Stoney's Blog: Too Little Too Late

The Tigers have announced that the 2011 season is basically the year of Sparky. The Tigers will wear a commemorative patch beginning in spring training and will unveil a Sparky flag at the home opener on April 8. They will also retire Sparky Anderson's number 11 at a ceremony during the season. It is a great honor, but one that is actually way overdue.

The relationship between Sparky and Tiger management started to decay from the onset when the Ilitch organization fired many longtime Tiger employees. It really blew up when Anderson refused to manage replacement players during the 1995 spring training. That resentment festered and when Sparky entered the baseball hall of fame as a Cincinnati Red even though he managed longer here in Detroit.

For years I asked about retiring #11. The answer was always,"only hall of famers" get retired. Well, Sparky entered the Hall of Fame in 2000 and still there was no retirement of his jersey. Now more than ten years after his induction to Cooperstown, Anderson will get his jersey justly retired. There is one problem. Sparky Anderson passed away in November. It is a disgrace that Sparky will not be around to see the ceremony. I can't believe it took his death for this to finally take place. I am glad its going to happen, but as Dave Dombrowski said when asked why this wasn't done when Sparky was alive,"shame on me." I appreciate the high road from Dombrowski, but believe me that was not his call. I honestly believe that Mike Ilitch has hit some home runs as owner of the Detroit Tigers, but not doing this when Sparky was still with us is a major whiff.