PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) –Jim Leyland told the Fan Morning Show Tuesday he remembers his first year as Pirates manager in 1986. He recalled the fans would nearly give them a standing ovation for just running the ball out.
That’s how bad it was. The Pirates stuck with him and it evolved into three straight division titles. Having been there during the rebuild, how does Leyland view the job Derek Shelton has done in two seasons.
“I think the number one thing you can say,” Leyland told 93.7 The Fan Tuesday. “His players play nine innings every night. That’s a compliment to the manager.”
“They have obviously been short of ability to this point. I saw a lot of games, I never saw any players short change Derek with effort. They appeared to play a full nine innings every night, sometimes it wasn’t too good quite truthfully, other times it was pretty good.”
More bad than good as Shelton is 80-141 as Pirates manager, a winning percentage of .366. While appreciating the effort, Leyland knows they need to get some W’s.
“That’s not good enough, I don’t want to be corny here, but you say you play hard,” Leyland told The Fan Morning Show. “You are supposed to play hard. It is a compliment they continued right up until the end. They won a few games at the end of the season that a team that had given up or was ready to go home would not have won.”
You hear often with bad teams, especially early in the season, about how good the chemistry is in the clubhouse. That has been said over and over with the Pirates and Leyland is not one to believe that really leads to anything.
“I’m not one to make a big deal of the clubhouse as everyone else is,” Leyland told Colin Dunlap, Chris Mack and Jim Colony. “They always talked about that leadership in the clubhouse. I was a big believer in leadership on the field. Hit .300, hit some home runs, knock in some runs, shut some people out, those are the kind of leaders I want. I thought the clubhouse would take care of itself, particularly if you are winning.”
They currently have one player like that offensively, Bryan Reynolds. They don’t have a pitcher who fits that description.
“They are going to need some more talent if they want to compete in that division or any division to be honest with you,” Leyland said. “That is possible under (general manager) Ben Cherington. I know they had a great draft this year. Hopefully things are looking up but at some point, we have to prove it to our fans.”
Barry Love
It was Spring Training 1991. Barry Bonds is the National League MVP and decided to go half-speed during drills and appeared to show up former Pirates manager Bill Virdon. Leyland had enough and profanities ensured for nearly a minute and caught on video by Altoona’s WTAJ.
Leyland told the Fan Morning Show he’s not proud of that moment, nor will either apologize. Now they can laugh about it, as friends.
“Barry and I are very close,” Leyland told 93.7 The Fan. “I went out to San Francisco when they retired his number. I spoke on the field. We talked.”
“He’s a very, very close friend of mine. He’s got a big heart. I know a lot of the good things Barry Bonds did that other people don’t know. I know he treated some people bad, I understand that. I’m very close to Barry, always will be.”
“Barry Bonds is without question a Hall of Famer.”