PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Gene Lamont says even at 78 he has a deep love for baseball. He would sit at home until 11p managing every game on TV, so why not come back and help the Pirates?
The former Pirates manager and coach returned for a third stint in black and gold officially on Monday.
“I think there’s things that happen in the game, before the game, after the game that, because Donnie’s never managed, he may have a question,” Lamont said before joining the team on the field Monday. “Did I do the right thing or this? He can run things by me and I’ll mention some things to him. But I think a lot of it will be Donnie asking me questions.”
Lamont said he talked to his old boss Jim Leyland about the decision. Leyland actually told him that the Pirates would call and ask. He said he was ready to say yes right away, but made sure and asked his wife and other family before committing.
“I wanted to do it,” Lamont said.
Lamont coached Donnie Kelly with the Tigers and said you could tell that he was a real student of the game. He could tell by the kind of questions he would ask. A lot of them were about strategy and inside baseball which told him he could he could do this job.
He got his first managerial job after Leyland left the Pirates and said want made it work was the relationship with the players. You have to manage according to who your team is. They both had parts from the Hall of Famer Leyland that seeped into their managerial knowledge.
The big thing for Kelly is not just telling him what he wants to hear. Lamont promised to be honest when he questions a decision Kelly makes. Kelly in turn said that’s what he wants and needs. Lamont said it started to turn in Pittsburgh when they were hired in 1986 with how Leyland set the tone of who was in charge. He had to show some older players how they were going to do it. Then the general manager at the time, Syd Thrift, made some really good trades that got it going according to Lamont.
“The Pirates are really the first organization I think about, because this is where I came in '86 in a real bad situation,” Lamont said. “It's just good to get back out. I love the city. The ballpark is beautiful. I told somebody that I have a spade at home from when they first started digging to open this stadium, but I got fired and I guess they asked me not to attend the home opener.”
“The city's great. Good fans, but we're like anywhere else. You gotta win to really get the fans into the game.”
That’s why Lamont is here, to help Don Kelly turn around a disastrous start. He’s done it before, but not without help.