Following a 2-1 win over the Portland Pickles on August 14, the Bellingham Bells clinched the 2025 West Coast League championship – the franchise’s second championship since joining the WCL in 2005.
The Bells’ previous title came 11 years ago in 2014. And only one on-the-field member of the 2025 Bells played a hand in both: pitching coach Jim Clem.
“They’re all special,” Clem says of winning titles. “They’re hard to get.”
Jim Clem, 72, recently completed his twelfth season with the Bellingham Bells, 11 of which were spent as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. After serving as head coach in 2023, Clem stepped away from the Bells to devote time to family in 2024.
It was only the third time he’d not spent his summer at Joe Martin Field, following a sabbatical in 2022 and the cancellation of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Clem didn’t plan to return to the Bells in 2025, but head coach and friend Ed Knaggs gave Clem a call when a coaching position unexpectedly opened up.
The duo brought back two former Bells players with coaching experience: assistant pitching coach Cody Anderson and assistant coach Riley Parker. Clem had previously talked with Knaggs about coaching together, but things had never lined up until this year.
“Timing is everything,” Clem says, “and when things are meant to come together, they do.”
The 2025 Bells went 33-21 on the season, and then beat the Wenatchee AppleSox two games to one in the opening playoff series. The Bells clinched the North Division with a 5-2 playoff win over the Edmonton Riverhawks, and then faced off against the rival Pickles for the league title.
In reflecting on the championship teams he’s been part of, Clem says both teams possessed an exceptional will to win – an intangible factor that often makes the difference in the postseason. That, combined with terrific defense and league-leading pitching statistics, made for an unbeatable formula.
Jim Clem’s Life in Baseball
Baseball has been part of Clem’s life, he says, since he was old enough to play in the backyard with his parents.
“I’ve just had this attachment to baseball that has been like no other game that I’ve been around,” he says.
Born and raised in Enumclaw, Clem graduated from Enumclaw High School, having played baseball and basketball. He next attended Peninsula College in Port Angeles, where he continued to play both sports. He served as captain and most valuable player of his baseball team, as both a pitcher and outfielder. While at Peninsula, Clem once threw a no-hitter that his team lost after he left the mound.
Transferring to Central Washington University, Clem focused solely on baseball and helped pitch the Wildcats to consecutive conference titles. He also played in the Casey Stengel Amateur Baseball Association, a summer league filled with college and ex-professional players.
Clem had playing ambitions beyond college, but elbow issues made him realize that a post-college career would likely be short, if it happened at all. He graduated in 1975 with three different majors: history, psychology and education.
The psychology portion, Clem says, was undertaken with the idea of eventually becoming a school counselor. But instead, he received a teaching certificate and put his education and history degrees to use.
Clem began his coaching career at age 23, serving as head baseball and basketball coach of Dayton High School in Eastern Washington. After two years, Clem moved to Burlington-Edison High School, where he would remain for the next quarter-century as a history teacher, coach and eventual athletic director (after obtaining a master’s degree in athletic administration).
“It was a school I knew had legendary coaches,” Clem says of Burlington-Edison. “I wanted to get into a school where I felt I could still learn more about coaching and be in an environment I felt was conducive to both growth and working with athletes who were used to winning.”
Whether in the classroom or on the field, Clem says teaching has always been his focus, and classroom skills have helped him in his career as a baseball coach.
Clem retired from high school coaching in 2006 to focus on his two sons, Jacob and Zach, as they pursued professional baseball dreams. Both were standout players in high school who found collegiate success at the University of Washington – Zach as an outfielder and Jacob as a pitcher.
Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2006, Zach’s career was spent with the minor league Helena Brewers and curtailed by injury not long after. Jacob went on to win Australia’s equivalent of the World Series with the Perth Heat, also playing in the professional Frontier League with the Traverse City Beach Bums.
Jim Clem’s baseball career ultimately led to enshrinement in the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, the WIAA Coaches Hall of Fame, and the Central Washington University Athletics Hall of Fame.
Longevity Counts for Coach Jim Clem
In 2011, after fully retiring from Burlington-Edison, longtime Sehome High School baseball coach Gary Hatch was picked by Bells’ ownership to lead the team. Hatch then picked Clem, a longtime friend, to be the pitching coach.
His longevity with the Bells, he says, is due to his belief in the team’s philosophy of developing young men not just into good players, but into good people.
“It’s not all about winning,” he said. “You always try to win, of course, but it’s just bigger than that. Character counts, and that leads, I think, to the kind of results that you’re also looking for on the field. They go hand-in-hand. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win a championship, but it does mean that you’re trying to. And that’s what matters most: do the best you can every day, and help the people around you do the same thing.”
At 72, Clem’s lifetime of baseball experience has made him a valuable member of the Bells organization. He says he appreciates the opportunity to continue learning more about the game’s latest trends, while also seemingly defying his age through the timeless fundamentals of the sport.
“I don’t see myself as an old person, but I know the years are adding up,” he says. “Being around young people and being around the game of baseball keeps you young. I just feel real blessed and very fortunate to still be able to do what I do.”
