IL Louisville Bats

Pat Kelly Seeking to Join 1,800-Win Club

Published on August 6, 2021 under International League (IL)
Louisville Bats News Release


LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Current Louisville Bats skipper Pat Kelly is seeking to join the 1,800-win club when the team returns from its current road trip on Aug. 10. Kelly (1,796 wins) is just four wins shy of becoming only the fourth active manager with 1,800 wins at the Minor League level.

With three games remaining in the Bats' current road trip, Kelly can reach the prestigious win total when the Bats return to Louisville Slugger Field for a 12-game homestand from Aug. 10 - 22. The team will host the Nashville Sounds (Triple-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers) for the first six games of the homestand, thus pitting Kelly - in pursuit of his 1,800th win - against the Louisville franchise's all-time winningest manager, current Sounds skipper Rick Sweet.

Sweet managed the Bats from 2005-2011 and currently holds the franchise record for managerial wins with 539 victories in his seven-season tenure with the club. His 539 wins are 243 more than any other manager in team history (since 1982) and he is the franchise's lone skipper with more than 1,000 games piloting the Bats (1,004).

Sweet led Louisville to three consecutive International League West Division titles from 2008-10. He also was selected as both the manager of the IL Midseason All-Star team and league's Manager of the Year in 2008 and 2009.

Kelly is seeking to join Sweet as one of just four active managers with 1,800 career wins in the Minor Leagues. The three current managers to reach that prestigious win total are Buddy Bailey, Tom Kotchman and Sweet.

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