If you're lucky enough to engage in a conversation with Rich Donnelly, don’t expect to hear him tell tales of Barry Bonds, Richie Sexson, or Larry Walker, although he has coached all of them. Instead the third base coach for the Milwaukee Brewers will talk of Sudsy Monchik, Jason Mannino, and Rhonda Rajsich — the superstars of his favorite sport ... racquetball.

“Rich is a racquetball nut,” Sudsy (above left) explained. “He loves racquetball more than any person I have ever met.”

Not that Rich won’t talk to you about the players and coaches that he has encountered in his 30 years of managing and coaching baseball, he would just rather talk racquetball. A prime example is when he invited avid Cubs fan and IRT Commissioner Dave Negrete to a baseball game between the Brewers and Cubs at Wrigley Field. Before the game they were on the field talking about the IRT players, with All-Star slugger Sammy Sosa standing mere feet behind Rich. Finally Negrete had to interrupt Rich to ask, “Sudsy and Jason are great, but could we please meet Sammy?”

Although Rich got his start in baseball, he still wonders “how good I could have become at racquetball if I had started younger and kept with it.” In 1964 the New York Yankees drafted him right out of high school. He didn’t sign with the Yankees, but instead opted to attend college at Xavier in Cincinnati, Ohio where he played three years of baseball and two years of basketball. Xavier is also where Rich became hooked on racquetball.

He began playing racquetball in the way most people at that time did — through handball. “I started playing handball while in college with a guy named David Lynch, who was one of the best handball players in the country at that time,” he explained. “After that I moved on to racquetball and just fell in love with it.”

After college Rich signed a free-agent contract with the Minnesota Twins and spent three years in their minor league system as a catcher before being drafted again by the Washington Senators, who are now the Texas Rangers. He played two years at the Ranger’s Denver affiliate and then, during spring training with the great Hall of Famer Ted Williams as his manager, he was approached with an offer to manage in the minor leagues.

“I told them I’d like to manage, but I was only 24 at the time. I still wanted to play,” he explained. After reevaluating his playing career, Rich decided to give managing a shot. It seemed to be his calling, and he earned Minor League Manager of the Year awards in ‘73, ‘74, and ‘75.

He continued to manage in the Texas farm system until 1980 when he was called up into the big leagues to serve as the bullpen coach for the Rangers. He then went back to managing in the minors in 1981 and ‘82 before getting called back up as the first base coach for the Rangers. He was there until 1986 when he became acquainted with Jim Leyland who was the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Rich stayed with Leyland and the Pirates organization until 1997 at which time he followed Leyland to the Florida Marlins. It was there that Rich earned a World Series title coaching third base. In fact, Rich waved Craig Counsell "the chicken man" home for the winning run in the bottom of the eleventh inning of the seventh game against the Cleveland Indians.

Through all of this Rich continued to play racquetball, but not as often as he would have liked. That soon changed.

At Coors Field, USRA staffers Ryan John, tall Kevin Joyce and USRA member Matt Adesso were able to visit Donnelly, who demonstrated some of his racquetball form (below). Photos: Sara Greenlee.  Click on photos to enlarge.

In 1999 Leyland left the Marlins organization and moved on to the Colorado Rockies. Rich followed suit and when Leyland resigned in 1999, Rich decided to stay on. Little did he know then that staying with the Rockies would rekindle his passion for racquetball.

By chance, local tournament director Marianne Alonzi approached Rich to help out with a pro stop run at the Lakewood Athletic Club in Denver. The tournament was hosting a pro/am doubles and Rich brought in Rockies players Todd Helton and Juan Pierre, now a standout with the Florida Marlins, to help out with the promotions.

“Marianne asked me if I could get some of the players to come in and play in the pro/am,” Rich explained. “I was watching the tournament and saw some of the players in my age bracket playing and I thought to myself, ‘I know I can play with these guys.’ Then I started watching some of the pros play and just wanted to see if I could play with them.”

