"Twenty years later, the lesson hit. Terry Collins was standing a few feet from Jim Leyland and Barry Bonds on that day in spring training, 1991, when Leyland howled at his superstar, 'don’t you f--- with me!' and ended up with more respect from the player because of it.
Bonds has been sulking all spring about losing his arbitration hearing, and one morning began cursing at a photographer. Bill Virdon, an old baseball lifer and coach on Leyland’s staff, told Bonds to stop, and Bonds was soon swearing at Virdon; Leyland would not have anyone disrespecting his coaches, so he stuck his face into Bonds’ and started yelling. Bonds later called Leyland the best manager he had ever played for.
How, wondered Collins, then a bullpen coach and aspiring manager, did Leyland pull that one off?
Two decades (and two failures in with Astros and Angels later) the Mets manager understands. 'What I got from him was that I always had to be myself,' said Leyland’s longtime friend and acolyte on the day of the 68-year-old’s retirement in Detroit. 'Then there was what happened in Houston. Then there was what happened in Anaheim.' "
The implication seems to be that he has succeeded in New York.
"But then there was what happened in New York: Close relationships with star players, and a strong hold on the clubhouse despite three years of losing records. So it took 20 years for the deep lessons of Leyland to take hold inside Collins?
'Exactly,' Collins said."
Congratulations on your close relationships with star players and a strong hold on the clubhouse despite three years of losing records.
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