PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was a relationship that started as an unintended nuisance and has evolved into an important friendship. Derek Shelton and Jim Leyland get together regularly and the future Hall of Famer is a mentor to the current manager.
There have been lessons in patience and the ability to listen that really strike home with Shelton. But at first, Shelton wouldn’t listen or at least take the call.
“I kept getting a call from a Detroit number right after I got the job and like the first three times, I didn't answer it,” Shelton recalled on Friday before Leyland threw out the first pitch. “The fourth time, I was at dinner with my wife and some friends and I may have had a glass of bourbon or two and finally I was like, ‘I’m going to answer this call.’ The first thing out of his mouth was, ‘Hey, this is Jim Leyland.’”
“I kind of sat up like my dad had called me.”
Leyland asked if he would like to go to breakfast to discuss the job.
Shelton said he learned about how passionate the fans are in Pittsburgh. He said Leyland talked for four hours about their passion and how much they want to change and how engaged they are.
“He doesn’t need any help in terms of strategy,” Leyland said. “It’s not anything complicated. It’s a friendly discussion talking about something we both enjoy. We have become friends. I pull hard for him.”
“He is a curious learner, which is really interesting to me,” Shelton said. “He still asks me questions about why we’re doing things and how we’re doing things. He’s notorious for, ‘I don’t care if you want my opinion. I’m going to give it to you,’ and he gives it back to me.”
“It’s beautiful because the way he looks at the game is why he’s in the Hall of Fame.”
“Derek does a lot of the things that I tried to do in that you try to make the clubhouse a fun place to come to and a great place to work,” Leyland said. “You get that temperature in the clubhouse just right.”
Leyland is also bullish on this team. He was asked about similarities to when he took over the Pirates in the mid-80s and how he great into three consecutive division champions.
“I don’t know what is going to happen with this team and it’s certainly none of my business, but it is certainly a talented team,” Leyland said. “We were like that one time long ago. Sometimes you make a jump, make another jump and then takeoff again. This is on the right track.”
Leyland said he remembers how you could feel the momentum of the franchise growing and then a setback in 1989. They would make the playoffs the next year. He said a lot of things could happen in the game, notably injuries, but he likes the 2024 Pirates.
“This is a very talented group of young players,” Leyland said.
Former Leyland pitcher and current Pirates broadcaster Bob Walk told Colin Dunlap on 100.1 FM and AM 1020, KDKA of what made Leyland special.
“You put together an All-Star team and a lot of times they play like it’s an All-Star Game,” Walk said. “Everybody is for themselves. They want to put on a show. They are not putting the team before themselves. He got All-Star players to put the team before themselves.”
He’ll go to the Hall of Fame because of it and hopefully some of those traits rub off on Shelton.