The Tigers had baseball’s second-longest active streak of losing seasons when president/general manager Dave Dombrowski hired Leyland last October. The veteran skipper from three other stops, including a World Series championship with Dombrowski in Florida in 1997, had spent the past six years observing the game as a scout for the Cardinals. He couldn’t refuse the offer from Tigers last season, a team with whom he started his coaching career in 1963. He managed in the Minors for more than a decade in the 1970s and ’80s.
Leyland turned around the future of failing Tigers in his first year with the team. He headed them towards the World Series and their first winning season since 1993. He got 19 of 28 first-place votes and 118 points to top Minnesota’s Ron Gardenhire, who was listed first on nine ballots and totaled 93 points.
The Tigers has set all their hopes for next season with Leyland. They will make it to championship, which they missed this year.