Asking Jim Leyland to pick a favorite season is like asking him to choose a logo on his Hall of Fame bust: "I’m not going to show disrespect to anybody," he said. But of the 22 teams he managed in the majors, Leyland allows that the most memorable "might be 2006 in Detroit."
Tigers baseball was pretty much dead when Leyland took over that year. The club was coming off its 12th straight losing season and was just three years removed from one of the worst seasons in MLB history. The Tigers had lost the most games in the bigs since moving into Comerica Park in 2000. They were toward the bottom of the league in attendance.
But Leyland believed in the players at his disposal. The roster wasn't bereft of talent. The Tigers had added vets like Pudge Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Placido Polanco over the prior two years. And they had up-and-comers like Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya and Curtis Granderson ready to make themselves known in Detroit. In spring training, Leyland wrote a letter to his players that said, "I want our team to have that swagger."
"Not cocky, not arrogant, but I want us to have that swagger that the New York Yankees have, that when you take the field, 'Hey, this is the Detroit Tigers. These guys mean business,'" Leyland said.
The Tigers won their first five games of the season in racing out to a 19-9 start. They were 59-29 by the All-Star break. They ultimately ceded the AL Central to the Twins on the final day of the season, but marched into the playoffs for the first time in three decades and took out the team Leyland had referenced in his letter.
"It was ironic that we ended up playing the Yankees in the postseason, and then after losing the first game we swept them," he said.
Along the way, the Tigers sparked a baseball renaissance in Detroit. Fans started flocking to the ballpark again. They started talking about their team around town. The Tigers would rank in the top half of the league in attendance in each of Leyland's eight seasons at the helm, four times finishing in the top 10. Leyland, never one to take credit when his teams played well, said "everybody was involved" in the rebirth of Tigers baseball.
"Certainly the players the most important, but we just got on a roll. We came in with the attitude that we had to show people we meant business, and I wanted to turn talent into a team. I think we did that, but (I was) just a small part of it. The city got back into it, there’s no question. But I’ve always said, Detroit and St. Louis have the best baseball fans in the country because of their knowledge of the game. It just all sort of meshed together. The players started believing in themselves, the fans starting believing in the players and it was just a great relationship," Leyland said.
It crested in a trip to the World Series, where the Tigers lost to the Cardinals in five games. But the climax came in Game 4 of the ALCS when Ordonez hit a two-out, three-run walk-off homer at Comerica Park to clinch Detroit's first AL pennant since 1984. It's a moment that will live with Leyland forever.
"That’s one that I smile about a lot," he said. "I don’t think I've ever seen a crowd react like that in all my life. They probably didn’t even react that much when we won the World Series (with the Marlins in 1997). To see Magglio’s home run and to see all the white hankies, I don’t know if I have any more memorable moment than that one. That was one you’ll never forget."
Leyland, now 78, was elected to the Hall of Fame last weekend. He's a three-time winner of the Manager of the Year Award, including in 2006. He led his teams to six division titles, three pennants, a world championship and 1,769 wins -- 18th most in MLB history -- over 11 seasons with the Pirates, two with the Marlins, one with the Rockies and then eight with the Tigers. Asked to name the best season he had as a manager, Leyland said, "I could tell you about three."
"We won the World Series, so that was one of them obviously. When we won our first division title in Pittsburgh because it took us about four years to turn it around. Arguably the best might be 2006 in Detroit because a couple years before they had lost so many games and the team, not me personally, kind of turned the city around. We did more than win games. I think we actually did turn the fanbase around a little bit, so that could possibly be the No. 1," he said.
Leyland, now a special advisor to the Tigers front office, believes the club is on the verge of another special season as it tries to climb out of a grueling rebuild. Led by young players like Spencer Torkelson, Riley Greene and Tarik Skubal, the Tigers played competitive baseball for most of last season and finished 35-17 in the AL Central -- tied with the Atlanta Braves for the best inter-division record in the majors.
"I don’t want to put pressure on anybody, but I really think they’re going to compete for the division title next year, I do," Leyland said. "I think they’re really coming. I think there’s a good attitude, AJ (Hinch) has set a good atmosphere there. I think it was a very smart move to extend him, he’s very organized, very smart. Scott Harris has got a good face, he’s young, he’s energetic and he’s very bright. I really believe that they’re going to compete for the division title this year ... and who knows if you’re fortunate enough to move onto postseason play."
As for which cap he'll wear in the Hall of Fame, Leyland said it's been "the most popular question" in the wake of his election, but "when you managed multiple teams like I did, I’m not going to show disrespect to anybody."
"You could make a case for probably all but Colorado," he said. "You win the World Series in Florida, you go to two World Series in Detroit and you signed there originally (as a minor leaguer), Pittsburgh gave you your first managing job. It’s going to be something that I’ll sit down and discuss with the Hall of Fame. I think right now everybody’s leaning toward no logo, but I don't know for sure how that's going to play out.
"I’m definitely not going to offend any team that I managed. I would hope that if I go in with no logo, people would understand why."