Davey Johnson was also fired the year he won MOY:
Leyland, Girardi grab the prizes
By Rick Hummel
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Thursday, Nov. 16 2006
A man who was a scout last year won the 2006 American League Manager of the
Year award Wednesday. A man who will be a broadcaster next year won the 2006
National League Manager of the Year award. And a man whose team won the World
Series didn't get a vote.
Detroit's Jim Leyland, who served as a Cardinals scout for six years after
ostensibly retiring from managing following the 1999 season in Colorado, was an
overwhelming choice in the AL voting conducted by the Baseball Writers'
Association. In his first season in Detroit, Leyland led the Tigers, who were
71-91 in 2005 and had had 12 straight losing seasons, to the American League
pennant before they lost the World Series in five games to the Cardinals.
Florida rookie manager Joe Girardi, who played his last season for the
Cardinals in 2003 (he had three hits in 23 at-bats) easily outdistanced Willie
Randolph of the New York Mets in the National League voting. But, victim of a
dispute with Florida owner Jeffrey Loria, Girardi will be employed in 2007 by
the New York Yankees, who have signed him as a broadcaster.
Girardi, who brought his team from 20 games under .500 in May to over .500 in
September before it faltered, becomes the second manager to be fired in the
same year he won the Manager of the Year award, joining Davey Johnson, who was
fired by Baltimore in 1997.
"It's kind of weird," said Leyland, "that a guy who gets Manager of the Year
isn't managing the next year. (Girardi) did a fantastic job."
Tony La Russa, manager of the world champions, said, "It's more than weird.
Maybe the Marlins have some explanation. I know we're all waiting to hear.
"I understand that the managers voted for Joe (as manager of the year). And now
the writers have voted for Joe. Do the fans vote? What's left?"
Girardi, addressing BBWAA members on a conference call, said he couldn't really
reconcile being manager of the year and being fired, but he said, "It's nice
that people who watch games every day see what we accomplished this year.
"I'm not surprised we won the award. A lot of people thought we were going to
lose anywhere from 100 to 110 to 115 games. And I wouldn't have been surprised
if Willie Randolph won it. He had a great year."
Girardi declined to go into specifics as to why he was fired other than to say
he, like anyone else, probably would have said and done things differently the
next time.
"I wanted it to work out and for whatever reason it didn't," Girardi said. "I
was fired. But that's life. You've got to move on."
The Marlins, after inching above .500 at 73-71, wound up at 78-84.
"Look at the Cardinals," Girardi said. "They won only five games more than us
and won the World Series. You could say we weren't that far away ... but we
were."
Conspicuous by his absence in the balloting was La Russa, who did not get so
much as a third-place vote in the National League balloting, which included
seven of the league's 16 managers,
"That," said Leyland, "is hard to believe."
In fact, it is the first time in the 24-year history of the BBWAA manager's
award that a manager who won the World Series didn't get a vote in the
balloting. Leyland had the previous lowest total of one point when his Florida
team won the World Series in 1997. And, La Russa had finished third in the
balloting in 1989 when he won his other world championship with the Oakland
Athletics.
La Russa, speaking from California with tongue jammed in his cheek, said, "You
would think 83 wins (in the 2006 regular season) would deserve a lot more
respect than that. But the last couple of months we were not exactly
high-flying. Well, really, the last four months we didn't fly too high."
As in the other BBWAA awards, voting was done before the playoffs, before the
staggering Cardinals rebounded to win 11 of 16 postseason games and their 10th
world title.
"It just shows you how lousy I was during the year, and I was only slightly
better in the playoffs," joked La Russa.
"We finally carried out the strategy we'd used quite a bit. We got so far ahead
I couldn't mess it up."
Before the Cardinals dusted off Detroit in the Series, the Tigers had won seven
postseason games in succession — three against the New York Yankees and four
against Oakland.
"Once you get (to the World Series), you obviously want to win it," Leyland
said. "Were we disappointed? Sure. But you never look back and say everything
was a downer. We came from fourth place to the World Series.
"I certainly didn't plan on going to the World Series this year. And I didn't
plan on being the manager of the year. I can tell you that."
But, to good friend La Russa, Leyland, who like La Russa and Bobby Cox is a
winner of the manager's award in both leagues, is the manager of the year every
year.
"He's the best I've ever been around," said La Russa, who brought Leyland to
the big leagues for the first time as a coach with the Chicago White Sox in
1982.
"I would say what he did this year was what you'd call noteworthy.
"One thing I said that year (2004) when we won 105 games was that if Jim had
been managing, we'd have won 110. And I mean that sincerely."
Leyland appreciates all the kind words from La Russa. But he said Wednesday,
"He's got the nicest piece of hardware."
, that does send a message, doesn't it? Six Marlin rookies up for rookie of the year.