I’m assuming some of you caught Jim Leyland’s introductory press conference as manager of the Detroit Tigers. Suffice to say, his performance did very little to ease suspicion that the former Pirates/Marlins/Rockies skipper will struggle to stay awake next season. From the Detroit Free Press’ Mitch Albom.
Jim Leyland may have issues. Honesty isn’t one of them.
In a news conference Tuesday that was as bizarre as it was refreshing, Leyland managed to tell reporters “I know very little about your ball club” and “I don’t really know about the American League” and “I’m rusty” and, at his last job, “I stunk.”
Hmm. Was it the Tigers who hired this guy or President Bush?
I can’t recall the last time a new manager had 30 minutes of media time and used it to 1) fess up to burnout, 2) admit his need to “sharpen up on the game,” and 3) barely mention a single member of his new squad.
I’m not kidding. Hardly a throwaway “Pudge” or “Magglio.” Leyland is either inordinately modest or he was in such a hurry to get back into managing, he forgot to ask a fundamental question: “Which team is this again?”
(despite decomposing in public, Leyland still has the prescence of mind to show the Detroit media that he has a World Series ring.)
Indeed, with such winning proclaimations as “I don’t know much about your team”, is there any doubt that Leyland blew Dave Dombrowski away during an interview that might’ve lasted all of 5 minutes?
I’m looking at this with interest as after the Phillies canned Larry Bowa last year, Leyland was the overwhelming favorite of fans and particularly sports hate-radio hosts. To the winner-starved fans, “He has a ring” was good enough and for the nasty spiteful carnies of WIP 610, he had a celebrity cachet of sorts and would make for plenty of talk-show fodder, much more than say, Terry Pendleton. So, when Charlie Manuel was chosen to manage the Phillies, message boards and talk show hosts hit the roof, Manuel was continually excoriated from the gitgo and the abuse has been relentless since then. Manuel admittedly gave his critics fodder from time to time, but he was never given the benefit of the doubt to begin with nor given any credit for at least keeping the team in a good frame of mind when things were looking bleak. After missing the playoffs by one game, the
“If Leyland was managing” debate came up again, so it will be interesting to see what he does with a team that is neither stacked nor totally devoid of talent and if he really has some Gene Mauch-like ability to make winners out of an average at best team or if he going to bail after 2 .500 or less seasons.
As long as Jim Leyland is still smoking Pall Malls in the dugout, he’s gonna make someone a fine pimp. Er, manager.
going to bail after 2 .500 or less seasons
and there you have it
Ohhh would you look at that. The Tigers are having one of their best seasons in 3 years. Thank you Jim Leyland!! And screw all the haters!
Well now that we are half-way through the season, I think you can say that Leyland may have been a little too modest. I’m pretty sure nobody can argue with results.