Pirates Manager Understands Fans Frustrations

He also attended Point Park University and played three seasons, hitting .413 and striking out just 20 times over 500 at-bats, played for the Pirates in 2007 and also six seasons for the Detroit Tigers, 2009-14, under manager Jim Leyland, who was the Pirates manager for 11 seasons from 1986-96.

The Pirates have struggled on the field for most of younger fans lifetimes, with the last playoff series win coming against the Baltimore Orioles in seven games in the 1979 World Series.

Pittsburgh has only made the playoffs six times since then, which saw them lose three straight years in the NLCS from 1990-92, a Wild Card win and then a loss in the NLDS in 2013 and then back-to-bac defeats in the Wild Card game in 2014 and 2015.

The Pirates also set the North American Professional Sports Record (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL), with 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993-2012.

Losing has continued for the Pirates, who have missed the playoffs for 10 consecutive seasons and had seven straight losing seasons, the second-longest streaks in the MLB, just behind the Los Angeles Angels.

Kelly reminisced during his press conference after signing the extension about growing up in Pittsburgh and as a Pirates fans, watching the team falter in the postseason.

He understands that the fans want to see winning and that is what drives him to that goal as well, wanting to deliver that for the city and doing whatever he can to achieve it.

“Thinking about the players and thinking about being from the City of Pittsburgh, I was a fan first," Kelly said. "Growing up, in 1992, Francisco Cabrera ripped my heart out, just like he probably everybody in Pittsburgh. Remembering that moment, I was talking to Brian Warecki earlier today. (Cabrera) was actually a coach for me in the Tigers system and I made sure I told him that he ripped my heart out in that moment. That was gut-wrenching. That’s something that still drives me.

"I was 12 years old when that happened, and it still drives me to this day – and I understand Pittsburgh fans because I am one. They’re passionate. They’re relentless. It's going to be on both sides. I know that when we are winning here in Pittsburgh the fans are going to be there. We also hear it whenever we’re not doing the things that we need to do.

"That’s what drives me, that is what drives us every single day to be the best version of ourselves, to be the best version out on the field and to work tirelessly towards bringing winning baseball back to Pittsburgh, which we are going to do.

"We’ve taken strides this year in doing that. We are certainly not there yet. We are on the track to get there. But we are on the way and I think that the culture in the clubhouse, the players’ commitment to each other, to winning and, honestly, in representing Pittsburgh in the right way, the way that I’ve known the city as a blue-collar, hard-working town that does those things every single day. That’s the standard that we expect from our players: To show up and work tirelessly. We talked a lot this year about earning respect in how we do that every single day. It never stops. It never has stopped.

"I look back for myself, being from Mt. Lebanon, going to Point Park – I wasn’t D1 – but finding a way through people that poured into me – Al Liberi, Steve Eramus ??? – people that were instrumental in me becoming the baseball player and the man that I am. I think that as we talk about that respect factor and how we earn that every single day, that was the challenge that we presented to the players of show up every day to earn it.

"The one thing that I wanted them to know that, as their manager, I was going to fight for them every single day. Out on the field, regardless of the other team, I know that we made jokes about it that I’m pretty mild-mannered most of the time, I got tossed out of a game pretty quickly. And it wasn’t planned. It was part of that I felt the inclination to earn it and to have their backs. I think that going forward, whether that’s the players, we’re going to go out and we’re going to work tirelessly, I’m going to work tirelessly to hold the players, the staff accountable to that."