Jim Leyland is a pretty popular guy. And it’s not just because he led the Tigers to the American League pennant last season.
Turns out, the Tigers manager was voted “most popular” in high school as a senior superlative. On the heels of his high school’s 50-year reunion, Leyland told reporters at the winter meetings about the honor.
“I was kind of wondering, when I drove back to Pittsburgh I was saying to myself, ‘I wonder how the girls thought ol’ Jimbo looked,’ ” Leyland said. “I was never the prom king, but I was the most popular boy. I could bring out my yearbook for you if you don’t believe me, but I didn’t bring it with me.”
Well, thank God for Twitter. Leyland’s son Patrick was flipping through his dad’s yearbook around Thanksgiving and started posting pictures on Twitter. Those pictures confirm Jim’s claim that he was indeed the most popular in high school, back when he went by “Jimbo.” He shared the honor with Mary Burkhart, who Leyland had some praise for 50 years after the fact.
“I don’t see quite as good as I used to,” Leyland said. “But [girls back then] looked pretty good to me. Margaret Bayer looked fantastic. She lives in Hawaii and her husband’s a great guy. She looked really good.”
Check out the photo below of Leyland’s senior superlative below.
Photo via Twitter/@pleyland1013
