Brush with Greatness: Sparky Anderson

[hallzee]

My son (aged 24 years, and a life-long hardcore baseball fan) has worked for a grocery chain for many years here in Northern California, and was a checker at the time that this happened a few months ago. He was Head Clerk on the day in question, and saw a grey haired man a couple of aisles over from his, going through the line.

He thought thought, "Holy Crap - that's Sparky Anderson!", and quickly called another checker up to take over his line (a perk of being head clerk that day!).

He waited for Sparky to come through the line (no one else recognized him), and then just said, "Mr. Anderson, it's a real pleasure to meet you. May I shake your hand?" Sparky seemed real surprised that this kid would even know who he was. He only had one bag of groceries, but my son offered to help him out.

They ended up sitting out front of the store, in the shade talking baseball for half an hour! It turns out that Sparky has one of his kids living near the store, and was up visiting family.

My son was very happy to meet him, and will always remember that day.

[Brad Harris]

Half an hour? What a class act!

And your son....also a class act. I wish more fans would approach their sports idols that way. Maybe they'd be more willing to reciprocate then.

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

[hallzee]

Actually, I left the coolest part out... My son kept calling him Mr. Anderson, and he said "call me George!" I didn't even know his real name was George (but I will get that answer correct on Jeopardy next time!).

[Captain Cold Nose]

Sparky Anderson has always been a class act. Doesn't surprise me one bit. I'm really glad the Tigers finally reached out to him a few years back after letting things go downhill so quickly at the end of his tenure. It was so sad to watch him endure the team tanking after they were at least in contention for so long.