Half a dozen men affiliated with baseball in different ways were on a conference call earlier this week discussing managers. They comprise a committee that would select a manager of the year for an annual award. This was not the award given by the Baseball Writers Association of America but one presented by the Rotary Club of Pittsburgh named for Chuck Tanner, who managed the Pirates to the 1979 World Series triumph.
Each member of the committee was asked to nominate worthy candidates for the award, and I mentioned Jim Tracy and Tony LaRussa, both deserving of the award for obvious reasons. Other members mentioned other managers, including Jim Leyland, and when everyone had named his nominations I spoke about Leyland.
I had not considered Leyland as a candidate, I said, because for many weeks now in my mind the Tigers weren’t going to maintain their lead in the American League Central and would not make the playoffs. Any day now they were going to go into an irreversible slide, saying sayonara to the spot they had held since May 10.
Therefore, some other candidates, one who managed his team into the playoffs, such as Tracy or LaRussa, would be more deserving of the award.
But the fact that the Tigers had not faltered, had not relinquished the lead even when it shrunk to a mere percentage point July 23, was sufficient evidence that Leyland had done a terrific job of managing and maybe he did deserve the award.
The Tigers were not a pre-season pick to win the division championship. Far more likely they would finish last, which was their final resting place last year. Only two years after they played in the World Series as the wild-card, they finished with a 74-88 record and then didn’t make any monumental moves last winter.
They strengthened their defense by adding catcher Gerald Laird and shortstop Adam Everett, but they did nothing to bolster the pitching staff, which was the league’s third least effective group (4.90 earned run average plus third most walks and third fewest strikeouts) last season.
Rather than undergo a renovation, the Tigers’ staff suffered more problems this year. Jeremy Bonderman, whose 2008 season was limited to 12 starts by two operations for a blood clot in his arm pit, has been able to start only one game this season. The Tigers had counted on Dontrelle Willis to add a strong arm, but he has been undermined by ineffectiveness (1-4, 7.49 in 7 starts) and an anxiety disorder that has had him on the disabled list most of the season.
On the relief side of the staff the Tigers lost Joel Zumaya, their setup man, in mid-July for the rest of the season with a shoulder injury that required surgery.
The Tigers haven’t had an easy time with their offense either, missing Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez’s bat much of the season. Guillen missed two and a half months with a shoulder injury (May 5-July 23), and Ordonez hit .231 in the middle third of the season (June and July).
In addition, Placido Polanco has not been the automatic .300 hitter the Tigers had become accustomed to. After hitting .341 and .307 the previous two seasons and with a .306 average for his 11-year career, Polanco was batting only .278 and did not reach .270 until six weeks ago.
Nevertheless, despite all of the problems, Leyland has the Tigers in first place despite alternate threats from the White Sox and the Twins, with whom the Tigers have a three-game series this weekend.
“He’s done a tremendous job; I think he’s a key factor for us,” said Dave Dombrowski, the Tigers’ general manager. “He keeps the group together. By no means has it been a smooth ride. It’s not like guys are having career years. He’s kept us focused, kept us in position where we’ve played hard. He’s always into everything.”
Leyland is among the most veteran of managers. In his 18th year as a major league manager, the 64-year-old led the Pirates in the last three good seasons they had; then served two years with the Marlins, with whom he won the World Series in 1997, one year with the Rockies and now is in his fourth season with the Tigers.
“To me, a manager is a leader,” Dombrowski said. “He’s a leader. Everyone knows he’s in charge. He has a presence to him, which is important. He’s very caring. He cares about his players and their families. He’s a very emotional individual.”
I saw Leyland at what was most likely his most emotional moment. The Pirates, in the playoffs in 1992 for the third successive season, had lost for the third successive time, the second straight time in the seventh and last game of the National League Championship Series against the Braves. This time when the Braves scored three runs in the ninth inning, Francisco Cabrera singling home Sid Bream with two outs for the winning run.
The Pirates would be losing Barry Bonds as a free agent, and Leyland knew that might have been the team’s last chance to go to the World Series.
Well after the game had ended, I walked into Leyland’s office in the visitor’s clubhouse at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and saw the manager slumped in his chair looking as if his best friend had died.
“Jim’s a high intensity guy,” Dombrowski said, “so your club plays with that type of passion. He’s in a situation where in knowledge of the game and being on top of things there’s nobody better. Any time he’s in the dugout you’re not going to be outmanaged. People know that.
“He can be tough, but he’s also considered a player’s manager because they like playing for him. He doesn’t make a lot of rules, there’s no nit picky things. He’s a very good baseball man, very knowledgeable.”
One of Leyland’s best moves this year was installing 20-year-old Rick Porcello in the starting rotation out of spring training after he had pitched professionally for only one year. Porcello has responded with a 13-8 record, second on the club only to Justin Verlander’s 16-8.
Another was Leyland’s decision to make Brandon Inge the regular third baseman despite his .205 batting average last season. Inge has responded with career-highs of 27 home runs and 76 runs batted in, both second on the club to Miguel Cabrera.
But Leyland’s real strength is in getting players to believe in themselves, and the team has done that while holding off its pursuers.
In first place since May 10, the Tigers were only one percentage point ahead of the White Sox after games of July 23. But Leyland refused to allow any concern to creep into the clubhouse, and the Tigers gradually rebuilt their lead, growing it to a season-high seven games a couple of weeks ago.
Now a couple of weeks remain in the season, and in that time the Tigers will determine their manager’s status in the awards race.