Steubenville, Ohio born and raised, Rich Donnelly graduated from Steubenville Catholic Central high school where he played both baseball and basketball.
A baseball lover at heart, Donnelly took his skills to Xavier University after graduating from high school.
The catcher was signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1967 and spent four seasons in the team’s minor league organization.
Donnelly transitioned seamlessly into a long and successful managerial career in professional baseball. He managed in the Texas Rangers’ minor league system from 1972 to 1979 and again in 1981 and 1982. He was the team’s bullpen coach in 1980 and first base coach from 1983 to 1985.
Donnelly was a key member of legendary manager Jim Leyland’s staff in three different organizations over a 14-year span. He spent over a decade with Leyland in Pittsburgh, two years in Florida where the team captured a World Series title in 1997 and a single season in Colorado, where Donnelly stayed until 2002.
He then spent three years, 2003 through 2005, as a third base coach in Milwaukee and the following two years, 2006 and 2007 as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ third base coach.
After a few years working in player development for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Donnelly made a few coaching stops in the minors before again returning to the big leagues with the Seattle Mariners in 2014.
Donnelly, most recently, coached again in the New York Mets farm system in 2019.
His baseball life has, to say the least, been quite a ride. We caught up to him recently to talk about his love for the Pirates, all of the baseball cards he’s appeared on over the years, coaching Macho Man Randy Savage and so much more.
Tony Reid–You have appeared on 41 different baseball cards dating back as far as 1974 and as recently as 2018. Your first card was a 1974 TCMA Gastonia Rangers when you were the manager. Do you remember the first time you saw yourself on a card?
Rich Donnelly– Yikes. You are killing me. I thought they must have run out of guys to put on cards. That year was pretty cool because in 1973 and 1974 I was in Gastonia. I had the pleasure of managing my dear friend Mike Hargrove. He became a great player and manager in the big leagues. All of those years go by. I remember seeing my name and picture on a card and I was shocked. I thought they just put big leaguers on cards.
TR–When was the first time you were asked for your autograph?
RD-It happened when I was in high school. I was catching in the state tournament for our American Legion team here in Steubenville. We won the state championship. I was named the most valuable player. After the game they were interviewing me on the radio. These little seven or eight year old kids gave me a pen and asked for my autograph. I was 17 years old. I didn’t even know how to write my name. I asked them if I could print it. My signature is kind of sloppy anyway. Over the years, it has gotten even sloppier. Sometimes you are autographing stuff at clinics with 400 or 500 kids there. You don’t dot the ‘i’ or cross the ‘t’. You just scribble something. The first time was in Athens, Ohio way back in 1964.
TR-Being a huge Pirates fan, what was your card collecting experience like as a kid?
RD-I was a Pirates fan, being 30 miles from Pittsburgh. We used to go to the store and buy baseball cards with bubble gum inside. What we used to do was play games with them. We would put them out on a table and put Bill Mazeroski at second base and Roberto Clemente in right field. Smoky Burgess was our catcher and we played with them like that. If you had five Roberto Clementes you went into your mom’s clothes basket and got a wooden clothes pin and you put those on your bike so it sounded like you had a muffler. That was really big to do back in the day. You had to have a couple extra Roberto Clemente cards. You couldn’t just put your only one on there. We would trade two Roberto Clementes for one Stan Musial.
I loved Bill Mazeroski. He was from close to where we lived. He was my favorite player. Every time I went to get the cards I couldn’t get the Bill Mazeroski. I would ask my dad for a dollar because they were only a nickel a pack. I had about 8,000 pieces of bubble gum trying to get Maz’s card. I think I got it when I was in college which was a little too late.
The thing I regret is not keeping all of those cards. I threw all of them away, never thinking they would be valuable. I had them all. I had everything. I had Roberto Clemente. I had Pete Rose. I had Willie Mays. I had the originals. What I liked to do was devour– I was a baseball nut growing up– I would devour the stats on the back. I wanted to see where they played. I read the rundown of where they were from and read about them and I wanted to see what they did.
TR–What is your most memorable fan interaction?
RD-My dad and I went to Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, of course. I was really shy. He told me to go down and get an autograph. The Pirates were playing the Milwaukee Braves at the time. Hank Aaron was down there. I couldn’t even talk. I couldn’t even get it out to ask him for his autograph. Sure enough, he came over. I was like a little duckling looking for the worm. He asked if I wanted him to sign for me. He signed it and I about passed out. I never forgot that.
As I got into pro ball, you see where guys won’t sign for the kids but I said if, that’s like a moonshot, if, I ever get to the big leagues if any kid asks me for my autograph I will give it to them because I know what it means to them. I have tried to do that for my 32 years in the big leagues. The coaches aren’t star players. It was pretty cool in my career to give autographs to the kids. They just wanted autographs. They didn’t know who it was from or where it was from.
TR– You are considered a student of the game, even from a very young age. Tell us about your game watching ritual as a youngster.
