Little did he know. Little did anyone know. Who could have guessed when Don Kelly, a youngster from Kenmont Avenue, showed up at the door of Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland on a few Halloween nights, that many years later Kelly would find himself with the same job?

The trick-or-treater then is the Pirates manager now.

Kelly was promoted from bench coach to manager on May 8, when the Pirates fired Derek Shelton. Kelly had been his hometown major league team’s bench coach since 2019.

He walked into a tough situation – the Pirates were 12-26 and struggling in many areas at the time of the change – but in his big-league managerial debut, Kelly, 45, picked up a 3-2 win at home over the Atlanta Braves.

That snapped a seven-game losing streak and earned Kelly a sports drink deluge from the players.

“I got drenched, and it was cold. It’s really cold,” a smiling Kelly said after the Pirates had to withstand a nail-biter of a ninth inning to hold on.

“That’s baseball. That’s fun. Everybody’s on the edge of their seat.”

Kelly’s ties to baseball run deep. In high school, he helped Mt. Lebanon win a state championship in 1998. He played college ball at Point Park before a pro career as a scrappy utility player for three teams over nine years, including his first 25 major league games with the Pirates.

His brother-in-law is former Pirates player Neil Walker, who served as the color analyst for SportsNet Pittsburgh for Kelly’s debut.

His ties to Leyland, a Hall of Famer, also run deep, and not just because Kelly grew up in Mt. Lebanon, where Leyland lived for many years. After his playing career, including five years in Detroit with Leyland as his manager, Kelly began his post-playing career in scouting and development in 2017 with Detroit, where Leyland was retired but still involved with the management.

“Really close with (Leyland),” Kelly told SportsNet Pittsburgh. “To go from a kid in Mt. Lebanon trick-or-treating at Jim’s house to now being a manager – following in his footsteps, with guys in between – is just extremely humbling, and really excited for
the opportunity.

The Pirates aren’t using an “interim” tag for Kelly, but there are no guarantees beyond the end of this season. He will have a chance to prove himself.

“He’s an elite human being,” Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said during a press conference.

Ed McCloskey, Kelly’s coach in high school, echoed Cherington’s choice of words.

“Let’s start out with he’s an outstanding human being. He is really one of the greatest kids I’ve ever had as far as his personality,” he said. “He had a quiet demeanor, but was a fierce competitor. My wife taught him in grade school and said all of the same things; what a great kid he was, smart in all the subjects and pleasant to have in her classroom.”

Kelly helped lead the Blue Devils to a PIAA state championship in 1998, his senior year. Described as a great base runner, with a great baseball IQ, “You didn’t have to tell him how to do something a couple of times, he picked it up right away and did it very well,” McCloskey added.

In 80 plate appearances in his senior year, Kelly struck out only once. “It was a called strike, and I think the umpire missed the call,” according to McCloskey.

At Point Park, he was a career .400 hitter, with 34 doubles, 92 RBIs and 74 stolen bases. His accomplishments earned him All-American honors. When he was inducted into Point Park’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009, his presenter was Jim Leyland.

The 2001 graduate continues to be a strong advocate for the school and its athletics program.

To this day, Kelly continues mentoring at his alma mater, coming in during the off season, talking to the players and showing up at workouts.

“Donnie has been a huge supporter of our program and institution for many years and we could not be prouder of his accomplishment,” said Loren Torres, Point Park Pioneers current head baseball coach. “He is a member of our Athletic Hall of Fame, but first and foremost everyone that knows him well would agree that he is a Hall of Fame person in general.”

Cherington believes that Kelly’s ties to Pittsburgh can only help.

“He’s an incredibly mature baseball person who’s been around great people. He’s seen everything there is to see in the game of baseball,” Cherington said. “He certainly has a teacher’s heart. He wakes up thinking about how to help somebody else. That’s a quality that I like to be around. And I think this is personal for him. This is not just a job; this is a team and a city that truly means something to him.”

Kelly is widely considered an approachable, genuine sort. He will most likely be seen as a players’ manager.

That doesn’t mean he won’t hold the Pirates players to a higher standard.

“Sometimes being there for them is holding them accountable, finding a way to let them know that the way that (we’ve been) doing things isn’t the way that they’re going to be doing those things,” he said during his first press conference
as manager.

Kelly said in his first pregame meeting in the clubhouse, he advised the players about “going out there having that enthusiasm like you were a little kid, and going out there playing the game with that energy, that type of commitment. Just really want them to know that I’m there for them and try to relay those expectations — how do you compete every single pitch, every single at-bat?”

It was no surprise to McCloskey that Kelly got the nod to become Pirates skipper. “I was kind of expecting it, to tell the truth.”