#Shortstops: The Chicken Runs at Midnight

“The Chicken Man” was not the only inside joke in the Donnelly household. Years earlier in 1992, Donnelly was coaching with Pittsburgh. The Pirates were playing the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series. Rich’s daughter, Amy, was in attendance for the game, sitting on the third base line. Amy and her friend spent the whole game guessing what Donnelly tells his base runners. On the way home from the game, Amy joked that when her father bent down to coach the runner on second he probably used a code phrase such as “The chicken runs at midnight.” The family got a kick out of the suggestion, but had no idea how that thought got in her mind.

However, the phrase stuck with the Donnelly Family, especially between Amy and her father, as it was a substitute for “I love you.” As the team headed to Atlanta for the remaining games of the NLCS, Amy stayed at home. At the time she was battling a brain tumor, undergoing both chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Before the first pitch of Game 6, Donnelly got a special delivery. The clubhouse attendant handed him a piece of paper with “While You Were Out” labeled on the top.

The message: “The Chicken Run’s at Midnight” from Amy. The Pirates won Game 6 that night and Amy watched from home as the team used her phrase as their battle cry. She knew the Pirates were only one win away from the World Series.

Ultimately, the Pirates lost Game 7 – and three months later Amy lapsed into a coma and the battle for her life came to an end. Her headstone reads: “The Chicken Runs at Midnight.”