Speaking of Sparky Anderson, this article ran in the Grand Rapids newspaper a couple years ago when Rob Deer was making an appearance at a West Michigan Whitecaps game, and it cracked me up.
ROB DEER ON SPARKY ANDERSON
Rob Deer played for several managers during his 11-year major league career. But he said former Tigers manager Sparky Anderson was his favorite.
"We had lost four in a row," Deer recalled. "Sparky always came to the ballpark like 12 hours before the game. We're sitting in the locker room and Sparky's still not there. He walks in late to the clubhouse and he's smoking his pipe. He goes into his office and slams his door."
Deer gets animated while telling the story.
"He comes back out and he's just wearing pink bikini underwear and smoking his pipe," Deer continued. "That's it. He walks through the clubhouse past all of us. Goes to the bathroom and walks back past us again and goes into his office and slams the door. Then the whole clubhouse goes crazy.
"We won like five games after that. He was my favorite manager."
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