RD-Growing up, not all of the games were on TV, so, I made my own box score. I drew it up. I locked myself in my room. I got two bags of Snyder’s potato chips and a couple of Cokes. Nobody was allowed in until the game was over. That was the rule. If the Pirates lost, you probably weren’t allowed in for two days. My mom knew when the Pirates lost, don’t talk to me. I would get the Pirates cards and I would put the cards in the batting order in order on my table. As each guy came up, I flipped the card over. I was talking to them. ‘Come on, Maz. Get a hit!’
When Roberto came up I knew he was getting a hit. Give me a double to right center. You shuffled the cards.
That is the way I learned baseball. I learned an awful lot by keeping score and listening on the radio. They did a documentary on me when I was with the Pirates and they said I was an A-plus student in Pirates history. I kept score, in a notebook, of every single game. I would have 154 sheets after each year. I had my cards. If they made a trade, it messed me up. I had to run to the store and try to get their card to put them in the batting order. It was sacrilegious to put the traded guys in a pile in different uniforms with the Pirates cards.
TR–With your 32 plus years in Major League Baseball, do you have a collection of memorabilia, mementos and things of that nature?
RD– I am probably the only guy in the world who had all of those years in without much stuff. I think I have one ball signed by Michael Jordan and I have a picture of my former manager, Ted Williams, at the White House. That is all I got. I never kept nothing. The game was always the thing for me. Once I got into pro ball I wasn’t in for autographs and all of that stuff but I have a lot of friends back here who have restaurants. One guy told me ‘Rich, you got over 600 balls for me.’ That was Hall of Famers and All Stars. I would get them and give them away. I never thought, 20 years down the road, that stuff would be valuable. When I was coaching I was more worried about beating the Cardinals and the Mets than getting Pete Rose’s autograph.
TR–If you could get in the time machine and go back and grab an item from a guy back in the day who would it be?
RD-I played for Ted Williams. The last thing on earth that I would do was to ask him for an autograph. I was so in awe of him. I would have asked him to sign me a dozen balls and bats. I coached for Billy Martin. I was his personal driver in spring training. I didn’t drink. He would throw me the keys and off we would go. That didn’t even cross my mind. If I could go back it would be Ted Williams and Billy Martin.
There is one other guy. I could have got his autograph because I talked to him a thousand times. Back in 1974, he played third base for the Orangeburg Cardinals. His name was Randy Poffo. He came over to me one day and said ‘Rich, I can’t hit nothing. I think am going to go into pro wrestling.’ Well, Randy Poffo turned out to be “Macho Man Randy Savage.”
He was about 220 pounds. He said ‘I can’t hit. They throw me up and in. I can’t get the bat around.’ He wasn’t the Macho Man. He was a nice, solid third baseman. He had a brother named Lenny Poffo, they called him ‘Leaping’ Lenny.
Randy said he was going into wrestling with his brother. Back then, you thought ‘OK. Good luck to you, son.’ Well, look what happened. Oh my Lord.
TR–I know it’s a loaded question but what is your fondest memory or time in the sport?
RD-I was on a World Series team with the Marlins. That is the height of your career but the most fun I ever had, I adored the Pirates growing up, I didn’t like them, I adored them. To coach with the Pirates for ten years with Jim Leyland, it seemed like it was magic. I would leave my house here in Steubenville, drive to work, I didn’t call it work, it was so much fun it was like going to the circus every day. I would drive back and sleep in my own bed at night. I kept shaking my head. Dang, I am coaching the Pittsburgh Pirates, my team.
I got to meet Bill Verdon. Maz was always around in spring training. Steve Blass was our announcer. Just to be with Leyland and all of the guys we had-Bonds, Van Slyke, Drabek, Bonilla, Jay Bell, Jeff King, Jose Lind, Sid Bream, Spanky LaValliere, Don Slaught, it was a true joy. My wife would ask why I was going to work at 10:30 in the morning when the game was at 7:00 at night. We have so much dang fun in the clubhouse and it carried on to the field.
We didn’t win the Word Series but for three years I think we were the best team in baseball. We won over 90 games all three years and won three pennants. In 1990, 1991, and 1992 we won three pennants and we didn’t acquire one free agent. We lost guys. We lost John Smiley and Bobby Bonilla. We didn’t go out and get any free agents and we still won. That’s why it was so neat. Do you remember the old Pirates song We Are Family? Well, that team for three years was truly family.
I was fortunate enough to be a coach on the WBC team when we won the gold medal beating Puerto Rico in the finals four years ago. That was a great thrill. Getting a World Series ring is beyond everything. When you are a little kid, you wanted to be in the big leagues, but I didn’t think it would ever happen. Then all of a sudden you are coaching third base and Edgar Renteria gets a base hit and Craig Counsell scores the winning run and 80,000 people are going crazy and you are the World Series champions. It’s totally beyond words. It’s magic.
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