There’s No L.A. in Leyland

Maybe no one knows Jim Leyland better than Rich Donnelly, who has been on Leyland’s coaching staff for 13 years--in Pittsburgh, Florida and now Colorado.

The way Donnelly sees it, when Leyland rejected a chance to interview for the Dodger vacancy last winter before ultimately becoming baseball’s highest-salaried manager with the Rockies, Leyland wasn’t rejecting the Dodgers as much as “all that high-profile glitz and glamour of Los Angeles.”

“You can’t put earrings on a pig, and that’s what it would have felt like to Jim,” Donnelly said. “If Jim had to choose between going to a Hollywood cocktail party and Ma and Pa’s Grill for shuffleboard and a beer, he’d go to Ma and Pa’s. He’s not fascinated by famous people but good people, and sometimes they’re not the same. The only pictures he’d have on his office wall are his family and players.”

That’s unlike Tom Lasorda, of course, who feasted on the Hollywood scene and had pictures of Frank Sinatra, Don Rickles and other celebrities on his office wall during his long tenure as Dodger manager.

Leyland, by contrast, remains Perrysburg, Ohio, where he grew up, and Pittsburgh, where he lives. He spent 18 years as a minor league player, coach and manager, riding buses and planting roots in places named Jamestown and Rocky Mount, Bristol and Clinton. A long way from power lunches and crepes suzette, in other words, but ask Leyland and he will tell you how the women’s clubs loved him because he always supported their bake sales.

“To be honest, I’m a little scared of Los Angeles and New York,” Leyland said, meaning their environments, not their ballclubs. He was standing in the sun, watching the Rockies take batting practice before a late March exhibition game in Arizona.

“I knew in my heart [Los Angeles] was too big for me, and I didn’t want to lead anyone on,” he said. “It had nothing to do with the organization itself. The Dodgers are right at the top when it comes to tradition and class. I was honored, but I also knew I was not their No. 1 choice, that it was going to be a long interviewing process, and I wanted to be up front so that I didn’t waste their time or mine. They got a great manager in Davey Johnson, and they would have got a great manager in Felipe Alou.”

Leyland’s decision should not have been a surprise to the Dodgers. In the winter of 1996, before leaving Pittsburgh to become manager of the Marlins, and before the Angels hired Terry Collins, Disney approached Leyland with a major financial package that included a sizable allotment of company stock--only to be rejected. Leyland didn’t want to leave the National League and found it hard to separate Anaheim from Los Angeles.

Ultimately, though, he compromised.

With his World Series champion Marlins disbanded, as his division champion Pirates had been, Leyland traveled West, but only as far as the Rocky Mountains, saying thanks, but no thanks, to the Dodgers and Detroit Tigers, who also called last winter.

“I have relatives in Denver, the nucleus of a good team, and those 40 or 50,000 [fans] every night make it a very attractive place,” Leyland said of Denver, knowing that Coors Field, where those 40 or 50,000 assemble, has often been described in a far less flattering way than attractive--especially by pitchers.

Leyland has been at work on that.

“What I’ve tried to instill [in our pitchers] is that you’ve got to use [Coors Field] to your advantage, and simply pitch better than the other pitcher,” Leyland said. “Forget the extra run on your earned-run average and just pitch better than the other guy.

“Everybody says, ‘Well, it’s tough to pitch there.’ But they act like there’s only one guy pitching when there’s really two. I’m not trying to hide anything. If you don’t think ERAs are going to be higher there, you’re crazy. They are, but the idea is to win games.”

Leyland has assigned another longtime aide, former catcher Milt May, as his pitching coach--a harrowing first for May.

Only the Marlins, among 16 National League teams, had a higher ERA than the Rockies (4.99), whose only significant pitching change was the three-year, $9-million, head-turning signing of Brian Bohanon, an off-speed stylist who could experience the same rarefied-air problems that curveball specialist Darryl Kile had last year.

The one certainty, owner Jerry McMorris believes, is that he has the right man at the helm.

