COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Perrysburg native Jim Leyland, who was destined for success ever since his high school days as a star athlete and student has reached the pinnacle of his profession.
Leyland, former coach of the Detroit Tigers, who led the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 1997 and won 1,769 regular-season games over 22 seasons as an entertaining and at-times crusty big league manager, was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Now 78, Leyland received 15 of 16 votes by the contemporary era committee for managers, executives and umpires. He becomes the 23rd manager in the hall.
Leyland managed Pittsburgh, Florida, Colorado and Detroit from 1986 to 2013.
Years ago, in 2007, Leyland was elected to a much smaller hall of fame, the Perrysburg High School athletic hall of fame.
While at Perrysburg, Leyland was selected All NLL quarterback in football and also selected All Wood County guard in basketball and All NLL in baseball. He was voted the "Most Popular Boy" by the student body in 1962.
He was a minor league catcher and occasional third baseman for the Detroit Tigers from 1965-70, never rising above Double-A and finishing with a .222 batting average, four homers and 102 RBIs.
Leyland coached in the Tigers minor league system, then started managing with Bristol of the Appalachian Rookie League in 1971.
After 11 seasons as a minor league manager, he left the Tigers to serve as Tony La Russa’s third base coach with the Chicago White Sox from 1982-85, then embarked on a major league managerial career that saw him take over the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986-96.
Honest, profane and constantly puffing on a cigarette, Leyland embodied the image of the prickly baseball veteran with a gruff but wise voice.
During a career outside the major markets, he bristled at what he perceived as a lack of respect for his teams.
“It’s making me puke,″ he said in 1997. ”I’m sick and tired of hearing about New York and Atlanta and Baltimore.”
Pittsburgh got within one out of a World Series trip in 1992 before Francisco Cabrera’s two-run single in Game 7 won the NL pennant for Atlanta.
The Pirates sank from there following the free-agent departures of Barry Bonds and ace pitcher Doug Drabek, and Leyland left after Pittsburgh’s fourth straight losing season in 1996. Five days following his last game, he chose the Marlins over the White Sox, Red Sox and Angels.
Florida won the title the next year in the franchise’s fifth season, the youngest expansion team to earn a championship at the time. But the Marlins sold off veterans and tumbled to 54-108 in 1998, and Leyland left for the Rockies. He quit after one season, saying he lacked the needed passion, and worked as a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I did a lousy job my last year of managing,″ Leyland said then. ”I stunk because I was burned out. When I left there, I sincerely believed that I would not manage again. ... I always missed the competition, but the last couple of years — and this stuck in my craw a little bit — I did not want my managerial career to end like that.”
He replaced Alan Trammell as Tigers manager ahead of the 2006 season and stayed through 2013, winning a pair of pennants.
Leyland’s teams finished first six times and went 1,769-1,728. He won American League pennants in 2006, losing to St. Louis in a five-game World Series, and 2012, getting swept by San Francisco. Leyland was voted Manager of the Year in 1990, 1992 and 2006, and he managed the U.S. to the 2017 World Baseball Classic championship, the Americans’ only title.
He also was ejected 73 times, tied with Clark Griffith for 10th in major league history.
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