Editing Sparky Anderson (section)

===Detroit Tigers===
The [[Detroit Tigers]] hired Anderson as their new manager on June 14, {{baseball year|1979}}. Upon seeing the team's young talent, he boldly proclaimed to the press that his team would be a pennant winner within five years.<ref>"One of a Kind." Retrospective article about Anderson in ''Sports Illustrated'', June 28, 1993.</ref> The Tigers became a winning club almost immediately, finishing above .500 in each of Anderson's first three full seasons, but did not get into contention until {{baseball year|1983}}, when they won 92 games and finished second to the [[1983 Baltimore Orioles season|Baltimore Orioles]] in the [[American League East]].

In {{baseball year|1984}}, Detroit opened the season 9–0, was 35–5 after 40 games (a major league record), and breezed to a 104–58 record (a franchise record for wins). On September 23, Anderson became the first manager to win 100 games in a season with two different teams.<ref name=blchron/> They swept the [[1984 Kansas City Royals season|Kansas City Royals]] in the [[1984 American League Championship Series|American League Championship Series]] (ALCS) and then beat the [[San Diego Padres]] in five games in the [[1984 World Series|World Series]] for Anderson's third [[World Series Trophy|world title]]. The 1984 Tigers became the first team since the [[1927 New York Yankees season|1927 New York Yankees]] to lead a league wire-to-wire, from opening day to the end of the World Series. After the season, Anderson won the first of his two [[Manager of the Year Award]]s with the Tigers.<ref name="ESPN AP bio"/>

After the Tigers clinched the AL East division title in 1984, Anderson wrote in his journal: "I have to be honest. I’ve waited for this day since they fired me in Cincinnati. I think they made a big mistake when they did that. Now no one will ever question me again."<ref>Sparky Anderson, "Bless You Boys" (1984), p. 214</ref>

Anderson's Tigers finished in third place in both 1985 and 1986. With a 9–5 win over the [[Milwaukee Brewers]] on July 29, 1986, Anderson became the first to achieve 600 career wins as a manager in both the American and National Leagues.<ref name=blchron/>

Anderson led the Tigers to the Major Leagues' best record in 1987, but the team was upset in the [[1987 American League Championship Series|ALCS]] by the [[Minnesota Twins]]. He won his second Manager of the Year Award that year.<ref name="ESPN AP bio"/> After contending again in 1988, finishing second to [[Boston Red Sox|Boston]] by one game in the AL East, the team collapsed [[1989 in baseball|the following year]], losing a startling 103 games in 1989. During that season, Anderson took a month-long leave of absence from the team as the stress of losing wore on him. First base coach [[Dick Tracewski]] managed the team in the interim.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/05/20/sports/sports-people-baseball-exhaustion-sidelines-sparky-anderson.html|work=[[The New York Times]]|title='Exhaustion' Sidelines Sparky Anderson|date=May 20, 1989|access-date=November 5, 2010}}</ref>

In 1991, the Tigers finished last in batting average, first in strikeouts and near the bottom of the league in most pitching categories, but still led their division in late August before settling for a second-place finish behind the rival [[1991 Toronto Blue Jays season|Toronto Blue Jays]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=1991 American League Team Statistics |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1991.shtml |access-date=2025-03-11 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>

On September 27, 1992, the Tigers beat the [[Cleveland Indians]] 13–3 for Anderson's 1,132nd win with the team, passing [[Hughie Jennings]] as the all-time leader in wins by a Tiger manager. Anderson continues to hold this distinction with 1,331 victories with the Tigers. On April 15, 1993, he won his 2,000th game as manager with a 3–2 victory over the [[Oakland Athletics]], becoming the seventh manager to do so.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/16/sports/baseball-2000-for-sparky-in-april-of-1993.html|title = BASEBALL; 2,000 for Sparky in April of 1993|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 16 April 1993}}</ref>

During his managerial career, Anderson was known to heap lavish praise on his ballplayers when talking to the media. He declared [[Kirk Gibson]] "the next [[Mickey Mantle]]," which he later acknowledged may have put too much pressure on Gibson early in his career. He said [[Mike Laga]], who played for him in 1984, would "make us forget every power hitter who ever lived."<ref>{{cite news|author=Steve Wulf |url=https://www.si.com/vault/1988/08/15/118189/too-hot-not-to-cool-down-with-sharp-pitching-and-an-uncharacteristic-hitting-barrage-detroit-stopped-the-streaking-red-sox-four-games-to-one |title="Too Hot Not To Cool Down" (''Sports Illustrated'', August 15, 1988, from SIVault) |publisher=Sports Illustrated |date=1988-08-15 |access-date=2017-12-03}}</ref> He also said [[Johnny Bench]], who played for him in Cincinnati, "will never throw a baseball as hard as [[Mike Heath (baseball)|Mike Heath]]," a catcher who played for him in Detroit.

Anderson is the last American League manager to date to win a game by [[forfeit (baseball)|forfeit]]. This came a month after being hired in Detroit when, as a result of [[Disco Demolition Night]] in Chicago, the second half of a doubleheader with the [[Chicago White Sox]] had to be called off after an anti-disco demonstration went awry and severely damaged the playing surface at [[Comiskey Park]]. Even after White Sox groundskeepers removed debris from the field, Anderson refused to let the Tigers take the field. He was not only concerned for the safety of his players, but believed the field was unplayable. When American League officials initially made plans to postpone the game until the next afternoon, Anderson demanded that the game be forfeited to the Tigers. He argued that the White Sox, as the home team, were obligated to provide acceptable playing conditions. The next day, American League President [[Lee MacPhail]] largely upheld Anderson's argument and forfeited the second game to the Tigers, 9–0.<ref name = "Youngstown">{{cite news|title=Disco riot rocks, rolls Chisox park|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=QkBKAAAAIBAJ&dq=disco%20demolition%20night%20act%20of%20god%20postponement&pg=1397%2C4873831|date=July 13, 1979|access-date=February 14, 2013|newspaper=Youngstown Vindicator|page=18}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Phister ousts Tim Gullikson|page=3, Part 2|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IXVQAAAAIBAJ&dq=disco%20demolition&pg=6661%2C2429259|newspaper=The Milwaukee Sentinel|date=July 14, 1979|access-date=February 14, 2013}}</ref>