During the Ranger managerial search, I've seen the name Tom Kelly thrown out by folks a few times, as someone who would supposedly be an ideal hire for the Rangers.
Others in the national media have used him as an example of a great manager who some team should hire.
The thing is...Tom Kelly's record isn't that good.
Check out his managerial career. Kelly had five winning teams in 15 years. Yes, the Twins won two World Series championships while he was there -- one in his first year, when the Twins won just 85 games and rode Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven all the way, and once in 1991.
But the team did nothing after that...the Twins finished under .500 for eight seasons in a row, before finally, in Kelly's final season, 2001, going 85-77.
Yet, for some reason, because Kelly managed for a small market team, he is deemed exempt from any criticism. Because his team won a couple of titles, it doesn't matter that they sucked from that point on, that his career record is 104 games under .500.
There's not a lot of evidence that Tom Kelly is a great manager. And I don't see why anyone would want the Rangers to hire him.