Tigers Legend to Receive Fred Valentine Lifetime Achievement Award

Kirk Gibson, one of the greatest Detroit Tigers in history, will be presented with the Fred Valentine Lifetime Achievement Award on Wednesday.

The ceremony will take place during pre-game activities at Comerica Park as the Tigers host the Athletics. It is the same day as alumni day for the Tigers.

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The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association is presenting the award for the third straight year. The award is presented to a player who embodies integrity, service in the community and passion towards serving others.

It is honored for Fred Valentine, a founding member of the MLBPAA and a former player from 1959-68.

Gibson is being honored for his work in the community, including the creation of the Kirk Gibson Foundation for Parkinson’s. Gibson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2015.

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Now 68 years old, Gibson is a Pontiac, Mich., native who got to live out the dream of playing for his hometown team.

The Waterford Kettering High School graduate went on to become an all-America wide receiver for the Michigan State football team. But he also played baseball for the Spartans. Unlike his college football career, which led to him being elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2017, he only played one year of college baseball.

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But, with the Spartans, he batted .390 with 16 home runs and 52 RBI in 48 games. The Tigers selected him in the first round of the 1978 MLB draft and the St. Louis Cardinals drafted him in the seventh round of the 1979 NFL draft. He signed with the Tigers.

He played the first nine seasons of his MLB career with Detroit and emerged as a three-time MVP candidate. He slashed .273/.354/.480 with 195 home runs and 668 RBI. That includes his additional three seasons with the Tigers from 1993-95.

He was a key part of the legendary 1984 World Series champions, who went 104-58, swept the Kansas City Royals in the American League Championship Series and beat the San Diego Padres, 4-1, in the World Series.

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Gibson left the Tigers after the 1987 season and joined the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he won his only MVP, won a second World Series ring and hit one of the game’s most iconic home runs in Game 1 of the World Series.

In his 17-year career he slashed .268/.352/.463 with 255 home runs and 870 RBI.

After his career ended, he spent time in the Tigers’ television broadcast booth as an analyst, joined the Tigers staff as a bench coach with his former teammate, then-manager Alan Trammell, and became the manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2010.

He spent five seasons leading the Diamondbacks, as he went 353-375 and led them to the 2011 NL West Division title.

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