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Donnelly ready to get back in the dugout

STEUBENVILLE — Though baseball has always been in his blood and basically all he’s known, Rich Donnelly had come to grips with the fact that he’d be spending this season away from the diamond.

Then, his phone rang.

A 20-minute conversation later, Donnelly’s plans to spend the summer in the Ohio Valley and doing work promoting the book, ‘The Chicken Runs at Midnight,’ and working on the upcoming movie about the story, had suddenly changed.

“It definitely took me by surprise,” Donnelly said of the phone call he received from Jared Banner, the Director of Player Development for the New York Mets.

During the first conversation, Donnelly was offered the opportunity to manage the teams rookie league team in Kingsport and oversee the organization’s extended spring training. A few minutes later, the phone rang again and the Mets offered him the opportunity to serve as the Major League Spring Training coordinator.

“I hung up the phone, told my wife and she told me to basically, ‘get out of here,’ so I told (the Mets), let’s do it,” Donnelly said. “My heart has always been on the field. It’s really all I’ve done since 1968.”

The Steubenville Central grad, who will turn 73 in August, has no intentions of slowing down anytime soon either.

“I am probably going to drop dead in a dugout,” Donnelly said. “I plan on (being in baseball) until they throw me out. I really don’t know how to do anything else and as long as I have the energy, I am going to do it.”

Though Donnelly was surprised with the number of jobs he was offered, he did have a feeling that if he was going to work in baseball this season, it would be with the Mets.

“I had been in touch with the Mets, but they (hired) a bunch of new people in the front office,” Donnelly said. “I told them last August that if a managerial job comes open, I might be interested, but when January hit and I hadn’t heard anything, I had kind of thought I’d just take the season off.”

Donnelly just returned from meetings with the Mets brass in West Palm Beach earlier this week. He is already under way with his role of organizing the big-league camp, which opens in Port St. Lucie on Feb. 14 for pitchers and catchers and the full squad reports on Feb. 18.

Donnelly will actually report to camp on Feb. 6.

“I am already working on the first five days of camp,” Donnelly said. “Basically, my job is to make sure every hour, minute and second of spring training is accounted for for every coach and player. We want the players to buy into camp early.”

The opportunity was simply too good for Donnelly to even consider turning down.

“I love being in the big-league atmosphere,” Donnelly said. “I love coordinating things, too. I’ve done it all my life.

As he prepares for the camp, Donnelly has paid special attention to Feb. 14 and Feb. 18 because he continually dates back to things he learned from his friend and former boss, Jim Leyland when they were together in Pittsburgh.

“The most important day of spring training is the first day,” Donnelly revealed. “Jim used to always say, ‘the first day doesn’t have to be perfect, but it better be.’ And that’s the way I look at it, too.”

Donnelly admitted that he and Mets’ manager Mickey Callaway knew each other, but not very well prior to their meetings this week.

“I knew Mickey a little bit from when he was with Tito (Francona) with the Indians, but after spending two days in meetings with him, it feels like we’ve known each other for 20 yearsm,” Donnelly said. ”

When the full squad cranks up workouts, Donnelly will be responsible for the schedules of 62 players and 18 coaches.

“We schedule two or three days in advance and have a rain schedule to make sure everyone is getting their work in, whether it’s hitting, fielding, pitching, etc.,” Donnelly said. “And once the spring training games start on Feb. 23, the schedule changes, but the players still must get their fundamental work in every day.”

Once the Mets’ big-league club heads north and the minor leaguers are dispatched to their teams, Donnelly will stay in Florida with the extended spring training.

Camp actually continues for many young players and guys who are battling back from injuries and such. They’ll remain in Florida and continue the process of becoming ready for the season.

“We’ll have workouts for about 10 days or so and then we’ll continue to play (spring training) games against the other clubs,” Donnelly said.

That camp will break in early June after the MLB Draft. Those players will come together and then be broken up among three rookie-league teams. Some will remain in Florida, some will go to Donnelly’s former team the Brooklyn Cylclones and another group will go with Donnelly to Kingsport and that season, which is 80 games, begins on June 12.

“I love managing those young kids,” Donnelly said. “Compared to when I started in baseball, the ballparks these (rookies) will play in are much better, the bus rides are much better, they stay in nice hotels and then on the field, the baseball is still baseball. The only difference is the parking lot at the ballpark because the Major League players drive much nicer vehicles.”

Donnelly — an avid Steubenville Big Red and prep sports fan — has still find time to take in many events. While at those, he’s received a common question from many since the news broke.

“I’ve had a lot of people ask me, ‘can you get me Tim Tebow’s autograph?” Donnely laughed. “I don’t get asked much about the job, but more about how many autographs can I get.”

While Donnelly’s focus has shifted to the Mets, the book that Tom Friend wrote about Donnelly’s late daughter, Amy, is still selling quite well.

“In terms of baseball (books), it’s the number one seller and it’s number nine in audio and number 10 in Kindle overall,” Donnelly said. “There’s been a great response in the area.”

Donnelly is actually scheduled to do another book signing on Friday in Steubenville.

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