The crusty Jim Leyland regaled us with a story of a broken down car, an Ohio mechanic, some free tickets, and at the time I had no idea that it would serve as a sign of how things would fall into place for the Tigers in 2006.
A few hours before game time, Leyland accepts, sometimes begrudgingly, the intrusion of journalists into his modest office. Occasionally, there’s even something new to talk about. On this April afternoon nearly two years ago, Leyland, just a few games into his first season back managing in seven years, had something new to talk about.
“I was driving back thru Ohio,” he told us, talking about returning from an Easter-related family gathering in Pennsylvania. Next were details of a flat tire, a car he had to suddenly control at high speed, and a fortuitously located tire store.
The manager had gotten a lift, from a tow truck driver, to the tire store. But not before the driver saw the large duffel bag with the Tigers logo on it. This was squarely in Cleveland Indians country, too.
“Hey, Tigers!” the driver said, according to Leyland, when the tow truck guy started helping the stranded, gray-haired motorist. “I love the Tigers!”
Leyland had us set up for one of several funny lines.
“Yeah? You like the Tigers?” Leyland told us of his response to the young man. “Well, I’m the ***damned manager!”
The first round of laughter erupted in the office.
Later, after Leyland told of getting the royal treatment with his crippled car, he then related his telephone call back to Detroit. He wasn’t sure if he’d make it back in town in time to manage the next day’s game.
“(Third base coach Gene) Lamont says, ‘Jim’s stranded on the road? He’s not OK, is he?”
More laughter, uproarious this time. Lamont would have managed the game if Leyland wasn’t
OK.
And two lucky tire store employees were left free tickets to the next Tigers-Indians game in Cleveland, thanks to a grateful Jim Leyland, about to embark on his magical season in Detroit.
I have just done a very poor job in relating this story, because if ever the term “you had to be there” was appropriate, it’s when Leyland holds court and starts in.
Leyland, then only a few games into what would be a hallmark season in Detroit, is now so firmly ensconced in the manager’s chair with the Tigers that he could probably give Kwame Kilpatrick a run for his money for the mayor’s chair at City Hall.
He’s a dying breed, Jim Leyland is – and I’m very sad to say it. He’s the quotable baseball manager, the kind who gets your juices flowing when you see the punctuation “ “ appear in newspaper stories with his name attached to the “ ‘s.
Sometimes, Leyland is even quotable with the umpires -- just not for family papers
I’m not talking Casey Stengel or Yogi Berra quotable, necessarily. Those were baseball geniuses who occasionally played the fool for good newspaper copy. Leyland is a straight shooter, and he uses wit and plain, brown paper-wrapped wisdom to illustrate his philosophy. But he’s also good for a crack-up.
Think of how many times you read something, to yourself, and break out into laughter. Not too often, for if someone sees you laughing with no one around, they’re liable to place a phone call to the men in white suits.
I cracked up, loud and long, when I read a simple Leyland description the other day. He was talking about the convenience of having Toledo as the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate.
“Yeah, you can get a guy to Detroit in an hour,” Leyland told a lucky reporter last week. “In my first year managing in Pittsburgh, our minor league team was in Hawaii. You’d call a guy up, and ten days later he’d arrive.”
Like I said, you had to be there – in my brain, as I read the copy. I’m sorry – I thought it was hilarious.
Point being, look around the major leagues and tell me which managers make you look forward to the “ ‘s attached to their names. All I see are cookie cutter, generic, vanilla dudes.
We’ve been blessed in Detroit. We had Charlie Dressen, full of spit and vinegar, who unfortunately got himself so worked up as Tigers manager that he had not one, but two heart attacks during his run in the 1960s. The first one, in spring training 1965, he covered up by explaining that he had to tend to his wife in California. He checked himself into a hospital as soon as his plane touched down. But Dressen was quotable.
So, too, Billy Martin – who was also just plain wacky enough with his managerial moves and gamesmanship to make his verbal output just the cherry on top of a delicious baseball sundae.
Before long, Sparky Anderson blew into town. I needn’t say more.
Leyland doesn’t always enjoy his little media sessions, but you couldn’t tell by the generosity with which he scoops out the sundaes.
That first spring training, in 2006, Leyland was explaining why he lifted a young outfielder prospect from a game.
“Because of the way he was circling around out there looking for a fly ball,” Leyland said. “He took so many twists and turns, I almost smoked a whole Marlboro before he finally caught it.”
Come on – curl your lips into a grin. That’s good stuff.
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