August 2, 2010
Kelly returns to his roots
by Kevin Henkin/
John Kelly has played professional baseball for 17 years, pitching for teams in six countries and four continents. Now he's close to home pitching for the Worcester Tornadoes.
In his seventeen years of professional baseball, John Kelly has pitched for teams in six countries on four continents. This year, the Leominster native has finally landed close to home on the roster of the Worcester Tornadoes.
In some ways, Kelly’s background looks more like a passport book than a resumé. Even so, don’t let the frequent-flier miles cloud the fact that he’s been an exceptional pitcher throughout his career.
While pitching for the University of Connecticut, Kelly earned All-American and Cape Cod League Pitcher of the Year honors, as well as a spot on the 1993 Team USA squad (with teammates including Todd Helton, Todd Walker and Mark Bellhorn).
In the 1994 amateur entry draft, Kelly was selected by the New York Mets with the first pick of the 11th round (288th overall). Notable players who were taken after Kelly that year included Carl Pavano (Red Sox, 13th round), Dave Roberts (Tigers, 30th round) and Eric Gagne (White Sox, 30th round).
After the draft, as Kelly moved his way up though Single-A and Double-A ball, he played with teams in locations such as Lynchburg, Virginia, St. Lucie, Florida, and Visalia, California.
In 1999, after seemingly running out of options with Major League Baseball affiliated clubs, Kelly spent a year in independent leagues before taking his talents overseas. He spent the next four years playing professionally for teams in Taiwan and Italy. Between spots, he also played some winter ball in Colombia, Mexico and Hawaii.
Kelly returned to the states in 2003 to play for the North Shore Spirit of the Can-Am League, armed with commanding location of his arsenal of pitches. That year, he went 13-2 with a 2.17 ERA. He returned to the North Shore in 2004 with similar early-season success until his contract was bought by the Seattle Mariners. Kelly spent the rest of that season with their Triple-A Tacoma affiliate.
Regarding his season in Tacoma, Kelly said: “I mostly came out of the bullpen but I had two spot starts. I pitched well and I was happy with how I did. It was a good experience.”
Alas, the Mariners found no room on their roster for Kelly in 2005 so he returned to the Can-Am League, where he continued to be a dominant presence on the mound for the North Shore Spirit, the Brockton Rox and the New Jersey Jackals.
Chris Carminucci, who coached Kelly last season with the Rox, said, “I’ve known John for a long time. Being on the other end of that arm isn’t too much fun having to manage a team against him. He’s got such a lively fastball and a real good curve ball. He would come at you and make you look stupid and kill a lot of players’ confidence, so I would give certain guys the day off when I knew he was pitching against us.”
This past offseason, Kelly was welcomed with open arms to the starting rotation of the Worcester Tornadoes, bringing him the closest he’s ever been to his home in Leominster.
“Being 20 minutes from home, I can still live with my family,” said Kelly. “ It doesn’t affect anybody at home. In fact, my family likes to come to the games. My two boys and little girl really enjoy themselves there.”
As he had in the prior two seasons with the Brockton Rox, Kelly is serving in dual roles this year as both a pitcher and the pitching coach for the Tornadoes. Thus far, he’s drawn rave reviews from his teammates for his performance in both aspects.
“As a pitcher, you know what you’re going to get when he goes out there,” said John Slusarz, the team’s closer. “He’ll give you five, six, seven strong innings, He’s going to keep the tempo of the game flowing. He’s going to keep the fielders involved. He goes about his business and he works at it ...
“As a pitching coach, I think he’s good for all the guys because he’s still a young guy at heart and you can talk to him like he’s another player. He’s been at a lot of different levels and has come across a lot of coaches who have helped him.”
Alex Trezza, the team’s starting catcher and a six-year veteran of the CanAm himself, noted the importance of Kelly’s leadership role.
“I actually had the pleasure to play with John in 2005 and 2006 on the North Shore together so that was a good experience for me,” said Trezza. “He was already a veteran leader to me even back then, so with even more experience now, he’s just a great addition to this team.”
Rich Gedman, the former All-Star catcher for the Red Sox and current manager of the Tornadoes, said of Kelly’s coaching approach: “He has a wonderful teaching way with the guys and he sees the game very clearly. He’s somebody they can go to talk to because he’s been through it at so many different levels.”
Over the past three seasons, Kelly has found the right balance between pitching and attending to coaching.
“It’s important for me to find time to get my own work in,” he said. “I try to do it in between batting practice. But other than that, we have a great pitching staff. We have good hard workers so it makes it easy for me.”
Since 2007, Kelly also has spent each spring spreading his knowledge as the manager of the varsity baseball team at Concord-Carlisle High School.
Regarding Kelly’s future as a full-time professional coach, Gedman said: “I don’t think there’s any question that he would be very good, whether as a coach or as a manager. Having persevered through so many things, he’ll be very good at whatever he decides to be good at because that’s just the way he is.”
Carminucci echoed that sentiment. “He’s already a heck of a pitching coach,” he said. “I think he’ll be a heck of a manager. He knows the game. He’s the kind of guy who gets respect because players know what he’s accomplished. He comes at you to help you as opposed to going after you and putting you down. I think there’s always a spot for someone like that in the game.”
