a tiger memorial patch for sparky

sparky anderson wasn't out of a managerial job for long following his firing by the cincinnati reds after the 1978 season.  in june of 1979, he was hired to lead the detroit tigers, and he remained at the helm for 17 seasons.  in 1984, sparky's tigers went 35-5 to open the season and never looked back, winning a world series title for the first time since 1968.

like the reds, the tigers wore a memorial patch for sparky on their right sleeves during the 2011 season following his death in november of 2010.  you can see it on al alburquerque's 2011 topps update card

miguel cabrera's 2012 topps card

doug fister's 2012 topps opening day card

and alex avila's 2012 topps gypsy queen card

the card that gives the best look at it, however, is this 2012 topps heritage andy dirks card that i received from pat at hot corner cards

although the 1984 team was the only one of sparky's tiger squads to reach the world series, he also led the team to a playoff berth in 1987, winning manager of the year awards in both of those seasons.  his 2194 wins as a manager (863 with the reds and 1331 with the tigers) were the third most in history when he retired behind connie mack and john mcgraw (he has since been passed by tony larussa, joe torre, and bobby cox), and he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame in 2000.