
Kent represented one of the 185 national and international clinics the series and the alumni put on throughout the year. Instruction comes from a pool of 500 to 600 MLB alumni. The clinics reach more than 16,000 children each year.<\/p>\n
Asked to help out at the Kent camp, Bonnell, who began playing organized baseball at age 5, gladly stepped in.<\/p>\n
“We got a lot of kids, and we’re rotating them through pretty fast,” Bonnell said. “We’re giving them just the basic fundamentals, but that’s what everything is built on anyway. I think it’s worthwhile. … If they show up and run around a little bit, that’s good for them. If they go away with something, that’s a bonus.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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