Jim Leyland, manager of the Detroit Tigers, has announced that he is stepping down as the team’s manager after eight seasons.

He announced that he will not be leaving the team, but will be staying on in another position.  The announcement comes only two days after his team was eliminated in the A.L.C.S. by the Boston Red Sox.

Mr. Leyland has been involved in baseball for several decades and was originally a catcher in the minor league system of the Tigers.  He became a coach in 1970 before moving to the Chicago White Sox in 1982 to become the Third Base Coach.

Mr. Leyland became manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986, staying in that position until 1996.  While with the Pirates, he was named N.L. Manager of the Year in 1990 and 1992.  He would lead the Pirates to the N.L. East Title three years in a row – 1990 to 1992.  While his team would lose all three years, the 1991 and 1992 series went seven games each against the Atlanta Braves.

Mr. Leyland joined the Florida Marlins in 1997, and went on to win the World Series that year.  After management dismantled the team after the World Series win, he would leave the team following the 1998 season to join the Colorado Rockies as their manager.  After one season as manager in Colorado, he would become a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Following the 2005 season, Mr. Leyland was hired as the new manager of the Detroit Tigers.  He would lead them to a 95-67 record in 2006, and the team would make it to the World Series only to lost to the team he had just been scouting for, the St. Louis Cardinals.  He would be named A.L. Manager of the Year at the end of the season.

In May 2012, he would pick up his 1,600th win  and would guide the Tigers to the A.L. Central Title becoming only the second Detroit manager, after Hughie Jennings, to lead the team to three postseason appearances.

He would lead the 2012 Tigers team to the World Series, including a four game sweep against the New York Yankees in the A.L.C.S., only to lose the World Series to the San Francisco Giants in four games.  The team was shut out twice in those four games (equally the number of times the team had been shut out all season) and hit an appalling 0.162 in the Series.

On September 25th, 2013 he picked up his 700th win as the manager of the Tigers, leading them to another A.L. Central Title and another appearance in the A.L.C.S.  The team would lose in six games to the Boston Red Sox.

Mr. Leyland’s managerial career can be summed up as follows:

• Two A.L. Pennants (2006, 2012)
• One World Series (1997)
• N.L. Pennant (1997)
• Eight Postseason Appearances (1990, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2013)
• Two time N.L. Manager of the Year (1990, 1992)
• One time A.L. Manager of the Year (2006)