Pirates Q&A: Leyland rehashes the journey to enshrinement

Jim Leyland will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday in Cooperstown, New York, alongside Adrian Beltre, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer. The popular manager, who led the Pirates to three consecutive National League East titles from 1990-92, was chosen for enshrinement by the Contemporary Era Committee in December.

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Leyland was the third-base coach of the White Sox when Pirates general manager Syd Thrift hired him to replace Chuck Tanner prior to the 1986 season. In 22 years as skipper of the Pirates (1986-96), Marlins (1997-98), Rockies (1999) and Tigers (2006-13), Leyland compiled a 1,769-1,728 record (a .506 winning pct.). He took three teams to the playoffs, won a world championship with the Marlins in 1997, and took home an American League pennant with Detroit in 2006 and '12. He was voted Manager of the Year three times, including twice with Pittsburgh (1990 and '92).

Leyland regularly shares that the Pirates will always hold a special place in his heart because they gave him his first opportunity to manage a big league team. In the following Q&A, he shares a variety of memories from the journey that landed him in Cooperstown.

During your time with the Pirates, you made it known that you felt strategy was overrated and that managing wasn’t about trying to outsmart the guy in the other dugout. Do you still feel that way?

Leyland: I do. Don’t get me wrong; strategy is important. But as a manager, you have options, you make decisions and they either work out or they don’t. Managers make a lot of decisions that don’t work out, but they pick the option they think gives their team the best chance to win.

But I think the biggest thing is how you deal with the players. I always wanted the clubhouse to be a fun place to come and a great place to work. I wanted to get the temperature of the clubhouse just right. Getting that temperature just right and getting everyone with one heartbeat, that’s what you strive to do as a manager.

WIth so many games in a baseball season, it’s often said you shouldn’t get too high or too low. But you were always a “wear your heart on your sleeve” kind of manager. How were you able to make that work over so many years?

Leyland: Well, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with showing emotion. I don’t believe it when you see managers sitting in the dugout, totally calm with no expression. When the other team has the bases loaded in the ninth and your team has a one-run lead, no one is going to make me believe their heart’s not pounding.

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On the surface, they may be cool, calm and collected as opposed to a guy that’s a little antsy or pacing a little bit, and I tip my hat to that. But I don’t believe their heart’s not racing in that situation. If I would have tried to do that, it would have been trying to be something I wasn’t. It wouldn’t have been me. I was into it emotionally, and it worked for me.

You managed for 11 seasons in the Detroit Tigers’ farm system before Tony La Russa hired you to be a member of his coaching staff with the Chicago White Sox in 1982. How did that long apprenticeship help you when you became a Major League manager?

Leyland: I wasn’t a Major League player who was well known, so I wasn’t going to get an opportunity real quick. I was going to have to start from scratch. I was going to have to use all of the ingredients to get the cake baked.

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I managed for 11 years in the Minor Leagues, from rookie ball to Class-A to Double-A to Triple-A, and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It really helped me because a lot of things that came up later in the big leagues didn’t surprise me because I had seen it somewhere in a Minor League game -- whether it was in Clinton, Iowa; or Lakeland, Fla.; or Montgomery, Ala. I saw the whole scenario in the Minors.

What do you remember most about the beginning of your stint as a Minor League manager with the Bristol Tigers in the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 1971?

Leyland: I was wet behind the ears. I was just a guy the Tigers thought might become a decent manager, so they gave me a chance. But who knows if you’re ready or not? I remember the second game I ever managed. We were playing in Wytheville, Va., it was the fifth inning and my pitcher’s control started to leave him. I’m watching this pitcher, and his arm is dropping down a little bit and he’s getting a little wild. Those are signs that your pitcher is kind of losing it.

Anyway, we had an old roving pitching instructor that was sitting next to me that inning. It was only the second game I ever managed, and I was wishy-washy about the situation. So, I looked at this pitching instructor and said, "Do you think I ought to take him out?" He stood up and looked me right in the eye and said, "You’re the manager." And he walked down to the other end of the dugout.

That was also one of the best things that ever happened to me, because for 33 seasons, I made all the decisions as a manager. They weren’t all right. A lot of them were wrong, but I made the decisions. That moment taught me that you can have scouting reports, you can get advice from your general manager, you can get advice from your coaches, but you’re the guy that has to pull the trigger. You make the decisions, and you live with them. That’s something that I learned in the second game I ever managed in professional baseball.

When you became manager of the Pirates in 1986, you inherited a team that lost 104 games the previous season. But your second Pittsburgh squad came within two games of the .500 mark in 1987, and three years later, you guided the team to three straight National League East titles. Were you surprised that the Pirates were able to become that good so quickly under your direction?

Leyland: The Pirates weren’t good when I went there in 1986; there’s no question about that. However, we did have Johnny Ray, Tony Peña, Rick Rhoden, Rick Reuschel and Donnie Robinson. We did have some trade chips, and Syd Thrift did an absolutely wonderful job of making trades and bringing back talented players like Doug Drabek, Andy Van Slyke, Jim Gott and others. Tony Peña was a terrific player and maybe the popular Pirate at the time, but when we traded him to St. Louis (on April 1, 1987) for Van Slyke, Mike LaValliere and Mike Dunne, it was one of the best things that happened to the organization in those days. That helped get us on our way to the three straight playoff appearances.

Then on Opening Day in 1990, we played the Mets in New York and beat them, 12-3, and they knew we were the real deal. We finally caught up to them, and they knew it. It didn’t mean we were going to beat them, but they knew we were good. That’s one of my fondest memories. It kind of broke the ice because the Mets were the big boys on the block. Then clinching our first division title in St. Louis that year is one of the greatest memories of my entire career. It’s right up there with any of them.