Kingsport Mets Announce Former Major League Coach Rich Donnelly as Manager

KINGSPORT, Tenn.- The Kingsport Mets announced their coaching staff for the 2019 Appalachian League season today. They welcome an all new staff that features a former major league and World Series champion coach, a former major league pitcher and a former KMets player. Rich Donnelly has been named Kingsport Mets manager, Jerome Williams  will serve as pitching coach, and Rafael Fernandez  as hitting coach.

Former major league coach, Rich Donnelly, begins his first year managing the Kingsport Mets and his fifth season in the New York Mets organization, spending 2011-2013 as manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones. He served as a major league coach for 29 seasons, with the Mariners, Dodgers, Brewers, Rockies, Pirates, Rangers and most notably the Marlins, where coaching under manager Jim Leyland, he won a World Series Championship in 1997. Before his major league coaching days, Donnelly coached in the minor leagues for the Texas Rangers. He was originally signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1967 as a catcher and played four years in the Twins organization.      
Away from the ballpark, Donnelly is a motivational speaker and in 2018 Rich Donnelly's life and story was turned into a book, The Chicken Runs at Midnight. The book is based on his life and the passing of his daughter, Amy. Donnelly is a Steubenville, OH native and now lives in Pittsburgh with his wife, Bertie.