SEATTLE - "The chicken runs at midnight". An odd phrase. Nonsensical even. But, to Mariners 3rd base coach Rich Donnelly, that phrase means the world.
"I never believed in miracles, but I do now," said Donnelly.
When Donnelly was with the Pirates in 1992, he got a call from his 17-year-old daughter Amy.
"She says uh I have a brain tumor and I'm sorry."
Doctors said she had nine months to live.
Donnelly said, "(It) was like gettin' kicked in the stomach."
Amy went to as many games as she could. And she noticed her dad had a quirky way of communicating with players.
Donnelly explained, "She says, 'when you get down to 3rd and you cup your hands like this, what are you tellin that runner at 2nd?, the chicken runs at midnight, or what?' And I went what? Where'd you come up with that one? She just said, 'I don't know, it just came out.'"
They still don't know where it came from. But that random phrase about a chicken...running at midnight became the family motto as Donnelly coaches in the playoffs and Amy battles the tumor behind her eye.
"She wrote me a note before the game. And she said, 'good luck Dad. Chicken runs at midnight.' And I kept that note in my locker. Every day I carried it with me," said Donnelly.
With Amy watching, her dad's Pirates lose a tight game and the 1992 National League Championship Series to the Braves.
"We did not get to the World Series. Cuz I told her if we made it, I was gonna take her."
Just a few months later...
"She was in a coma for about 3 weeks. And on January 28, 1993, she passed away," said Donnelly.
On Amy's tombstone in Arlington, Texas, it reads "The Chicken Runs at Midnight."
"We thought that's appropriate."
Fast forward four years. Donnelly is now a coach with the Marlins in the 1997 World Series. His sons takes a liking to shortstop Craig Counsell.
"When Craig used to hit, he use to hold his elbow up real high and sorta flap it. Well, my two kids, Tim and Mike, they were the bat boys, they always made fun of him all year and called him the Chicken Man cuz he was flappin' his arm like a chicken," explained Donnelly.
The 7th and deciding game goes to the 11th inning. It's tied at 2 with Counsell at 3rd.
Donnelly explained what happened next, "Edgar Renteria gets a base hit up the middle. Counsell scores the winning run, we win the world series. And it's complete pandemonium."
Counsell, "the chicken", scores the clincher.
"I'm trying to find my two sons," explained Donnelly. "They were the bat boys. And I see Tim. He runs up to me and uh....he was crying. I say, 'what's the matter?' He was screamin'. I say, "what's the matter with you?" He said, 'dad look. Look at the clock behind you.' The stadium clock, it said 12 midnight. Exactly. Tim said, 'dad the chicken ran at midnight!' And uh. I just became limp. I couldn't believe what he just said."
For Amy, the chicken did run at midnight.
Donnelly said, "She was only here 17 years. She wanted to be a teacher. And, I always tell people she was the greatest teacher I ever had. She uh, she showed my how to live. And she showed me how to die."
"I always said I wanted to take her to the world series if we ever got there. But in my mind she was there."
