Pirates’ Don Kelly had a front-row seat for both ends of Justin Verlander’s legendary career

Long before Don Kelly was managing the Pittsburgh Pirates, he was standing at third base wondering what exactly the Detroit Tigers had just unleashed on professional baseball.

It was June 21, 2005. Kelly was playing for the Double-A Erie SeaWolves when a 22-year-old Justin Verlander made his first start at the level.

Verlander struck out the first seven hitters he faced. Kelly committed an error on a broken-bat ground ball to end the streak, and Verlander responded by striking out the next two. He finished with 12 strikeouts over seven innings.

Twenty-one years later, Kelly had another front-row seat Saturday as Verlander took the mound for the final time. Only this time Kelly wasn't standing behind him at third base. He was sitting in the opposing dugout as manager of the Pirates.

Kelly and Verlander's connection stretches far beyond that first afternoon in Double-A. They were teammates with the Tigers from 2009 through 2014, when Verlander was already establishing himself as one of the defining pitchers of his generation. They crossed paths again with the Houston Astros in 2019, with Kelly serving as first-base coach while Verlander won his second Cy Young Award.

Then came Saturday. Verlander, 43, hadn't appeared in a major-league game since March and had spent much of his final season battling injuries. None of that mattered once he stepped onto the mound at Comerica Park.

He gave Detroit 5 1/3 innings, struck out six and allowed only two runs in the Tigers' eventual 4-3 victory. He left the mound to an emotional ovation, accompanied by his daughter Genevieve, bringing one of baseball's greatest pitching careers to an appropriately theatrical conclusion.

Don Kelly’s 21-year connection to Justin Verlander came full circle in Pirates dugout

Verlander finished his career with 266 victories, 3,560 strikeouts and a 3.33 ERA across 21 seasons. He won three Cy Young Awards, the 2011 American League MVP, two World Series championships and established himself as one of the most dominant pitchers of his era.

Kelly saw the foundation before almost anyone. He saw the kid throwing triple digits in Double-A. He saw Verlander develop into Detroit's ace. He shared a clubhouse with him during some of the best seasons of Verlander's career. He coached alongside him in Houston. And then, improbably, he was there when it ended.

A Pirates clubhouse filled with players who grew up watching Verlander suddenly got to experience history from only a few feet away. Konnor Griffin wasn't even born when Verlander reached the majors. Paul Skenes called Verlander an example for everyone in the sport. Braxton Ashcraft marveled before the game at the sheer volume of innings, strikeouts and victories Verlander accumulated in a game that increasingly makes that kind of longevity difficult to imagine.

Before Saturday, Kelly described Verlander as the kind of competitor who could be beaten without ever believing he had lost. That stubbornness helped explain how a pitcher who once overwhelmed Double-A hitters with triple-digit velocity was still willing himself through more than five innings at age 43 after essentially six months without a major-league appearance.

There aren't many people who can say they witnessed nearly the entire arc. Kelly can.

In 2005, he watched from third base as everyone began realizing Justin Verlander might be something special. In 2026, he watched from the Pirates' dugout as Verlander walked off a major-league mound for the last time.

Baseball has a funny way of bringing things full circle.

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