Top Two Managers at Great American Ball Park

Jim Leyland and Dusty Baker are the top two active managers in baseball.

Leyland record which covers 21 seasons is 1,615 - 1,617 going into the Reds/Tigers matchup Sunday night.

Dusty Baker is 1,516 - 1,393 in 19 seasons.

Leyland has managed four pennant winners and two World Series winners.  Baker managed the San Francisco Giants for its 2002 pennant winning season.

The other thing the two share is constant criticism about their lineup choices.

Leyland, who is brutally honest, went off in the pre-game interview Friday about the things fans come up with for his lineup.

The printable portion of the tirade is as follows:

“Where do these people come up with this stuff, saying I should bat players in different parts of the batting order and play different players? I can’t figure out what they’re talking about. All it comes down to is that no matter who I play and where they bat they have to do the job on the field.”

Leyland and Baker are good friends.

When Baker was a hitting coach in San Francisco and Leyland managed the Pirates, Leyland told Baker that he would be a great manager

.“We’ve been very close,” said Baker. “We have a lot in common. We both managed Barry Bonds for a long period of time (Leyland in Pittsburgh and Baker in San Francisco) and I used to ask him different things about Barry."

“I was with him the night he retired from Colorado and he wanted me to go to some piano bar and sing,” said Baker. “I told him, ‘I’ll go with you, but I ain’t gonna sing.’ He’s a good man and it meant a lot when he sent condolences and flowers when my dad passed away a couple of years ago.”