White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf has watched quite a few third-base coaches operate over his nearly 43 years of owning the White Sox. None were better in his mind than Jim Leyland, who held that position from 1982-85 on Tony La Russa’s staff.
“I haven’t seen that many great third-base coaches,” Reinsdorf said. “He was really good.”
Reinsdorf and La Russa were in attendance for Leyland’s Monday afternoon press conference at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center after the man with 1,769 career managerial victories, three pennants and one World Series title was elected to the Hall of Fame on Sunday night by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee.
Leyland’s son, Patrick, currently manages in the White Sox Minor League system, having led Single-A Kannapolis in 2023. The elder Leyland’s start also came with the White Sox.
“That was a huge, huge part of my career to be honest with you,” Leyland said on a Sunday Zoom. “In 1983, we had a great ballclub in Chicago. We won the Western Division, but we got beat by Baltimore. I was the third-base coach, and it had a lot of stars: [Tom] Paciorek, [Greg] Luzinski, two young guys [Ron] Kittle and [Greg] Walker, Jerry Koosman, Carlton Fisk.
“We had such a good year that I got noticed a little bit by some of the baseball people. That was my first stepping stone as far as getting a Major League manager’s job. We had a lot of exposure that year. The White Sox were getting very good publicly.”
Reinsdorf, La Russa and Roland Hemond were three of the many influences mentioned by Leyland. Reinsdorf and La Russa hold similar appreciation for the newest Hall of Famer.
“There’s nobody like Jim,” La Russa said.
“People get in the Hall of Fame every year and people say, ‘That’s great, they did a great job,’” Reinsdorf said. “But people love this guy. It’s amazing how really well loved he is.”