LOS ANGELES -- Veteran major league umpire Wally Bell died on Monday at age 48, which left an impression on the National League Championship Series.
The 21-year veteran Bell had just called the NLDS between the Cardinals and Pirates, one of seven division series he called in his career, to go with four league championship series, three All-Star Games, and the 2006 World Series.
The six assigned to the NLCS learned of Bell's passing roughly an hour before the start on Monday's Game 3 at Dodger Stadium.
"I just give these guys a lot of credit because there was a ton of emotion in that umpire's room," said Joe Torre, now executive VP of baseball operations for MLB, after Monday's game. "They really hitched up their belts and went out there and did a remarkable job."
NLCS crew chief Gerry Davis, who worked left field in Game 3, called Bell's passing a devastating loss.
"The umpire network, if you will, works pretty quickly, and we heard about it an hour before the game which was obviously very difficult, and we had to regroup rather quickly and put our concentration where it needed to be," Davis said. "We kept telling each other that that's the way Wally would have wanted it, and we know that that's really true. One of the things that we shared in the locker room afterwards is that I'm sure he's very proud right now."