The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired former manager Gene Lamont to serve on new manager Don Kelly’s coaching staff. He will serve as a “Special Advisor” to Kelly. The Pirates had two coaching vacancies to fill after they promoted Kelly to manager and fired game planning coach Radley Haddad. The other vacancy will be filled by Chris Truby, who was managing the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate, the Indianapolis Indians.
Chris Truby and Gene Lamont have joined the Major League coaching staff.
Truby, AAA Indy’s manager, will serve as a coach on the Major League staff and Lamont will serve as Special Advisor to Don Kelly.
In addition, Mike Rabelo will continue as 3B coach and expand his role on…
— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) May 16, 2025
Lamont Returns to the Pirates
The big news is the return of Lamont to Pittsburgh. When Jim Leyland became the Pirates’ manager in 1986, his first move was to hire Lamont to be his third base coach. Leyland and Lamont had both been catchers in the Detroit Tigers system. However, Lamont was the only one of the two to get a taste of major league action. Lamont was part of Leyland’s staff until he became the Chicago White Sox manager in 1992. He returned to the Pirates after the White Sox fired him in 1995. When Leyland asked out of his Pirates contract after the 1996 season, Lamont was named to replace him.
The White Sox Years
Lamont managed the White Sox to two first-place finishes in the American League West Division in 1993 and 1994. His 1993 White Sox lost to the eventual World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays in the AL Championship Series. A baseball strike and work stoppage canceled the 1994 postseason. It was unfortunate for the White Sox and the Montreal Expos, both of which were favorites to play in the World Series.
Lamont’s teams accomplished what they did despite numerous unwanted distractions. It was quite a circus in Chicago. Lamont may have felt more like a ringmaster than a manager. Carlton Fisk, a player in decline, was hanging on to become the all-time leader in games played by a catcher. White Sox management wanted to see Bo Jackson in the lineup, even though injuries had rendered him a shadow of his once-superstar caliber self. Oh, yeah – and a guy named Michael Jordan was lurking with Double-A Birmingham.
The Freak Show
For the Pirates and Lamont, 1997 was a magical year. Despite most of the team’s star players being traded in the offseason, and thanks to a dozen or so wildly improbable victories and a weak National League Central Division, the Pirates were in the race until there were five games left in the season. Dubbed the “Freak Show” by Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown, the Pirates did it with a rookie closer in Rich Loiselle, career minor leaguer Kevin Polcovich, who worked as a grocer during spring training, at shortstop, right fielder José Guillén, who made the jump from Single-A, and center fielder Turner Ward, lured back to the majors from his son’s tee-ball team. Lamont presided over all of it with an aggressive, playing-with-house-money managerial style.
Where to begin when describing 1997? There was the only 10-inning combined no-hitter in major league history by Francisco Cordoba and Ricardo Rincon, ending with Mark Smith’s home run. There was Polcovich, beating Curt Schilling and the Philadelphia Phillies with a seventh-inning home run. And there was the Pirates’ three-game sweep of the White Sox, who were paying Albert Belle more than the Pirates’ entire $9 million payroll.
The Last Word
Unfortunately, like every Pirates manager who followed him, Lamont was a victim of poor personnel decisions. It became known publicly toward the end of the 2000 season that Lamont wouldn’t return in 2001. Lamont would finish out the year as the Pirates manager anyway. He received a rousing standing ovation from the fans before the final game at Three Rivers Stadium. Pirates fans will like having him back.
As a manager, Lamont was 258-210 with the White Sox and 295-352 with the Pirates. He’ll wear uniform number 54 when he joins the team on Monday. While his exact role isn’t clear, “Special Assistant” sounds like a bench coach to this writer. He’ll bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the job.
Main Photo Credits: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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