Former Pirates Manager Elected To Baseball Hall of Fame

Jim Leyland, 78, is headed to Cooperstown this coming summer, and so is his pal, Rich Donnelly.

For as long as Donnelly could remember, he and the newest National Baseball Hall of Fame member have been friends. It’s how he and Leyland first met that still cracks him up.

“I was going to Xavier University in Cincinnati and ended up signing with the Minnesota Twins. Across the hall from where I was living was a guy named Smokey Knorek. He played in bands all around the area, and Smokey knew my baseball background,” said Donnelly this past week during a phone conversation.

“(Smokey) asked that if I ran across a buddy of his from Perrysburg, Ohio, Jim Leyland, to say hello for me.”

Sure enough, with Donnelly assigned by the Twins to their Florida State League affiliate in Orlando, and Leyland playing for the Detroit Tigers club in Lakeland, the two minor leagues met – at home plate.

“We’re playing at home in Orlando, against Lakeland, and as I look over the program’s roster, I see Jim’s name. Fine. When I come up to bat, and Jim’s catching, I let him know that Smokey says hello. As I’m tapping home plate with my bat, Jim says great, now concentrate on the bleeping game.”

Little by little, the Leyland and Donnelly partnership grew steadily for decades to the point where they were professionally and personally inseparable.

Both baseball lifers-in-the-making began managing in the minors when they were young. When MLB coaching jobs came about, Leyland and Donnelly remained in each other's shadows.

In 1982, when the Chicago White Sox hired Leyland, and he served on manager Tony La Russa’s staff, the following season Donnelly would be welcomed to the Texas Rangers’ coaching staff for three seasons.

Then, the 1986 MLB season approached. The Leyland and Donnelly friendship would be taken to the next level.

When Jim Leyland was hired as the Pittsburgh Pirates skipper, destiny stepped in to keep the partnership on a roll. Coming from Steubenville, Ohio, separated from the then Pirates’ home by less than 50 miles – Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh was Donnelly’s home team.

“I was let go by the Rangers and wanted to join the Pirates," said Donnelly. I called Jim and asked about being one of his coaches. He told me that the Pirates were allowing me to bring only one coach. He said I would have to speak with Syd (Syd Thrift), who then was the Pirates’ general manager.”

Rich Donnelly

Donnelly, still in Texas, at home in Arlington, makes his pitch for a Pirates coaching job.

While waiting to hear his fate, Leyland makes an unexpected phone call to Donnelly.

“(Leyland) asks me if my parents are going to opening day at Three Rivers. That’s how I found out I was hired,” Donnelly recalls.

For the eleven seasons that Leyland skippered the Pirates, Donnelly served the first half dozen as the bullpen coach, and the following five were stationed at third base. This started a fourteen consecutive MLB season run that Donnelly served as his best friend’s confidant at work.

Beginning with their association with the Pirates, continuing through the 1999 season with the Colorado Rockies, Donnelly roomed with Leyland on the road.

“You couldn’t get any closer than we were in baseball,” Donnelly offers. " Playing golf, going to the racetrack, we had wonderful times.”

Donnelly looks back at Leyland’s managerial success on the MLB level due to what he believes his being on such a higher level than everyone else. He remembers that first year with the Pirates, with Leyland putting his trademark on the team, as being so much fun.

“From 1990 to 1992, we (Pittsburgh) were the best team in baseball that didn’t win it all.”

Donnelly paints his now elected hall of fame pal as being loyal as the day is long.

“When I was with the Brewers, as Ned Yost’s third base coach, Jim got the Tigers job. I wanted to join him in Detroit, but he didn’t want to “steal” me from them. When I was done in Milwaukee, it was Jim who called the Los Angeles Dodgers that gave me a coaching position with them. He’s always been there for me.”

During Leyland’s 11 seasons in the Pirates’ dugout, two with the Marlins (in 1997 the Florida Marlins won the World Series), and one in Colorado, Donnelly had the best seat in the game to watch his friend work his baseball genius.

22 seasons, 1,769 wins, a World Series championship, and two American League pennants claimed while piloting the Tigers, this past Sunday Leyland was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was named on 15 of 16 ballots, and was the only candidate to reach the 75-percent threshold necessary for election.