Tom Kelly is on WCCO Radio with Dark Star from 9:30 to 10 p.m. on weekday nights through the World Series. After that he is on with Star at the same time on Tuesdays. This reminds a writer that perhaps no local coach or manager ever took the time to explain his sport to the public like Kelly, the former Twins manager.
Star and Kelly are long time friends. “I thought I knew a lot about baseball before I met Kelly,” Star said. “I didn’t know anything.”
For years while Kelly was managing the Twins his radio show was hosted by Dave Mona and Sid Hartman. Mona said he thinks Kelly wants people to appreciate baseball at a “deeper level” so Kelly can often be very detailed in his responses to questions.
Mona used to anticipate when a classic Kelly answer was about to be delivered after a WCCO caller had posed a question. “Sometimes I could audibly hear him sigh and Sid would start to say, ‘goodbye,’ and Tom would say, ‘no, let’s hear him out.’ And then there were two keys to what was going to follow. The first was, ‘oh, my,’ which is only two words but spoke volumes if you knew Kellyese because you knew the recipient of the, ‘oh, my,’ was about to get a tutorial on how baseball is done (played).
“And the other (key) would be, ‘well, let’s take a look at the situation.’ And then Tom would start with reverse roles and become the person asking the questions (of the caller) and I always thought when he did that it was some of the most insightful Tom Kelly shows in history because of the kinds of questions he asked.”
Mona then gave these examples of questions. “What was the count? Who was on desk? What’s his experience been with that pitcher? Who is in the bullpen? How have they done against him? What sort of bunter is he?…I thought during those times people got a pretty rare insight into the seemingly easy but really very complicated world of being a major league manager and I don’t think anyone ever did that better than Tom when he was going through one of those
Q & A’s.”