They never spent much time together, but former Tigers manager Jim Leyland made an impression on Schwartz.
“Somewhere somebody’s playing a montage of his career highlights and there’s Frank Sinatra singing in the background, ‘I did it my way,’” Schwartz said. “I think that would be apropos for the way he managed.”
Pointing out that baseball managers are often referred to as “Skip” or “Skipper,” Schwartz suggested that Leyland would have made a perfect captain of a ship if he hadn’t been a baseball manager.
“He would have been up at the helm, probably smoking a cigarette,” Schwartz said. “It would have been like 20-foot swells, a hurricane coming in, and he wouldn’t even bat an eye. Everybody on the crew would have looked up and said, ‘Hey, things are going to be OK.’
“That’s why I have so much respect for him. I certainly learned a lot watching him close over these last five years. I heard he’s going to stay in the game. I think baseball will be better for him staying in the game.”
