At the depth of the Tigers’ early season depression, Jim Leyland was on his way back to the dugout after yet another visit to the mound when he heard a fan yell, “Bring back Trammell!”
        “The same guys who ran Trammell out of town now want to bring him back,” Leyland snorted.
        Two years ago, Tiger fans were nominating Leyland for governor and comparing him to Albert Einstein. During the first two months of this season, some of those same people were calling for his head.
        That’s baseball. That’s the nature of the manager’s job. It goes with the territory. Managers are hired to be fired. And Leyland knows it.
        “There are only two people I answer to: Mr. Ilitch and Dave Dombrowski,” Leyland said the other day.
        “Don’t get me wrong: I like this job. I don’t want to get fired. But if Dave walked in my office tomorrow and said, ‘You’re fired,’ I’d say, ‘Thank you for the opportunity,’ and I’d go home.
        “My dad told me a long time ago, ‘If you come to work every day worried about getting fired from your job, you don’t have a job.’
        “I don’t worry about it,”  Leyland continued. “If I ever feel I’m the problem, they won’t have to fire me. I’ll know it before they do. I wouldn’t want to be somewhere I’m not wanted.
        “Everybody else has got this job figured out, they think it’s easy -- but I know how hard this job is,” Leyland said.
        “Like I told the players, ‘I’m going to come to the ballpark every day and work my tail off but I’m also going to have a life.’ You gotta have a life.
        “I’m going to go to the horse races, I’m going to go to the casino, I’m going to play golf with my coaches once in a while,’ ” Leyland said.
        “I’m not going to live my life in a teacup.
        “I’m going to do the same thing whether we’re winning or losing.
        “I’ve hear people say, ‘’Oh you shouldn’t play golf during the season,’ or, ‘When you lose you should go back to your room and pout.’ That’s bull (bleep).”
        And the Tigers players have fed off that attitude.
        Even when the Tigers hit rock-bottom, there was no finger-pointing in the clubhouse, as there had been during disappointing seasons past. No one was glaring or complaining about anyone else. Nobody was grumbling under their breath.
        “I’m blessed, we’ve got good guys,” Leyland said. “They don’t always play good. And I don’t always manage good. But they’re good guys.
        “I’ve had more scenarios on my desk this year than I have had in the history of my career,” the Tigers’ manager admitted. “I didn’t count on any of this stuff happening. It’s been a real chaotic year up to this point. It seems like it’s been one thing after another.
        “You want to stay healthy all year. You don’t want anybody to get hurt. But that’s not life.
        “But I’m not one of those guys who says, ‘Aw, this is just that kind of year.’ I’m not going to give in to this stuff. And I hope my players don’t.
        “We’ve had to do a lot of things this year that you don’t like to do as a manager,” Leyland continued. “You like to have everything go perfect right from spring training. This year, we’ve had to do a lot of things on the fly _ things that in spring training were the furthest things from anybody’s mind.
        “But you can’t let that bother you. If you do, you’ll drive yourself crazy. I love every game we play, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.
        “This is not life or death _ this is major league baseball, this is fun,” Leyland insisted, even when the Tigers were losing.
        “What’s the worst thing that can happen? I get fired? I’m 63 years old. I’m not going to worry about a job I love.”
        In Detroit, Leyland lives in a Greektown hotel, so close to the ballpark that he sometimes walks to work, shaking hands and waving at well-wishers along the way.
        He is happy. He is content. He is doing what he was born to do.
        He has a couple of cartons of Marlboros stacked up on the counter, and there is a casino next door with a waiting slot machine. What more could a man want?
        Well, since you asked, another trip to the World Series would be nice.