Girardi, Leyland Win Manager of the Year Awards
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Wednesday, November 15, 2006; 5:23 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Six weeks after he was fired by Florida, Joe Girardi won the NL Manager of the Year award Wednesday for keeping the rookie-laden Marlins in contention nearly all season. Jim Leyland took the AL honor after a quick turnaround with the Detroit Tigers.
A rookie skipper himself, Girardi beat out Willie Randolph of the New York Mets by a comfortable margin to become the first manager to win the award with a losing record.
"It's nice that people who watch the game every day understood what we accomplished," Girardi said, adding he wasn't particularly surprised to win. "We had a lot of good things happen."
Girardi received 18 of 32 first-place votes and totaled 111 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. Randolph got eight first-place votes and 81 points.
Leyland turned around the long-moribund Tigers in his first year with the team, leading them to the World Series and their first winning season since 1993. He received 19 of 28 first-place votes and 118 points to top Minnesota's Ron Gardenhire, who was listed first on nine ballots and totaled 93 points.
"I knew that we had something here. I thought it would take longer than it did. This team started believing," Leyland said. "We had good players going into spring training, but we didn't have a very good team. We made ourselves a good team and that's something I'm very proud of."
Playing 22 rookies, Girardi guided the Marlins to a 78-84 finish and had them in the playoff race until late September -- a surprisingly competitive performance for a team that was expected to lose at least 100 games. Florida had a $15 million opening day payroll, the lowest in the major leagues by more than $20 million.
Still, he was fired two days after the season ended following a rift with owner Jeffrey Loria. Girardi has since agreed to rejoin the New York Yankees' broadcast booth, rather than seek another managing job.
"I don't know if vindication is a good word, just because as a manager you want to manage," Girardi said.
"I don't believe in this case perception is reality," he added. "I wanted it to work out but it never got worked out, for whatever reason. ... We move on to bigger and better things."
After the announcement, the Marlins were ready with a statement.
"We are pleased for Joe and we wish him well," the team said.