Expansion patience evaporated after six years and a 77-85 record, and either General Manager Bob Gebhard or Manager Don Baylor was going to pay the price.

McMorris and partners chose Baylor, a heavy decision that McMorris hoped to lighten by offering Baylor a vice presidency.

Baylor, who had led the Rockies into the playoffs in only their third year and was hopeful of managing again, chose to stay in uniform as the Atlanta Brave batting coach.

“We clearly overachieved our first three years and underachieved the next three,” McMorris said. “We had our highest expectations last year and underachieved worse than in any of the six.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean any one person was responsible, but there are dynamics involved in every club and we felt ours needed changing. We needed fresh eyes and ears, and Jim Leyland was truly the only choice.

“He won in Pittsburgh and he won in Florida. His World Series ring represents credibility. He has a very good reputation for handling superstars and everyday players alike.

“We’ve had six years of unprecedented fan support--not just in baseball but all of sports--and we feel we’re now at a point to compete at a higher level. You don’t do that by losing your own players.”

The Rockies stepped up and wrapped up Larry Walker, Todd Helton and Darryl Hamilton with multiyear contracts.

They were second in the Kevin Brown derby--what many in the business believe was a distant second to the Dodgers’ $105-million offer.

It has been suggested that the Dodgers were bidding against themselves at the end, but McMorris said it served no purpose to comment.

As for Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone’s prediction of an engagement with the New York Yankees in the World Series, however, McMorris slipped into a facetious mode and said, “Well, it seems to me that they’ve been in the World Series every year since we’ve been in baseball. They’re just a little more vocal now, but I’m looking forward to playing the games. We still have a 162-game schedule.”

The Rockies are counting on the power of Walker, Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla, a major rebound by second baseman Mike Lansing, improvement by young first baseman Helton and shortstop Neifi Perez, and strong showings by their starting pitchers.

No one has to tell Leyland what Brown would have meant. Brown was the ace of Leyland’s World Series team--”a warrior, the fiercest competitor there is,” he said. No one has to tell him that a projected rotation of Kile, Bohanon, Pedro Astacio, Jamey Wright and John Thomson represents five wings and a prayer. He will carry 12 pitchers as protection against Coors blowouts and possible inconsistency.

“With our offense [and pitching depth], we don’t have to get seven or eight innings out of our starters, but we have to get six for sure,” he said. “The Dodgers know they’re going to get seven or eight almost every time. I don’t know that we’ll get that. I don’t know what to expect from our pitching yet, but I do think we have a team capable of contending. There are a lot of outstanding players here who probably haven’t figured out how to do it collectively yet, but I think they have a chance to do that.”

In 13 years as a major league manager, Leyland has been to the playoffs four times, winning the one World Series in Florida after three consecutive division titles in Pittsburgh led to league championship losses, to Cincinnati and to Atlanta twice--and ultimately a disbanded nucleus.

Allegiance is one thing. Long-term rebuilding is another. Leyland went to Florida to experience what he once had going in Pittsburgh, but the World Series of ’97 was followed by 108 losses in 1998 as the Marlins sold off their best players and shuttled in 36 rookies.

“My personal record went to . . . but I had as much fun last year as I’ve ever had,” Leyland said. “I mean, the bottom line was bad and that’s a killer, but the kids all got better, kept their heads above water and they’re going to be reckoned with in the not-too-distant future. That was the salvation.

“Was I tempted to stay and see it through with them? Yes, but you never know how long you’re going to manage and I wanted at least one more chance to win. I had a fantastic relationship with the general manager [Dave Dombrowski], but by their own admission it was going to be a long process.”

Leyland arrived with few rules and a low-key approach. He chose to sit back and learn what he needed to know about his players. He is asking only that they be on time, work hard and be good citizens. But make no mistake: At $2 million a year--he has a three-year, $6-million contract--this is his team now and things will be done his way.

“I think Jim’s greatest strength is his communication skill,” Donnelly said. “He’s unbelievable. The next time there’s trouble in Iraq, they ought to send Jim to talk to Saddam.”

Baghdad? No problem. It was the thought of going to L.A. that scared him.