Rich instantly became friends with some of the top pros, including Mannino and Monchik, and began playing racquetball again as often as possible. He even started bringing his racquetball gear on the road with him and searching for matches in whatever city the team happened to be playing.

“I got this system set up with Sudsy. It’s kind of like a network,” Rich said. “Whenever I get into a new town I call Sudsy and he will have an Open or above player for me to go and play with. It’s just great and since then I have been able to play some of the top pros on the men’s and women’s tours as well as some of the top players in my age bracket.”

Rich resigned from the Rockies in the middle of the 2002 season while they were going through some managerial changes. He is now with the Milwaukee Brewers where he is regarded as one of the best third base coaches in the game and a top candidate for a big league manager position if one opens.

“I’ve thought about managing and if it is offered then I would probably take it,” he said. “It’s not something that I am really worried about or thinking about.”

What he does think about all the time is racquetball. Anyone that has ever spoken to Rich can attest to that, including top IRT pro Mannino. “Rich loves racquetball as much as anyone I have ever talked to in my life,” Mannino confirmed. “He loves racquetball like an avid baseball fan loves baseball. Notice I used the word ‘avid’ and not ‘average’. He knows everything about everyone on the tour.”

Mannino has played Rich on many occasions and believes that he would be a leader in his age group. “I play Rich just about every time that he comes to town and he would definitely be in the top five of his age bracket,” he said. “He is extremely athletic and has great hands. He plays hard and is a real competitor.”

Monchik would go a step further by declaring Rich would be tops in his age bracket. “I really think he could be a national champion,” Monchik asserts. “He is one of the most competitive guys I have ever met, but also one of the classiest. Our sport is privileged to have a guy like Rich in it.” 

Rich describes his game style as unorthodox and says that playing on one-walled courts forced him to learn how to short-hop the ball. He takes shots from everywhere, including cutting off any ceiling ball hit to him.

“I play a different kind of game and it throws a lot of guys off,” he said of his style. “When I first started I learned to cut everything off and shoot it from wherever I could. Ceiling balls, everything.”

Still, with his hectic schedule, Rich hasn’t had the time to travel to any USRA national events. The National Singles are held in May during the baseball season. The National Doubles interfere with the baseball playoffs and even if the team he is coaching is out of contention at that time, it’s too close to the end of the season. “I probably wouldn’t have a wife to come home to if I told her I was leaving two days after the baseball season ended to play in a racquetball tournament.”

The best bet to see Rich at a national tournament would be at the U.S. OPEN. He has contemplated attending the premiere event, but still prefers to use that time to catch up with family. He does feel that he will make the trek to Memphis one of these years. Until then he remains satisfied with playing the top men’s and women’s pros as well as top ranked age group players from around the country to hone his skills.

Although Rich hasn’t made appearances at the major racquetball events, his passion for the sport hasn’t gone unnoticed. In fact, he has earned the respect of racquetball’s elite and was recently named to the IRT Board of Directors. 

“Rich was appointed for many reasons,” explained Negrete. “For his love of the game, his experience in dealing with professionals, and the contacts that he has in the sports world. He might be able to open some doors that we have found closed in the past.”

And that is what Rich wants to do. Help out the sport that has given him so much joy. “That’s what it is all about,” he said. “Giving back and trying to help out. I just want to help this sport and hopefully get these great athletes what they deserve.”

When asked which sport he liked best, baseball or racquetball, the answer was out of his mouth before the question was even complete. “Racquetball.” When asked why, his answer was short and simple, “I just love this game.”

After performing exploratory surgery, the doctors determined that the tumor was, in fact malignant. It was also inoperable, forcing Amy to endure months of chemotherapy with Rich flying down to see her as often as he could during the busy baseball season.

Meanwhile the Pirates were doing great. They ended up winning their division and faced the Atlanta Braves in the playoffs. Amy was always one of Rich's biggest supporters and wanted him to get to the World Series almost as much as he did. When one of Rich's friends, Vince Genovese, asked if he could fly Amy and her friend Cindy up to one of the games in Pittsburgh, they jumped at the opportunity.

