Leyland Travels Full Circle

Manager Jim Leyland’s baseball luggage accumulated plenty of stickers before he settled last winter in south Florida and, after more than three decades in the game, found himself suddenly in the World Series.

He remembers very well, though, when the itinerary began in, of all places, Cleveland’s old Municipal Stadium when he was 10 years old.

Growing up in Perrysburg, Ohio, Leyland was in the middle of Detroit-Cleveland territory. “I was a Tigers fan growing up because I was a little closer, 90 miles west of Cleveland and 50 or 60 south of Detroit,” he said.

At age 10, in 1954, he went to his first major-league game. And like many 10-year-olds at their first big-league game, Leyland remembers the players.

“I can tell you they had Jim Hegan, Al Rosen, Larry Doby, Dale Mitchell,” Leyland said, rattling off the names like a kid flipping through his baseball cards. “Hegan catching, Luke Easter at first, Bobby Avila at second. I think it was George Strickland at shortstop, Rosen at third, Mitchell in left, Doby in center and I want to say either Minnie Minoso or Harry “Suitcase” Simpson in right.

“It was a doubleheader. Mike Garcia and Early Wynn pitched and Larry Doby hit a homer that day.”

And the kid in the stands never dared second-guess manager Al Lopez. Not once,

Ten years later, Leyland signed his first pro contract and began a winding road in the Tigers system that led through some of baseball’s mapdot minor league towns - places like Cocoa Beach, Lakeland, Jamestown, Rocky Mount and Montgomery. He was a catcher with no pop in his bat. He never batted higher than .243 and never had more than one home run in a season.

At 27, when it was clear he was not going to become the next Yogi Berra or Roy Campanella, the catcher became a manager. For the next 11 years, he worked in the Appalachian League, the Midwest League, the Southern League, the Florida State League and the American Association. Six times, he took teams into the postseason. Three times, he was his league’s manager of the year.

For four seasons, he coached third base with the Chicago White Sox, and in 1986 he was hired to manage a bad Pittsburgh club. He took those Pirates to the precipice of the World Series, twice losing seventh games in the N.L. playoffs against Atlanta. Then baseball economics began breaking up the Pirates, leaving Leyland with a shell of a team.

He endured that situation for three years before leaving for Florida.

“It was getting to the point where I felt like I was beating my head against the wall,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m a good manager or a bad manager, but I’m a competitor. That’s why I came here.”

The Marlins came through on their pledge to spend money if he would manage, paying big bucks to free agents. Leyland held up his end of the bargain, and the combination thrust him into the World Series.

“To think, I saw my first game in Cleveland and I’m going back as the manager of a World Series team,” he said. “I don’t know how that stuff works out.”