Vin Scully called, crying. “That’s the best book I’ve ever read,” he said.
Steubenville Monsignor Gerald Calovini also called. “That’s the second-best book I’ve ever read.”
Coming soon to a big screen near you:
“The Chicken Runs at Midnight.”
“I never thought I’d write a book,” Rich Donnelly was saying the other day. “I had never even read a book.”
It’s about so much more than Donnelly’s 50 years in baseball, although that alone would make for fascinating reading. He played for Ted Williams and worked for Billy Martin. “I was actually Billy’s driver,” Donnelly said. “I could write two books about that.” He was Jim Leyland’s third-base coach with the Pirates in the early-1990s, the franchise’s most successful run in the past half-century.
But Donnelly’s book, written with Tom Friend, is much deeper and more powerful, more inspirational. It's about family and faith. It’s about Donnelly’s son, Mike, who was killed by a speeding car a year ago while trying to help two stranded motorists on the side of a Dallas freeway. It’s about his daughters, Leighanne and Tiffany, who were in the horror of the Las Vegas shooting in October of 2017 and shielded bleeding victims. But, mostly, it’s about a message from heaven.
“I never believed in miracles,” Donnelly said. “I believe now.”
The story starts in the spring of 1992 as the Pirates were preparing for a third consecutive division title. Donnelly was in Bradenton, Fla., after a Grapefruit League game when the call came from his daughter, Amy, a high-school senior. “Dad, I have something to tell you. I have a brain tumor. I’m sorry.”
Surgery couldn’t remove the tumor behind Amy’s right eye. Doctors told her dad she had just nine months to live.
“We had three boys and a girl,” Donnelly said. “She was the darling of our family. I was her hero. Of course, I didn’t know it. Like a dummy.”
It was Leyland’s idea to bring Amy up from Arlington, Texas, where she was living at the time, to Game 5 of the National League championship series against the Braves. The Pirates won that night behind Bob Walk to stay alive and force a sixth and eventually a seventh game. As the Donnellys were driving home to Steubenville, Amy put her arms around her dad’s neck and asked him, “When you’re standing there at third base and cupping your hands and yelling at the runner at second base, what are you saying? The chicken runs at midnight or what?”
Everybody in the car laughed. No one knew where Amy came up with it. Including Amy.
But before Game 7 a few days later, Amy sent Donnelly a note through the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium operator. “Dad, the chicken runs at midnight. Love, Amy.”
Pirates second baseman Jose Lind saw Donnelly reading the note and asked about it. Suddenly, Lind was going through the clubhouse, yelling, “The chicken runs at midnight!” He said it on the field in the handshake line during the pregame introductions and could be heard on national television. “He didn’t know anything about it or what it meant,” Donnelly said. “Amy went crazy. That made her whole day.”
Unfortunately for the Pirates, the chicken didn’t run in Game 7. Sid Bream did. The Braves won, 3-2.
“Amy was more distraught than I was because I wasn’t going to the World Series,” Donnelly said. “She knew that always was my dream.”
Amy died Jan. 28, 1993. The Donnellys buried her with the phrase, “The Chicken Runs at Midnight,” on her tombstone. From then on, the family ended each correspondence with each other with the initials c.r.a.m. “It became our family motto,” Donnelly said.
Fast-forward to 1997.
Donnelly followed Leyland to Miami after Leyland was named manager of the Marlins. In July, the team traded for second baseman Craig Counsell, now the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers. Counsell had an odd batting style and flapped his arm like — you guessed it — a chicken. Donnelly’s sons Tim and Mike nicknamed him “Chicken Man.”
“I never gave it a second thought,” Donnelly said.
Not until Game 7 of the World Series, anyway.
Counsell was on third base and scored the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning when Edgar Renteria singled off Cleveland Indians pitcher Charles Nagy. Donnelly quickly found himself in the mob that celebrated on the infield at Pro Player Stadium. It seemed like all of South Florida was there.
“All of a sudden, I see my son Tim running toward me somewhere near second base,” Donnelly said. “He’s screaming and crying. He says, ‘Dad, look at the stadium clock.’ It was about two minutes after midnight. He says, ‘Dad, the chicken ran at midnight!’
“I fell to my knees. I just lost it. That phrase that Amy came up with that meant nothing suddenly turned into a miracle.”
Hours later, back in the Marlins clubhouse, Donnelly pulled out the note Amy had sent to him in Atlanta. “I wanted to call and tell her, ‘Amy, the chicken did run at midnight. It did.’”
The Nicotero brothers — Pittsburgh natives — heard Donnelly’s story and are trying to make it into a movie. Greg Nicotero is the executive producer of “The Walking Dead.” Donnelly says they are about 19 months into a three-year project.
There is no doubt who will be the star of the movie.
“It’s funny, my kids always thought of me as their hero,” Donnelly said. “No, no, it turned around. They are the heroes in my life.”
Mike Donnelly was 38 when he died in that Dallas accident. He had stopped to help a couple push a car off the road when he was struck and killed instantly. He was able to grab a woman and throw her to safety before he was hit.
“Your son knew me for 30 seconds and he saved my life,” Lyndsee Longoria told Donnelly the next day. “He is my hero.”
Another telephone call came from Longoria in November.
“She told me she just had a baby boy and named him Michael Donnelly Longoria,” Donnelly said.
Donnelly’s daughters from his second marriage, Leighanne and Tiffany, were on the Las Vegas strip enjoying a concert when shots came down from above from the Mandalay Bay Hotel. Fifty-eight people were killed and 851 were injured in the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in United States history.
“A woman was shot in the face right in front of them,” Donnelly said. “Another woman near them was shot. They did what they could to help. They shielded them. They were willing to give up their own life to save them.”
Donnelly talks about all of his children when he does book-signings or motivational speeches. There will be a 51st year in baseball for him; he’s signed to manage the New York Mets’ Rookie League team in Kingston, Tenn., this season. But it took that chicken running at midnight for him to realize there is more to life than job success.
“I try to tell people, whether they’re a husband or a wife, don’t ignore your children,” Donnelly said. “Do not leave them on the side of the highway as you try to get to your goal. I did it. My goal was to get to the big leagues. I ignored my kids. As a father, I wasn’t there. I regret it. I wrote the book so people wouldn’t do it. I wanted to get that message out there. Never take your kids for granted. Hug them. You never know.”
Ron Cook: rcook@post-gazette.com and Twitter @RonCookPG. Ron Cook can be heard on the “Cook and Joe” show weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on 93.7 The Fan.
First Published: January 13, 2019, 1:00 p.m.