After the game Amy, Cindy, and Rich were driving back to the hotel and Amy asked Rich an odd question. "When I am coaching third I get down into a stance, cup my hands and shout instructions to the runners. After the game, when we were driving back, Amy leaned up in the front and asked, 'Dad, when you get down in the stance what are you telling those guys? The chicken runs at midnight, or what?'" Rich recalled. "I laughed and asked her where she got that from and she said she didn't know, that it just came out. So that was like a funny deal."

The Pirates ended up losing their playoff series to the Braves, but Amy's saying, "The Chicken Runs at Midnight", stuck. It became a family motto during her illness. Whenever the family needed a lift someone would repeat the phrase that Amy coined and it would bring a smile to their faces. "It's in our house, on our pictures, and when we write letters to each other we always sign them 'The Chicken Runs at Midnight.'"

In January of 1993 Amy took a turn for the worse and went into a coma. She remained in a coma for three weeks and then passed away on January 28. Amy was buried in Arlington, Texas with the inscription "The Chicken Runs at Midnight" on her tombstone.

"That was an honor to her because she came up with that and kept the family going through all of this; all her sickness and illness," Rich said amid a wave of emotion. "She was upbeat all the time and would periodically say something about the chicken runs at midnight to help us get through this." Rich even carries a note in his pocket that Amy had written him during the series with Atlanta. "She wrote me a note saying 'Good Luck' and on the note she put, 'Dear Dad, The chicken runs at midnight. Love, Amy.' I've carried it for 10 years now and it is still a note that I carry today."

Five years after Amy's passing Rich followed Manager Jim Leyland to the Florida Marlins, to coach third base. The Marlins won their playoff series against San Francisco then Atlanta to earn the National League pennant. Rich had finally made it to the World Series. "I promised my youngest son, Tim, that if we ever made it to the playoffs again and the World Series that he would be there for every game. He was with Amy all of the time. When she got her chemo treatment he would not leave her side."

The Marlins faced the Cleveland Indians in one of the most dramatic World Series ever. Another of Rich’s sons, Mike, joined Tim as the batboy for the decisive game seven. The game went into extra innings and in the bottom of the 11th the Marlins had the bases loaded with two outs. The Marlins Craig Counsell was on third, representing the winning run. Counsell's nickname was "Chicken Man" because of the way he held his elbow up high and flapped it like a chicken wing when he batted. Edgar Renteria was at the plate and got a base hit off of Charles Nagy, scoring Counsell, and winning the game.

Rich tells the rest of the story, "It was complete pandemonium; crazy. There were 67,000 people in the place going nuts. You couldn't even hear yourself and there were people jumping everywhere on the field. I found my two sons, Mike and Tim, and Tim jumped into my arms and he was crying and screaming. I knew he was happy, but he was screaming and I could see that there was something different here. He was bawling his eyes out, you know how you sort of cry when you are happy sometimes, but he kept screaming for me to look. I asked him, 'Look? Look? What do you mean look? Where?' He was screaming and he said, 'Dad, look at the clock.' And there was a clock at Pro Player Stadium behind me where I coached third base and we looked up at the clock and it was twelve midnight and he said, 'Dad, the chicken ran at midnight.' Craig Counsell, the 'chicken', scored the winning run at midnight and it was like Amy knew. She came up with the phrase five years prior to that and then it happened — the chicken ran at midnight. A strange feeling just came over my whole body. I was just completely numb like someone just gave me a shot of Novocain. I couldn't even move or talk. I was just like, 'Wow.'

"After everything had happened, we all went into the clubhouse and everyone was celebrating all night. When everything calmed down, at like three in the morning, I reached into my briefcase and pulled out the note that she had written me five years ago. 'Dear Dad, The Chicken Runs at Midnight. Love, Amy.' I just looked at it and I wanted to call her and tell her that yes, the chicken did run at midnight."

Amy is centered above, among her brothers and Dad 
L-R: Bubba, Amy, Rich; Tim & Mike (foreground).