Jim Leyland To Tigers: 'Do I Have To Get Naked And Yell Some Sense Into You?'
DETROIT—Following the Tigers' 11-0 loss at home against the White Sox Sunday, frustrated manager Jim Leyland attempted to get through to his struggling ballclub by screaming in their faces, gesticulating wildly while pacing up and down the locker room floor, and removing every article of his clothing save for his socks. "We gave up two f***ing grand slams in one game!" said Leyland, pointing at his bullpen with one hand and brandishing his recently removed pants in the other. "Do I need to run out to the mound with my d**k swinging in the wind between every pitch so you g*dd**n well don't do that?" Leyland then stormed out of the locker room, held a markedly stilted post-game press conference, walked out of the clubhouse, and drove home.
The Onion
April 17, 2008
Jim Leyland can make a below average guy average and make average guys look like stars....not superstars mind you, but solid ballplayers. He has a knack for getting so much out of his players.
After the Pirate’s 9th inning collapse in the 1992 NLCS against the friggin Braves (I still have nightmares of the Tomahawk Chop) and subsequent firesale, he just couldn’t take management crying poor all of the time. I think the thing that did him in with the Pirates was trading Denny Neagle in 1996 ... he announced his resignation shortly thereafter.
We actually fielded a $9M payroll the year after (I think Albert Belle got a $12M contract that year). Ironically, we had our strongest finish in 1997 (we won 79 games I think ... sad).
I really miss him being the Pirate’s manager, but you can only take so much losing and not be able to do anything about it ... you have to have a level of talent to compete in the major leagues. The Pirates haven’t been able to either sign that talent or grow it in their farm system.