Photo: Andy Dirks with the Detroit Tigers. Courtesy Detroit Tigers
From Glory Days featuring Andy Dirks
Andy Dirks believes that what makes Detroit special is the way people embrace blue collar, hardworking people, even in sports, and that’s what made Dirks a fan favorite. In the third grade, Dirks’ family moved from Hutchinson, Kansas to the countryside. Now living in a sparsely populated the area, Andy had roughly 400 students in the high school and was able to play on the football, baseball and basketball teams. He idolized Michael Jordan and Sammy Sosa. Sosa was especially his favorite because he and a friend watched every Chicago Cubs game and that made Andy into a fan himself. During a statewide scrimmage Andy had the realization that he was not tall enough to play basketball in college, so he accepted a scholarship at a local community college for baseball. This was a new experience for him as he still was not very knowledgeable of the sport of baseball, rarely took batting practice on the field, and did not have top facilities in high school. Regardless, by the spring Dirks had won the starting job. He would later transfer to Wichita State University.
Dirks experienced some success at Wichita State but had not received a draft by a major league club through his junior year of college. It wasn’t until his senior year, that the school’s pitching coach talked with a friend who was a scout with the Detroit Tigers and sold them on Andy. The Tigers drafted him in the eighth round and Dirks felt the Tigers gave him a great opportunity to work his way up through the farm system. Not only did Andy Dirks become the Tigers Minor League Player of the Year in 2010 but he also became a fan favorite while playing two years of winter league play in the Dominican Republic for the Toros del Este team. Both years his team won the championship and during one of them Dirks made the game winning hit, making him a celebrity in La Romana, the team’s home city.
In 2011, Andy had finally cracked the majors, playing many different positions with great success when he was not injured. Andy had a simple recipe and attitude for staying in the major league level. “If you want to be the best cook, you have to find a way to be the best cook. Make yourself valuable,” he shared. Andy believed in being consistent with his strengths of fielding and base running, in order to overcome his weakness of not being a big homerun hitter.
By 2012 Dirks was on a very loaded team. Mike Ilitch was not afraid to spend money to win a World Series as soon as possible. Out of their five starting pitchers on the Tigers in 2012, three of them would go on to win the Cy Young award for best pitcher in Major League Baseball. As most fans may remember that season, the World Series was not meant to be. After sweeping the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series, the Tigers could not shake the rust off and were swept in the World Series by the San Francisco Giants. In 2013 Dirks had a .989 fielding average, which made him a finalist for the Gold Glove award, given to the best fielder at each position, but then things went downhill.
“At the top of the world, I had it all.” Dirks says, “Then came the injuries and the downside but at the end of the day, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.” In 2014, Dirks struggled with sciatic back pain and had surgery. Because of how bad his back was, Andy started his recovery by spending a month in bed but still thought he would come back. He would return to minor league play for the Toronto Blue Jays but reinjured his back. After the second surgery, Andy’s doctor told him that if he messed up his back playing one more time, he would need a spinal fusion even though he was only 29. With a new wife and child, Dirks saw the big picture and walked away.
While it was tough at first to watch the sport and wanting to be back out there, Dirks now tries to reflect on the positives that came out of his career. After overcoming the desire to be back on the field, baseball became enjoyable again and Andy has become a personal coach for kids. He believes many coaches only teach the physical aspect of baseball and he helps kids learn the mental aspects. He shows kids that they need to go above and beyond what all other kids are doing and focus on highlighting their strengths. Dirks has also become a realtor and uses his mentality from baseball in his new career. “Just the other day I had an open house and I put 45 signs out for it. I want to show clients that I can get the results other realtors cannot.”
When it comes to transitions in life, Dirks believes that everybody goes through transitions and things have to change. For people that are going through rough times in their life, the first thing he tells them is to just get out of bed and do one productive task. If you can control yourself, you can control things around. He as recommends to do one positive thing a day to take a step forward in life.
You can catch Andy Dirks’ full TV interview this Sunday on From Glory Days, March 11th on TV20 Detroit at 6:00 a.m. Set your alarms or DVRs to hear Andy’s story directly from this American League Champion himself.
Check out other athletes featured on the From Glory Days page.
Michael Holzman is a graduate of the University of Michigan-Dearborn with honors, with a BA in Communications. He also has a communications and broadcasting degree from Specs Howard School of Media Arts. A native of the Detroit area, Michael is now an associate producer for the TV show, “From Glory Days” and also works for Yellow Flag Productions, primarily reporting and gathering video for their popular show, “State Champs Sports Network.”