Dec 4, 2023 By John Sacco 5 min read

Jim Leyland rode countless buses as a long-time minor league manager.

In July, Leyland will take the ride of a lifetime.

Leyland, World Series champion manager of the 1997 Florida Marlins and former Pirates manager, was elected Sunday night to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the 16-member Contemporary Baseball Era committee.

Leyland will be inducted July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Leyland received 15 of 16 possible votes (93.8 percent) from the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee. The committee required a nominee to garner at least 12 votes (75 percent) to gain election.

Beloved by his players and respected by many within the game and industry, Leyland was a popular figure since turning the Pirates around after being hired by Sydnor W. Thrift, the Pirates new general manager in the fall of 1985.

Thrift’s selection of Leyland, who at the time was the third base coach for the Chicago White Sox under manager Tony LaRussa, shook the baseball world and prompted some to say: “Jim Who?”

Leyland, 78, won 1,769 games in 22 seasons managing the Pirates (1986-96), Marlins (1997-98), Colorado Rockies (1999) and Detroit Tigers (2006-13).

He led the Pirates from the brink of extinction to three consecutive National East Division championships from 1990-92.

Leyland’s Marlins won the World Series in 1997, defeating Cleveland in seven games. He was a three-time Manager of the Year (1990, 1992 and 2006) and managed the U.S. to the 2017 World Baseball Classic title, the only time the U.S. won the championship.

With the Tigers, Leyland went to the World Series twice. However, his teams came up short in both 2006 and 2012.

He is the only manager to defeat the New York Yankees in three consecutive post-season matchups (2006, ’11 and ’12).

“It’s all about the players,” Leyland said on MLB Network, “The players in Pittsburgh uplifted me. They did a great job. If you go to the Hall of Fame as a manager, you’ve been blessed with a lot of great players.”

Leyland credited LaRussa and former Pirates and Chicago White Sox manager Gene Lamont for being influential in his career. Lamont also served as Leyland’s third base coach in Pittsburgh and Detroit.

The selection committee included Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell, Tom Glavine, Chipper Jones, Bud Selig, Ted Simmons, Jim Thome and Joe Torre; MLB executives Sandy Alderson, Bill DeWitt, Michael Hill, Ken Kendrick, Andy MacPhail and Phyllis Merhige; and media members/historians Sean Forman, Jack O’Connell and Jesus Ortiz.

Leyland is currently a special assistant in the Tigers’ front office.

Leyland’s teams made the playoffs eight times and won three league pennants.

He managed three of the greatest players in the history of the game in outfielder Barry Bonds in Pittsburgh and first baseman Miguel Cabrera and pitcher Justin Verlander in Detroit, both future first ballot Hall of Famers . He also managed Hall of Fame catcher Pudge Rodriguez, Hall of Fame outfielder Larry Walker, all-star outfielder Gary Sheffield, and future Hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer.

He believed in making all 25-men on his roster to not only feel important but to be pertinent. Guys like Donnie Kelly — current Pirates’ bench coach — and the likes of Gary Varsho in Pittsburgh and Brandon Inge in Detroit.

“There’s a great deal of respect in the game and among the players for Jim and what he accomplished,” said former Pirates shortstop Jay Bell.

“When I came over to the Pirates in 1989, I had a nice final week of Spring Training and made the 25-man roster. I promptly went one-for-20 and was sent down. I went to Triple-A and got better and I needed time there. When I went back to Pittsburgh Jim came to me one day during stretching and said to me ‘there will be another manager in Pittsburgh before there’s another shortstop.

“That opportunity and confidence he had in me freed me up to fail, come to the park every day and know I was going to hit in the two-hole. He saw more ability in me than I saw in myself.”

Bell was a cornerstone of three consecutive National League East Division championships in Pittsburgh from 1990-1992. Bell also became a Gold Glove shortstop and won the Silver Slugger Award in 1993. He also was a two-time All-Star and part of Arizona’s World Series championship team in 2001.

“Jim knew how to handle people,” Bell added.

Jim Thrift, son of Syd Thrift, said Leyland’s election to the Hall of Fame was great news for everyone.

“It means a lot to me because of what Jim and dad did in the (Pittsburgh) community,” Jim Thrift said. “They spent so much time going out to eat, being accessible to the public, talking to fans, bringing in and developing players to turn the Pirates around.

“Dad said it took him about an hour to decide that Jim was his manager. He said it was a ‘no brainer’ picking Jim to be manager of the Pirates.”

Leyland grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo. He has lived in the Pittsburgh area full-time ever since becoming Pirates manager after the 1985 season.

Leyland’s wife, Katie, is a native of Greensburg, and both of their now-grown children were born and raised in Western Pennsylvania.

He is the 23rd manager to be elected to the Hall of Fame.