TTM Stats
- Sent: 9/17/2019 | Received: 10/8/2019 | 21 Days
- ’88 Topps, ’89 Topps (returned two other unsigned)
- Address: Home (address from Sports Card Forum)
The Story of the Autograph
Tom Kelly is a former player and manager in Major League Baseball. He played during just one season in 1975 with the Minnesota Twins and later managed the team from 1986 through 2001.
Kelly started coaching and managing almost immediately after his career as a player was finished. In fact, he started as a player/manager in the minors after returning to the Twins organization in 1977. He started as a full-time manager the next season at the Class A level. By 1981 he was the skipper of the Double-A team in Orlando and won a Southern League championship.
He was moved up to the big leagues as a third base coach in 1983 as part of Billy Gardner’s staff. He stayed on with manager Ray Miller and then was appointed the manager at the end of the 1986 season, on September 12th.
Kelly would have a great career as the Twins manager. He went on to be the longest tenured manager in the teams history. More importantly, he was the manager of the Twins at some of their best times for the franchise. In 1987 and 1991 he led the team to World Series championships against the Cardinals and Braves respectively. In 1991 he was also the AL Manager of the Year.
But while the beginning of this managerial career in MLB was great, the end was not so much. The team cleared started to clear out all of it’s higher salaries in 1998 and in 2001 he resigned after eight straight losing seasons.
The Score on Tom Kelly – 5.5
Tom has a nice signature but these cards do not do it justice. Those dark Twins batting practice jerseys do not make a great backdrop for it. There are two things about Tom’s signature that I like best. First is the top of his “T”. I love the way it loops back down. And then I like his quirky “K” that kinda looks like a “B.”
Thanks Mr. Kelly! I’m giving this return a 5.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.