The Tigers Are Slumping, but Gibson Isn’t : Outfielder Not About to Let Long-Sought Superstar Status Slip Away By

When Kirk Gibson of the Detroit Tigers hit a towering home run into the upper deck of Tiger Stadium off of Goose Gossage in the final game of the 1984 World Series last October, his critics were finally silenced.

The home run, Gibson’s second of the series, helped clinch the world championship for the Tigers. And, it established him as a superstar.

Finally, the talk about unfulfilled promise ended. Kirk Gibson, whom everyone had always predicted would be the next Mickey Mantle, was realizing those high expectations.

That one big swing and his memorable, emotional trip around the bases made him a hero in hero-starved Detroit.

And, though the Tigers have stumbled from grace this season, Gibson hasn’t. The right-fielder had five hits in this weekend’s series against the Angels, improving his average to .291. He also has 75 RBIs and 23 home runs, which, coincidentally, is the same number on the back of his jersey.

Gibson’s statistics have been some of the few bright spots in a season that now finds the defending champion Tigers 10 1/2 games out of first in the American League East, following Detroit’s 7-1 loss to the Angels in Anaheim Stadium Sunday.

Gibson did make one mistake Sunday. He was doubled off of second base on a bunted pop-up off the bat of Nelson Simmons, something that helped take Detroit out of its only scoring inning of the game. Such baserunning mistakes are rare for Gibson, who has gone from being booed during the early years of his career to team leader.

He may never completely overcome the Mantle comparisons, but he has nevertheless established his own identity.

And as such, it would be a mistake to underestimate Gibson’s popularity in Michigan.

It was widely reported that Detroit fans celebrated their World Series victory by burning police cars and rioting near Tiger Stadium.

It is less known that some 80 miles northwest of Detroit, in East Lansing, Mich., students at Gibson’s alma mater, Michigan State, broke into an otherwise empty Spartan Stadium and tore down a goal post in Gibson’s honor the same night.

And it was in that stadium that Gibson first earned his reputation as an All-American football player, setting many school receiving records and helping the Spartans tie for the Big Ten title in 1978.

Earlier that year, however, Gibson played his first season of baseball since he was a little leaguer and subsequently signed a contract with the Tigers, who were impressed by his speed (20 stolen bases in 21 attempts) and power (16 home runs in a 35-game season).

According to Danny Litwhiler, Gibson’s college coach who also coached Steve Garvey, Gibson’s entry into baseball was an accidental one.

Litwhiler has a sharp eye for hitters, however. He coached Kansas City Manager Dick Howser at Florida State in the 50s, played alongside Stan Musial for the world champion 1944 St. Louis Cardinals, and Litwhiler is even said to be one of only three players ever to hit a ball over the left field roof at the old Polo Grounds in New York.

“I sat across from Gibson at a football banquet once,” Litwhiler, 68, a traveling coach for the Cincinnati Reds, said in a telephone interview.

“And I said, ‘Hey, Gibby, how about playing baseball?’ He said he’d been thinking about it, too, so we asked Darryl Rogers (then the school’s football coach) and he said it was fine with him because then Gibson wouldn’t get hurt playing spring football.”

It didn’t take long for Gibson to earn a reputation for his strength and toughness, one that still follows him today. Earlier this season, for example, Oakland pitcher Tim Birtsas hit Gibson in the face with an inside fastball. Gibson needed 17 stitches to close his split chin, but the pitch did not knock him down.

Litwhiler recalled similar feats when Gibson was in college: “In our spring training, we had the players bat against a swinging tire (on a rope) to develop their strength. And Gibson actually tore the cords on an old tire. I’d never had a player do that before. He really whacked it. This boy was strong.

“Gibson then hit a ball at Michigan that was just unbelievable. There’s a 325-foot fence there, then two railroad tracks, then a tennis building. He hit it over the tennis building. The scouts were drooling.

“Another time we played at Minnesota, and Gibson had scored a touchdown the previous fall to beat them in football. So the crowd was getting on him, and I mean real bad. The bases were loaded, so he hit it over the center field wall and when he scored he leaped on home plate and then doffed his cap to the crowd--which was cheering the shot.”

Gibson’s first five seasons weren’t all cheers, but ever since that second home run in the World Series, he can do little wrong in Detroit, where he figures to close out his career assuming the Tigers give him the contract he wants when his current one runs out at the end of the season.

Gibson, 27, will be getting married in December in a double-ceremony alongside his best friend, Texas Ranger pitcher Dave Rozema, and although he doesn’t talk to the media these days, his current statistics nonetheless speak volumes.

The bottom line for Gibson was that he had to learn his position on the job--and often at the expense of the Tigers, but in his case it was a price that his employer was more than willing to pay.