One of the most highly-respected managers in the game, Jim Leyland can be both deadly serious and tongue-in-cheek funny, sometimes in the same setting. The Detroit skipper shared each quality when addressing the media prior to a game at Fenway Park last week, waxing philosophic on hitting approach, Rick Porcello‘s start that evening, and the foibles of travel.
On throwing strikes and working pitchers: “He’ll be fine if he throws strikes and mixes his pitches. If he just goes out and pumps fastballs, they’ll knock the shit out of him. And you better be around the plate, because [the Red Sox] are a patient team. Hopefully you can get some quick outs. They’re a very professional-hitting team, but like I’ve told you guys for a thousand years: everybody talks about just working the pitcher, but they’re full of shit. You can’t work a pitcher who throws strikes. It’s impossible. It doesn’t happen. The guys who get pitch counts up are the guys that foul better stuff off. Like Verlander — when guys foul his pitches off, or like Jackson the one game [against] Cleveland. They get his pitch count up because they’re fouling. They’re not working. They’re trying to hit it; they’re just not centering it; they’re fouling it off. So, there’s no such thing as working a pitcher who throws strikes. I hope that Porcello is throwing strikes tonight, and I hope they take the first two. I’ll be happy as shit. But I don‘t think that‘s going to happen. They didn‘t work Jackson last night, so that‘s all bullshit. Trust me when I tell you that. You can‘t work a pitcher who throws strikes. You want to go up there and make him work, so you take, take, take. Well, I hope they have strike two on them all night long. It doesn‘t happen. But these guys are good at recognizing, out of the hand, a ball or a strike. If it‘s a ball, they take it. They‘re good. Younger teams, with younger kids, with younger players, they swing at those pitches a lot more. That‘s why teams like the Yankees, and Boston, with these veteran players, these smart players, are tremendous. They‘re very good. But if you throw strikes, you can throw that theory out the window.”
On bus travel in the minor leagues as a young player: “I did take a bus trip to Lakeland, my first time. I did. But I’d rather not talk about it. It was amazing, because I was a real hayseed. I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. Some of those towns we stopped in down south — it was unbelievable. I wasn’t used to that. I was a hayseed kid and didn’t know shit about what was going on.”
On train travel: “I took the train once from the All-Star game, back from Perrsyville, Ohio to Chicago. I loved it. It’s like playing golf. It’s who you’re with, really. If you’re on the train, playing cards with guys you like, it’s a lot of fun. If you’re sitting there by yourself, it gives you time to think. That’s just the way it is. That’s life.”
On flying: “I’m not a good flyer. I mean, you always have a few of them. I remember one where the plane was landing, and all of sudden the plane took off again. We had one this year where the light in the cabin came on — the landing gear wasn’t down, so all of a sudden we went up again. I remember one time we went in to land and there was a small plane underneath us. That’s not a good feeling. But that’s the way it is, and I don’t think any of us are crazy about it when you start bouncing around. But that’s life. Sometimes when you have a bad week, you really have a bad week…It scares you a little bit when the guy says, “You’re landing on runway 47,” and the pilot says “OK“, but then gets back on and says, “Wait a minute. 47? You just told that other guy to land on 47.” So he says, “Yeah, you’ve got to be careful.” That‘s not a good feeling. When you get up in the air, who knows. But we have a good time. We play cards — us coaches. If it gets bumpy, we get scared. If it gets real bumpy, we get drunk.”
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"If it gets bumpy, we get scared. If it gets real bumpy, we get drunk."
That needs to make it into TWIQ.