Former Major League Baseball manager Jim Leyland was elected to the Hall of Fame on Sunday during a vote at the Winter Meetings. The former manager was elected to the Hall by the Contemporary Baseball Era Non-Players Committee. The vote was a result of a restructured ballot system in which manager, umpire, and executive candidates are separated from the player candidates. Leyland was the only candidate on the ballot who was elected into the Hall. The other candidates were managers Cito Gaston, Davey Johnson, Lou Piniella, umpires Ed Montague and Joe West, and executives Hank Peters and Bill White.
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Leyland will be the 23rd manager to be inducted into the Hall. He’s the first manager to be inducted since 2014 when Tony LaRussa, Joe Torre, and Bobby Cox were inducted.
I tried to impress upon them what it was to be a professional and how tough this game is to play," Leyland said. "And I told them almost every day how good there were. I thought when I didn't get [the call] by a quarter of seven, it wasn't going to happen. So I went up just to rest a minute and get my thoughts together. When my son came up, the phone rang and it was the Hall of Fame. I couldn't believe it. There was definitely a tear in my eye."
Leyland was a catcher in his playing days, but never made it past Double-A. In 1971, he began his managerial career in the minors. He got his first job in the majors in 1986 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also managed the Miami Marlins, Colorado Rockies, and the Detroit Tigers, where his career ended in 2013. He had a 1,769-1,728 record, which puts him 18th on the all-time managerial win list. In 1997, he won the World Series with the Marlins. Leyland was named Manager of the Year in the National League in 1990 and 1992 and the American League in 2006. Leyland will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame this upcoming July
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