Tom Gage is Totally Jealous of This

by Ian Casselberry on Apr 27, 2009 8:45 AM EDT in Detroit Tigers News

If you didn't catch it in yesterday's Freep, Krista Jahnke got Tigers manager Jim Leyland to pull back the grumpy curtain and open up a bit.

"Everyone thinks I'm a grumpy old man," he said, one leg kicked up on his desk. "That's fine. But I like to have a good time."

What does that "good time" include? Leyland is a crooner. And he doesn't care if you know, because he knows he's good. Off the record, with the office door closed, he showed off his pipes for Jahnke.

For me, he closed his door, cranked up his iPod and sang along with Elton John's "Something about the Way You Look Tonight," a few lines of Queen's "We Are the Champions," Toby Keith's "Unleashed" and "Just Once" by Quincy Jones/James Ingram, his all-time favorite.

You know Tom Gage is totally jealous. Four years into covering him, and do you think Leyland's ever busted out some James Ingram for the Tigers beat reporters? Well, maybe he has. But not on the record.

If you want a sample of Leyland carrying a tune, the Freep has video from the Tigers' visit to the Motown Museum back in January.

(via The Daily Fungo)

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I’m pretty surprised that man can talk, let alone sing, for how much he smokes. ha!

by wepri31 on Apr 27, 2009 1:34 PM EDT reply actions

all those cigarettes give him voice character, haha

Mack Avenue Tigers

by Kurt Mensching on Apr 27, 2009 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions

Loved the article

It really humanizes him. Who woulda thunk The Skipper is a singer and has been performing all these years. He has a nice eclectic (is that how you spell it) collection of music which transpires age and whatever else you think about him. Wonder if he wooed his wife with his songs.

"It's designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything is new again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops, and leaves you to face the fall alone". A. Bartlett Giamatti

by densogirl on Apr 27, 2009 2:01 PM EDT reply actions