Pat Kelly (infielder)


Patrick Franklin Kelly is a former Major League Baseball infielder who played in the major leagues for nine seasons, seven of them with the New York Yankees.

Life and career

Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Catasauqua High School.
He was drafted by the New York Yankees in the ninth round of the 1988 amateur draft, but did not make his playing debut at the major league level until May 20, 1991 at age 23. In 1995 with the Yankees battling for the AL Wild Card, Kelly hit a crucial 2 run home run in the 9th inning against the Blue Jays in Toronto to cap a Yankee rally from a 3-0 deficit in the 3rd to last game of the season. Due to Kelly's go-ahead home run, the Yankees won the game 4-3 and were able to qualify for the playoffs 2 days later.
Kelly played seven seasons with the Yankees, spent 1998 with St. Louis Cardinals, and spent the first part of the 1999 season with the Toronto Blue Jays. He played his final MLB game on June 5, 1999, retiring on March 22, 2000.
Kelly batted and threw right-handed. His career Major League totals are.249 batting average, 36 home runs, and 495 hits in 681 games. He moved to Australia in 2001 and scouted for American baseball teams there. In 2009, he became an assistant coach with the Australia national baseball team. At the same time, he became the general manager for the Adelaide Bite in the Australian Baseball League team.
In 1994, Kelly married Rebecca Pontifex of Adelaide, Australia, who worked in public relations. Their son, Jack Kelly, dated American dancer Maddie Ziegler from early 2017 until mid 2018.