DETROIT - Mike Ilitch has been the one constant during the Detroit Tigers' streak of 12 straight losing seasons.

The team's owner has worked with four general managers, and on Tuesday, hired his seventh manager.

Ilitch is confident Jim Leyland is the difference-maker his once-proud franchise desperately needs.

"When you get an opportunity to work with a person that has won a World Series and a lot of division championships and is highly respected," Ilitch said, "you don't have to be very smart to recognize that you have a good baseball man."

Detroit signed Leyland to a three-year contract to replace manager Alan Trammell, who was fired a day earlier after three seasons. Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski, who was hired in 2001, has two years left on his deal.

Leyland was Florida's manager when the Marlins won the 1997 World Series, and he was a two-time NL manager of the year in Pittsburgh.

Since quitting his last managing job six years ago in Colorado, the 60-year-old Leyland was a major league scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.

While that job allowed him to spend time with his family in Pittsburgh, it didn't erase the bad memories he had for his one-season stint with the Rockies.

"I didn't attack the manager's job the way you have to," Leyland said. "When you run a ballclub, there are egos involved and little fires you have to put out. I got to the point where I didn't do it. I wasn't a good manager."

Leyland said that after burning out in Colorado, he's passionate about restoring pride in his managerial career.

"I always missed the competition, but the last couple of years - and this stuck in my craw a little bit - I did not want my managerial career to end like that," he said.

Another former Pirates manager, Lloyd McClendon, who was fired Sept. 6, is expected Leyland's staff - possibly as the bullpen coach, according to sources close to the teams.

McClendon will join Leyland's staff after the Tigers get permission from the Pirates to hire him, said the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. McClendon is technically under contract through the end of the month, but the Pirates are expected to release him since he is no longer working in their organization.

McClendon, contacted Tuesday before Leyland was formally hired by the Tigers, declined to comment on the prospective move. But he said last month he hoped to be back in the majors next season - if not in another managing job, then as a coach.

Before becoming the Pirates' manager, McClendon was the team's hitting coach from 1997-2000 under former manager Gene Lamont, a longtime Leyland aide who is also expected to rejoin Leyland's coaching staff.

The Tigers must seek permission from the Phillies to contact Lamont, who managed Philadelphia's Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre farm club this season - his first as a minor league manager since 1985.

Another former Pirates coach, Rich Donnelly, also will rejoin Leyland's staff in Detroit, possibly as the third base coach. Donnelly, from Steubenville, Ohio, was a Milwaukee Brewers coach for the last three seasons and has been a major league coach for 24 seasons. He was the Pirates' bullpen coach from 1986-91 and their third base coach from 1992-96.