Former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland helped lead the team to some of the greatest moments that we as Motor City sports fans have experienced in recent memory.
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Now serving as a special advisor, you can count Leyland among those who approve of the hiring of A.J. Hinch following the retirement of Ron Gardenhire near the end of last season.
“I’m really looking forward to him leading us in the future,” Leyland said. “I think it’s exciting, it’s fresh.”
“He’s a very bright, bright guy,” Leyland continued. “Very well-spoken. He’s gonna use information, but he’s also gonna use the eye test and the gut and he’s gonna use all those combinations when he manages a game, and I think that’s terrific. I don’t want to talk about myself, because I don’t mean it that way. But that’s what I did. We had information when I managed. They just have more of it now.
“I used that information as much as anybody, and then I combined that with my eyesight, my gut. And it sounds to me like that’s exactly what A.J.’s gonna do.”
Of course, Hinch found himself at the center of the controversy surrounding the Houston Astros cheating scandal. Hinch was dismissed by the team and suspended for the entirety of the 2020 campaign. Not only does Leyland believe that Hinch has learned from his previous mistakes, but also ws sure to give him credit for owning up to it.
“He’s poised to move forward,” Leyland said. “He made a mistake. He paid for his mistake. I think he owned up to his mistake as good as he possibly could. I thought he did a terrific job owning up to it. … I want to go forward now, and I think hopefully that’s behind him. It should be.”
However, Leyland wasn’t involved in the searching process for the new manger – and that’s the way he preferred it.
“Actually, it was pretty smart to keep me out of the process,” Leyland said. “I really didn’t want to be in it.”
Up next for Hinch will be deciding who will be on his staff. For Leyland, finding those who know what they’re doing is of upmost importance.
“I think it’s very interesting,” Leyland said of the process deciding on the manager’s staff. “I think people are finally coming to understand how important the coaches are. I think in years past people thought you could just get anybody to coach, that you could find just anybody to do that, and that’s the furthest thing from the truth. You need coaches that you mesh together, they gotta be loyal, they gotta know what they’re doing.”
– – Quotes via Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic Link – –
