A blast from the past

LAKELAND, Fla. - Jack Nicklaus said a few years ago that he still felt nervous on the first tee before every round. He liked that, because it meant he was keyed up to compete.

Nicklaus won more major tournaments than anyone. So perhaps the Tigers' first good sign of spring arrived Wednesday when Jim Leyland said, "I'm nervous. I haven't been sleeping too good the last few nights."

Leyland's first camp as Tigers manager opens Thursday with a pitchers-and-catchers workout. The first full-squad workout is early next week.

Leyland has thought about what he'll tell the pitchers and catchers Thursday. He awoke at 4 a.m. Wednesday and jotted down something that he considered important.

It might seem strange that Leyland, 61, has the 4 a.m. nerves. He has managed 14 years in the majors and has heard himself called baseball's best manager.

But he has at least three reasons to be nervous: He hasn't managed in six years, since his eminent career appeared to end in what he calls the "terrible job" he did in a one-season stint with Colorado. He's back in his original organization, where he spent the first 17 years of his pro career in the minors as a catcher, coach and manager.

And Leyland knows that he lacks the time to ease into his job. He has a three-year contract, but he doesn't talk about building a winner by the third year. With plenty of veterans in their primes, a win-now priority pervades this franchise that has had 12 straight losing seasons, including the 71-91 disillusionment last season that got manager Alan Trammell fired.

"I'm real conscientious about not asking anybody for patience," Leyland said. "They've been asked to be patient for the last 12 years, and I know they don't want to hear that. I don't blame them. So I feel a little bit of pressure to get this thing done and get it done rather quickly.

"I'm certainly not predicting a World Series or anything foolish. We were 20 games under .500. But I'm talking about significant improvement where hopefully we'll at least be playing for something come September."

Leyland also sought to produce success immediately in 1997. That's when he took over the Florida Marlins. On Wednesday, as he sat in his office in the Tigers clubhouse, Leyland wore the lasting image of that season - the Marlins' world-title ring.

"We were able to get the veteran players to buy into the program," he said of how it worked in `97. "That's what I'm talking about here, and that's the only way it's going to work.

"Everything kind of falls into place when you get that core of veteran players ... to lead by example."

He said such leadership entailed such promptness as "being the first ones" to the clubhouse and arriving for stretching exercises earlier.

But what do arrival times and stretching have to do with pitching, hitting and fielding?

"It has something to do with discipline, and a disciplined team will win more close games," Leyland said. "A disciplined team will win more games from the seventh inning on than a non-disciplined team."

Leyland said the `97 Marlins had more talent than these Tigers. But more than once Wednesday, he praised the Tigers' talent. "The talent is here to make significant improvement," he said. "The talent is here, with some additions along the way, to get to where you want to go."

If that proves true, then the Tigers have a chance to make Leyland the second member of a club in which they made Sparky Anderson the first and so-far only member: managers with a world championship in the American League and National League.

For now, Leyland wears that Florida world-title ring, which is the size of a lug nut and which is the only flashy thing about him. He said he put his original Florida world-title ring in a safe-deposit box for his son. So Marlins owner Wayne Huzienga had a second ring made for Leyland, this one to wear. Leyland wears it, he said, in case he runs into Huzienga.

"I don't want him to think I'm trying to get three," Leyland said.

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