NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Jim Leyland, who led the Florida Marlins to a World Series title in 1997 and gained 1,769 regular-season video games over 22 seasons as an entertaining and at-times crusty large league supervisor, was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday.
Now 78, Leyland acquired 15 of 16 votes by the modern period committee for managers, executives and umpires. He turns into the twenty third supervisor within the corridor.
Former participant and supervisor Lou Piniella fell one vote quick for the second time after additionally getting 11 votes in 2018. Former participant, broadcaster and government Bill White was two shy.
Managers Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson, umpires Joe West and Ed Montague, and common supervisor Hank Peters all acquired fewer than 5 votes.
Leyland managed Pittsburgh, Florida, Colorado and Detroit from 1986 to 2013.
He grew up within the Toledo, Ohio, suburb of Perrysville. He was a minor league catcher and occasional third baseman for the Detroit Tigers from 1965-70, by no means rising above Double-A and ending with a .222 batting common, 4 homers and 102 RBIs.
Leyland coached within the Tigers minor league system, then began managing with Bristol of the Appalachian Rookie League in 1971. After 11 seasons as a minor league supervisor, he left the Tigers to function Tony La Russa’s third base coach with the Chicago White Sox from 1982-85, then launched into a significant league managerial profession that noticed him take over the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986-96.
Honest, profane and continuously puffing on a cigarette, Leyland embodied the picture of the prickly baseball veteran with a gruff however clever voice. During a profession outdoors the key markets, he bristled at what he perceived as a scarcity of respect for his groups.
“It’s making me puke,″ he said in 1997. ”I’m sick and bored with listening to about New York and Atlanta and Baltimore.”
Pittsburgh obtained inside one out of a World Series journey in 1992 earlier than Francisco Cabrera’s two-run single in Game 7 gained 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 dropping season in 1996. Five days following his final recreation, he selected the Marlins over the White Sox, Red Sox and Angels.
Florida gained the title the following 12 months within the franchise’s fifth season, the youngest enlargement crew to earn a championship on the time. But the Marlins bought off veterans and tumbled to 54-108 in 1998, and Leyland left for the Rockies. He give up after one season, saying he lacked the wanted ardour, and labored as a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.
“I did a lousy job my last year of managing,″ Leyland said then. ”I stunk as a result of I used to be burned out. When I left there, I sincerely believed that I might not handle once more. … I all the time missed the competitors, however the final couple of years – and this caught in my craw somewhat bit – I didn’t need my managerial profession to finish like that.”
He changed Alan Trammell as Tigers supervisor forward of the 2006 season and stayed by way of 2013, successful a pair of pennants.
Leyland’s groups completed first six occasions and went 1,769-1,728. He gained American League pennants in 2006, dropping 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’ solely title.
He additionally was ejected 73 occasions, tied with Clark Griffith for tenth in main league historical past.
