Former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland among 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame candidates
Former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland could be on his way to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Leyland is one of eight members on the Hall of Fame's Contemporary Era ballot for managers, executives and umpires. The 78-year-old managed 3,499 games over 22 seasons and won the 1997 World Series with the Florida Marlins. He also managed the Pittsburgh Pirates and Colorado Rockies.
A 16-member committee will meet and vote Dec. 3 at the winter meetings. Any person from the Contemporary Era ballot with at least 12 votes (75%), will be elected to the Hall of Fame. If elected, Leyland will be inducted July 21, 2024, joining any players voted in by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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The full eight-person ballot: Leyland, Cito Gaston, Davey Johnson, Ed Montague, Hank Peters, Lou Piniella, Joe West and Bill White. Leyland, Piniella, Gaston and Johnson are former managers.
The 16-member committee, responsible for voting on the eight candidates, will be announced later this fall. The voting will take place at the winter meetings in Nashville, Tennessee, and the results of the vote will be announced Dec. 3 at 7:30 p.m. on MLB Network.
Leyland managed the Pirates (1986-96), Marlins (1997-98), Rockies (1999) and Tigers (2006-13) in his career, along with managing Team USA to the 2017 World Baseball Classic championship. He is the only manager in baseball history to win a World Series and WBC title.
He won Manager of the Year awards in 1990, 1992 and 2006.
After retiring from managing, Leyland stayed with the Tigers' organization as a special assistant in the front office. He travels to different minor-league affiliates, such as Double-A Erie in Pennsylvania, during the season to monitor the development of the Tigers' minor-league players. He loves golfing in his free time, as chronicled by the Free Press.
Leyland won 1,769 games in his 22-year managing career: 851 games with the Pirates, 146 games with the Marlins, 72 games with the Rockies and 700 games with the Tigers.
He had a .540 winning percentage in his eight seasons with the Tigers, better than his winning percentage with the Pirates (.496), Marlins (.451) and Rockies (.444).
Leyland won three straight division titles twice in his career, doing so with the Pirates in the National League East from 1990-92 and with the Tigers in the American League Central from 2011-13.
He led the Marlins to the 1997 World Series championship and lost in the World Series with the Tigers in 2006 and 2012.
Leyland posted a 1,769-1,728 record in the regular season and a 44-40 record in the postseason. His final game was a 5-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in the 2013 AL Championship Series.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Jim Leyland is a 2024 Baseball Hall of Fame candidate
