Kelly Sees Leyland Heading to Cooperstown

Don Kelly, Pittsburgh Pirates’ bench coach, doesn’t hide his feelings for one of his former managers who he believes is Cooperstown-bound.

As I peruse through my 2023 Pirates’ pocket schedule, I’m reminded there’s a lot to be excited about the club this week. The mid-week three-game series just up I-75 in St. Petersburg with the Tampa Bay Rays reaches the top of my baseball enthusiasm list.

Six weeks into the MLB season, the Pirates sit atop the National League Central with a record of 20-9. With the best record in the league, Pittsburgh is the only club in the league to have earned 20 wins, as they head into Tropicana Field.

A couple of weeks back, Pirates management announced that they have extended the length of manager Derek Shelton’s contract beyond this season.With the club off to its best start since 1992, general manager Ben Cherington, Bob Nutting (chairman of the board), as well as Shelton’s coaching staff must be off-the-wall pleased with the competitiveness of the roster they have assembled.

A main component of Shelton’s coaching lineup is his bench coach Don Kelly. It’s pretty much a given, in the clubhouse during coaching meetings, in the dugouts during games, or observing during the club’s workouts–where you see Shelton, you will see Kelly.

A bench coach is the eyes and ears of the skipper.

Kelly, 43, is one of the youngest bench coaches in the MLB. However, the Mount Lebanon, PA native has earned his position as second-in-command as Shelton’s go-to guy. It’s his experience that the Pirates are banking on for many seasons to come.

Much of Kelly’s baseball wisdom earned came during his nearly 600 MLB games played during a nine-year career.Six of Kelly’s playing seasons (2009-2014) were as a Detroit Tiger. The man running the Tigers’ roster back then was Jim Leyland. This is the same Jim Leyland who managed the Pirates for 11 seasons (1986-1996). Leyland also skippered the Florida Marlins (now Miami) to a World Series championship in 1997.

So, with all the excitement swirling around the unexpected early season success of the Pirates, I’m reminded of a conversation that I had with Kelly one spring training morning in Bradenton.

Is his former manager headed for the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown later this year?

In December, during MLB’s Winter Meetings scheduled for Nashville, the Hall of Fame’s Contemporary Baseball Era Committee will meet.Managers, executives, and umpires will be on the ballot. There are 16 voting members to this committee.

Leyland, 78, is expected to be one of three former managers eligible for the committee to consider for election to the Hall of Fame. Davey Johnson and Tampa resident Lou Piniella would be the other two former bench bosses up for the vote.

For Kelly, a member of the Leyland-led Tigers of 2012 that saw the club win the American League pennant, he sees his former manager as a no-brainer to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

"He’s (Leyland) well deserving of Cooperstown.As a player, Jim was in your corner. He held you accountable but was always fair. I’m humbled to have played for him.“

With Leyland having been selected three times as manager of the year, coached in the big leagues, and put in a stint in the commissioner’s office, Kelly also has a unique perspective of his former manager which no other player has.

When Leyland skippered the Pirates, he lived in Mount Lebanon, PA. Kelly recalls a Halloween when out trick-or-treating while staying in his own neighborhood, and approaching Leyland’s home. The often on-the-field gruff nature of Leyland couldn’t be more opposite and accommodating, as the Pirates’ manager was contributing to Kelly’s bag of sweet goodies collected in the evening.

Kelly easily remembers the continued success of the Pirates clubs in the 1990s, an era where Leyland led Pittsburgh to three straight National League Championship Series.

For Kelly, one of 11 players in MLB history to have played all 10 positions (DH included), like so many others in the baseball community, they are rooting for Leyland to gain the game’s ultimate compliment in eight months. From first-hand and second-hand knowledge of Leyland the pro and neighbor, Kelly can envision a bronze plaque of his former mentor without reservation.