Jim Leyland, who managed for 22 seasons and won 1,769 games and a World Series title in 1997, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.
The 78-year-old Leyland, who guided four teams and won two American League pennants with the Detroit Tigers after leading the then-Florida Marlins to the World Series championship in 1997, was the only manager, executive or umpire to get the nod from the newly formed Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee.
Candidates needed 12 votes from the 16-member panel, and Leyland received 15. Voting took place in Nashville, Tenn., as part of MLB’s winter meetings. His Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be next July 21 in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Lou Piniella, who won 1,835 games managing for 23 seasons with five teams and won a World Series title with the Cincinnati Reds, received 11 votes. Former National League president Bill White picked up 10. No other candidates reached five votes.
The non-players category was created to give managers, executives and umpires a better chance at getting Hall of Fame election. No manager had been so honored since 2013, when Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre were voted in.
Leyland’s managerial career began with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 and lasted 11 seasons. He won three straight NL East Division titles from 1990-92 and won 851 games.
Amid ownership-ordered payroll cuts and last-place finishes in three of four seasons, Leyland left the Pirates and took over the Marlins. His team won 92 games to claim a wild-card berth in his first of two seasons there and beat the then-Cleveland Indians in seven games in the 1997 World Series.
After one at the helm of the Colorado Rockies in 1999, Leyland took over the Detroit Tigers in 2006 and won 700 games in eight seasons, including the AL crown in 2006 and 2012.
Others on the ballot included former managers Cito Gaston and Davey Johnson, umpires Ed Montague and Joe West and executive Hank Peters.
–Field Level Media
