Target Field to unveil a Tom Kelly statue on Friday
Target Field is getting another statue with a statue of Tom Kelly to be unveiled on Friday.
The Minnesota Twins have a very beautiful home with a lot of nice bells and whistles with Target Field. The ballpark will get another neat feature on Friday when the team unveils a statue of former manager Tom Kelly.
The Star Tribune reports that the statue will be unveiled at 4:30 on Target Plaza outside of Gate 34 on Friday afternoon. The statue of Kelly will be the eighth statue of an actual person around the Target Field grounds. As the Star Tribune points out there are already statues of Rod Carew, Calvin Griffin, Kent Hrbek, Harmon Killebrew, Carl and Eloise Pohlad, Kirby Puckett and Tony Olivia. There’s also a statue that features mascot TC the Bear outside on the plaza.
The statue of Kelly will be debuted as a kickoff event to the Twins’ 30th anniversary celebration of the 1987 World Series championship. Fans at Saturday’s game will be given out anniversary steins as part of the celebration.
Kelly was the manager of the Minnesota Twins from 1986-2001 and finished his managing career with a record of 1,140 – 1,244. Kelly was the manager of both the team’s two world championships in 1987 and 1991. The Twins only won two division championships under Kelly, both in the world championship seasons.
Kelly has the most wins of any manager in Minnesota Twins/Washington Senators history. Kelly and Ron Gardenhire are the only managers in franchise history to have over 1,000 wins. In 1991, Kelly won the Manager of the Year Award.
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The Twins also retired Kelly’s uniform number of 10 in 2012, an honor that has only been given out eight times in the Twins franchise. Kelly was a member of the second class enshrined into the Twins Hall of Fame in 2002 which was the first season after Kelly’s tenure as manager.
Minnesota has a storied history and a lot of people have put their stamp on the Twins franchise, but there are not many, if any, that have had more of an impact than Kelly. A Tom Kelly statue is a great idea and it’s surprising that it hasn’t happened before this weekend.
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