"He took it pretty hard," Thomas Leyland remembers. Jim Leyland went back to work. Two years later, he won Manager of the Year again. This time, it was all his own. He thought of his father's words.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Jim Leyland’s family and friends ... career that I wasn’t a good player,’’ Leyland said, “because I realized how hard it was to play the game.’’ ...