Skip to footer

Jim Leyland retiring? After turning the Tigers around, Jim Leyland steps down.

Jim Leyland is leaving the Detroit Tigers after eight seasons, during which he took the Tigers from a 12-year losing streak to an 8-year winning streak. Overall, Leyland was 700-597 with the Tigers, and 1,769-1,728 in his 5-decade career.

|
Paul Sancya/AP
Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland waits at the mound during a pitching change in the seventh during Game 5 of the American League baseball championship series against the Boston Red Sox, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2013, in Detroit.
  • By Noah Trister AP Baseball Writer

| DETROIT

Jim Leyland is stepping down as manager of the Detroit Tigers after eight seasons that included three division titles and two trips to the World Series.

Leyland announced his departure Monday, two days after the Tigers were eliminated from the AL championship series by Boston in six games.

"I'm going to be 69 years old," he said. "I'm not ashamed of that. I'm proud of it. The fuel's getting a little low."

Leyland has been working under one-year contracts the last couple years, saying he was content to wait until after the season to address his status. He was a bit reflective late this season, mentioning to reporters that he had already managed the Tigers longer than he had expected they would keep him — but he also said in September that he still loved the atmosphere, the competition and his team.

Leyland was 700-597 with the Tigers. He led them to the World Series immediately after taking over in 2006, losing to St. Louis in five games. The Tigers went to the World Series again in 2012 but were swept by San Francisco.

This year's team had a chance to make it back, but Detroit couldn't take advantage of its standout starting pitching against the Red Sox.

When Leyland arrived at the Tigers' training camp this year, it marked 50 seasons since he first showed up there as an 18-year-old prospect. His playing career never amounted to much, but his accomplishments as a manager over more than two decades have been impressive.

He is 1,769-1,728 overall during stints with the Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies. He won the World Series in 1997 with Florida.

He has also been part of some of baseball's most memorable games — Pittsburgh's loss in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS in Atlanta, Florida's victory over Cleveland in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series and Detroit's loss to Minnesota in a one-game playoff for the AL Central title in 2009.

When he took over the Tigers, they had gone 12 years without a winning season. Under Leyland, they didn't finish under .500 a single time.

Detroit has become one of baseball's glamour teams of late, with stars like Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer helping the team win games and draw fans. The Tigers should be able to keep their core of players mostly together for next season, but now they'll need to find a new manager to replace Leyland, who always earned high marks for his ability to keep his veteran team focused.

"I truly think this is going to be a very good team next year," Leyland said. "This job entails a lot more than people think."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Jim Leyland retiring? After turning the Tigers around, Jim Leyland steps down.
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2013/1021/Jim-Leyland-retiring-After-turning-the-Tigers-around-Jim-Leyland-steps-down
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe