Jim Leyland, Hall of Fame manager: 4 things we learned from the Contemporary Era election

 

NASHVILLE — We’ve known for two decades that Jim Leyland was a Hall of Fame storyteller, a Hall of Fame ranter (and raver) and a no-doubt Hall of Fame character of baseball. But what he was, really, was a Hall of Fame manager waiting to happen.

And on Sunday night, the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee made that official. Finally.

When the dust settled on the committee’s day of deliberations on eight famed managers, executives and umpires, Leyland was the only man elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In an election in which a candidate needed 12 votes to clear the 75 percent hurdle necessary for election, Leyland didn’t even make it close. His name was on all but one of the 16 ballots.

There was more Hall of Fame heartbreak for Lou Piniella, though. He missed by one vote for the second straight election. And former National League president Bill White came up two votes short. None of the other six candidates got more than four votes, which meant their vote totals were not revealed by the Hall.

So what do those results tell us? Let’s look at Four Things We Learned from this election.