A story of baseball, family and love from almost 20 years ago will be told as never before on the Sunday, July 10, editions of ESPN SportsCenter.

Sunday’s SC Featured segment on SportsCenter will tell the story of former Major League Baseball coach Rich Donnelly, whose dying teenage daughter Amy’s prophetic words played out on a World Series stage, forever bonding father and daughter.

The story weaves through two postseason games and culminates with a family’s stunning discovery that helps them deal with their grief. “The Chicken Runs at Midnight” will debut in the 10 a.m. edition of SportsCenter and will re-air in other editions of the program throughout the day.

Though the events happened more than 20 years ago, and the story has been told in several formats, ESPN Features Unit producer Jeff Ausiello and reporter Tom Friend felt the time was right for a more in-depth version.

“I’ll be honest, it’s one of those stories that I read and it gave me goosebumps,” said Ausiello. “I think that’s always a good indication, and the more and more we started talking to people about it, we realized this is a story we’ve got to do and do it right. Tom and I just kept pushing for it.”

That included getting new interviews with Donnelly and his son, Tim, as well as Amy’s high school friend Cindy Sample, who was with Amy in the stands when Amy coined the “Chicken Runs at Midnight” phrase as her dad coached the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 1992 playoff game.

Jim Leyland, who was manager of the Pirates in that 1992 game and the Florida Marlins when they won the 1997 World Series (where the story climaxes in Game 7), agreed to narrate the piece.

The family gave Ausiello photos, including some of Amy and Sample the night of that game, and by reviewing video of that game, he found a shot of the two in their seats behind home plate. Ausiello also combed through hundreds of Super 8 home movies.

“The central figure in this feature is obviously Amy Donnelly,” he said. “Through these home movies, you’re able to see who this girl was, happy, full of life, and I think it made a big difference in being able to tell her story and get a true idea of who she was.

“When Rich and Tim saw it, that’s one of the first things they were blown away by – Rich said he’d never seen the movies.

“When you consider how long ago a lot of these events happened, and when you see Rich and how emotional he gets, in a way, he’s reliving it every day, and that’s his mission to continue to carry the spirit of his daughter around and to share it with as many people as he can to help other families out there.”

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Media contact: andy.hall@espn.com