How a call from Leyland impacted Vance Wilson's career

This story was excerpted from Jason Beck’s Tigers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Vance Wilson still remembers the first time he talked with Jim Leyland. Wilson was a Tigers catcher at the time, backing up Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, and had just started his offseason after the 2005 campaign. Leyland had just been hired as manager.

“I was in a little boat in Arkansas,” Wilson recalled. “I was trying to figure this little boat out for my daughter and I. It was like a bad day, and all of a sudden a 313 [area code] number [rings].”

It was Leyland introducing himself as Wilson’s new manager.

“I was so [pumped], like, ‘Yeah, hey, I’m so glad …’

“And he was like, ‘Hey, enough of that. Why were you guys bad last year?’

“And I said, ‘Well, it seemed like we struggled with some type of clubhouse leadership, on-field leader. I think I’m a leader, but I’m a backup player.’

“And he said, ‘Hey, don’t worry about that. I lead. See you in spring.’ And he hung up.

“I just sat there in that boat.”

That was the start of a memorable, though brief, tenure. Wilson played only one season under Leyland due to injuries, but the lessons he took from their time together stuck with him. They’re lessons he carries with him in his own coaching career. He’s in his seventh season on the Royals’ coaching staff, the last five as their third-base coach, after managing for seven seasons in their farm system.

“Greatest baseball man I’ve ever been around, and ever will be,” Wilson said.

Wilson remembers the fiery speeches, the team meetings that would stop and start as Leyland marched in and out of the clubhouse. But he also remembers the emotional investment Leyland made in his teams and players, and his ability to make sure every player felt equally involved, invested and valued. And when Wilson began his managerial career in the Minor Leagues, he got sage advice from Leyland on how to foster that.

“The one thing he told me was, ‘You will be judged on your prospects. Don’t ever take a prospect out [of a game] by himself. Take your last guy on the team, or another guy. Always pair them up to make them feel better.’

“And it really made sense. Now I know why he handled me [as a player] the way he handled me, that it wasn’t just about Pudge. He made me feel like I was the same as Pudge.”

For those lessons and many other reasons, Wilson can’t wait to see Leyland get inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown on July 21. Wilson will be busy, of course; the Royals host the White Sox that afternoon. But he’ll be eagerly awaiting highlights of the speech.

“Pretty much everything I do as a coach is either the way Jim Leyland did it, or the way coaches didn’t do it that I didn’t like [as a player] -- the honesty, the relationships, the intensity,” Wilson said. “I really hope that someday I get a chance to do things in the game where people say, ‘Wow, you actually remind me of Jim Leyland.’”