In ALDS, Leyland's message comes through loud and clear
"What happened in '97 (Florida's fire sale after the World Series, which provoked him to flee to Colorado two years later) shouldn't happen to anyone. That was a tough blow for him, to win a championship and then have that happen. It was a tough decision.
"He lived with it, but it takes a lot out of you."
As for the team to whom he wrote that letter before this wild ride of a season started, well, it wasn't exactly a junkyard of spare parts. Make no mistake, there was talent, and there were many pieces that deposed manager Alan Trammell can only now wish he had last year -- Rogers, rookie starter Justin Verlander and rookie setup man Joel Zumaya, to name three.
But if anybody pegged this bunch to win 95 games and flatten the Yankees in this first-round series the way they did, then I've got a few dozen seats from old Tiger Stadium I'd like to sell you.
"I thought this would be a year where, OK, let's look at the pieces and parts," Leyland said, cradling a glass of champagne in one hand. "Do we have to change some of these parts? Oil some of them?
"I thought next year we would be competitive. I never told the players that. But in my heart, I wanted to play .500 this year. I thought we were capable of doing that.
"But this, I couldn't have imagined."
Then Rogers, Verlander, Nate Robertson and Jeremy Bonderman -- who was brilliant in whipping the Yankees in Game 4, holding them hitless for five innings -- came together to form the heart of the rotation.
Leadoff man Curtis Granderson began to find himself. Monroe and Marcus Thames added power. Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez stayed healthy. Polanco made things go from the No. 2 spot in the batting order. Ivan Rodriguez played like, well, like we've seen him play before.
Closer Todd Jones wobbled, but never fell. Dombrowski added Casey, the perfect lefty contact hitter they needed, at the trade deadline.
And Leyland pulled all the right strings. In baseball, rarely is the difference made by a manager as visible as it was throughout this summer in Detroit.
Now, like so much else that has come to Detroit so suddenly this season, here comes a blast from the past. The Tigers and Oakland last met in the American League Championship Series in 1972, when a best-of-5 series came down to a final fifth game, with Oakland pitcher Blue Moon Odom starting against Detroit's Woodie Fryman. The A's won 2-1 and went on to win the first of three consecutive World Series.
The Tigers will fly to Oakland on Sunday afternoon to begin preparations for this year's ALCS, to begin at the Coliseum on Tuesday.
It's been a kaleidoscope of emotions in Detroit over the past three weeks, from the highs of celebrating the clinching of a playoff spot to the lows of blowing the division title, home-field advantage and Game 1 of their first-round series against the Yankees to the extraordinary high of Saturday, when they stunningly swatted away the Yankees lineup like a fly.
"You have to learn how to handle winning," Leyland explained. "You have to learn how to handle losing. You have to learn how to handle the playoffs. It just doesn't happen. You have to experience something before you know how to handle it.
"This is another step. This is part of the process. We're fortunate. I think we grew up in a hurry."
