Jim Leyland and the march into history

Yesterday, Jim Leyland won his 1,400 game as manager. He is only the 24th manager to ever do that. That same win also pushed him one past Wilbert Robinson, as the (undeserving) Hall of Fame skipper won 1,399 games in his career. By the end of the year, Leyland should pass up three more managers on the all-time win leaderboard, including Hall of Famers Al Lopez and Miller Huggins.

Unfortunately for Leyland, earlier this year he also became the 18th skipper to lose 1,400 games.

He’s 21st all-time in games managed, a rather impressive achievement given that he was 41 years old when he started. That sounds young for a manager but then again most managers aren’t rookie skippers. Only five of the guys ahead of him were 41 or older in their managerial debut. There’s a bit of an era bias at play, but it’s more than that: LaRussa, Cox, and Torre were all in their 30s when they started, for example.