Leyland, Girardi Take Manager Of The Year Honors

After playing 20 games below .500 in 2005 and a mediocre start to the 2006 season, Jim Leyland walked into the Tigers clubhouse and did something. No one really knows what that something was, but it worked. Whatever he said, whatever he did, it worked. Detroit kicked ass all season long. It was like no one could stop them...besides that one time they were swept by the Royals and lost the Division Title to the Twins on the last day of the regular season. Sometimes there are things in life that just can't be explained.

This magic had him awarded American League Manager of the Year on Wednesday. Coming in second was our very own Ron Gardenhire (listed first on 9 ballots and totaled 93 points), third was Ken Macha, then Joe Torre.

Six weeks after being fired by the Marlins and their losing record, Joe Girardi received the same award, beating out Willie Randolph, who still has his job and helped lead the Mets to the NLCS. Just sayin'.

Girardi received 18 of 32 first-place votes and totalled 111 points in balloting, while Randolph got eight first-place votes and 81 points. He will reportedly join the YES Network for the 2007 season as a broadcaster. Good times, good times.

Tony LaRussa became the first manager to win a World Series and not receive one single tally, with voting coming before the post season. Clearly, the Cardinals have taken this personally, per a recent article titled LaRussa shut out in top skipper voting.