Detroit Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski announced at the clubs annual TIGERFEST today that the team will honor the late Sparky Anderson, who spent 17 years as the Tigers manager.
The Tigers will also fly a flag in Sparky's honor @ Comerica Park, and will retire #11, which Sparky wore from 1979-1996.
Anderson took over the struggling Tigers in the middle of the 1979 season, replacing Les Moss, and immediately claimed the Tigers would be World Series Champions within 5 years.
True to his word, the Tigers were champions, starting 1984 on an amazing 35-5 run through the American League in route to the clubs 4th World Series Championship.
Anderson was the 1st manager in MLB History to win the World Series in both leagues, leading the Cincinnati Reds to back to back wins in 1975-76 before coming to Detroit, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Sparky Anderson died on November 4th, 2010, at the age of 76.
They should co-retire it with Bill Freehan, the way New York did with Yogi Berra and Bill Dickey.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, that will be in an upcoming post.
ReplyDeleteFreehan was my hero, and he deserves it.
Go to my Twitter page, I'll be tweeting up the subject until I get results...look for has tag #11belongstofreehan.
Thanks for your response.
I hope the reds do something like this. I went to redsfest this year and they had a huge huge sign of Sparky Anderson that said something like, "you will be missed", and everybody was encouraged to sign there name on it. By the time i left there were thousands of signatures covering the banner. I think it is going to be hung up at Great American Ballpark this year.
ReplyDelete