Reached at his home by phone, Tom Kelly was having a morning typical of a retiree: reading the newspaper, specifically the baseball box scores. However, Kelly—the deliverer of two World Series titles as a former Minnesota Twins manager—had also just been on the radio with WCCO, discussing the unveiling of a statue dedicated to fellow Twins legend Joe Mauer that Kelly was due to attend later that week.
That’s what life is like these days for Kelly. Though it’s been nearly 25 years since he last managed a major league game, he’s “still got a toe in there,” in his words—still a part of the Twins family and retaining an iconic place in Minnesota sports history.
Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn
Kelly, 74, has spent more than 50 years with the Twins organization as a player, coach, manager, and currently, as a special assistant. As manager, Kelly took a sixth-place team in 1986 to the World Series in 1987, winning the first major pro sports championship for Minnesota. The Twins repeated in 1991, famously winning Game Seven in extra innings in front of 55,000 Homer Hanky-waving fans at the Metrodome.
“That kind of impact, how it affects everybody in your community, or in the Upper Midwest anyway, is massive,” Kelly says. “It was really an eye-opening thing for me.”
Courtesy of Minnesota Twins
Kelly handed over the managerial reins to longtime assistant Ron Gardenhire in 2001 and transitioned into the special assistant role, which has included serving as a guest instructor at spring training, helping prepare scouting reports, and, perhaps most visibly to fans, doing some TV broadcasting.
Kelly says he has slowed down a bit in recent years, but still eagerly makes appearances when asked—occasionally doing some “schmoozing,” as he calls it—talking with fans and attending club events like the Mauer statue unveiling (as well as that of his own statue in 2017). Those events often give Kelly the opportunity to reconnect with former players and other Twins personalities he has formed relationships with over the past 50-plus years.
“It’s a lot of fun visiting with those former players and [Twins] Hall of Fame members,” Kelly says. “It’s good to see those guys and visit with them and tell stories.”
