Sports
Kirk Gibson
born 1957 · baseball outfielder, manager, broadcaster
Oakland County native whose two home runs in Game 5 clinched the 1984 World Series for his hometown Tigers.
- Born
Pontiac, Michigan
age 69- Birth name
- Kirk Harold Gibson
- Also known as
- Gibby
- Detroit years
- 1957–present
- Field
- Sports
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Gibson was born in Pontiac and grew up in nearby Waterford, graduating from Waterford Kettering High School in 1975. At Michigan State he was an All-American wide receiver, good enough to be elected to the College Football Hall of Fame, but the Tigers made him a first-round baseball pick in 1978. Fiery and powerful, he became the emotional leader of the 1984 champions. In Game 5 of the World Series at Tiger Stadium he homered twice, the second a three-run shot off Goose Gossage in the eighth inning, and the image of him leaping with both arms raised became one of the defining pictures in Detroit sports. He left for Los Angeles in 1988, where he hit his famous limping World Series home run, and returned to the Tigers from 1993 to 1995. Later a Tigers broadcaster, coach and Arizona manager, he has lived with Parkinson's disease since 2015 and campaigns for research through his foundation.
Highlights
- Two home runs in the clinching Game 5 of the 1984 World Series
- 1984 American League Championship Series MVP
- Played for the Tigers 1979–1987 and 1993–1995
- College Football Hall of Fame (Michigan State wide receiver)
- 1988 National League MVP with the Dodgers
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Played here · 1979–1987, 1993–1995
Tiger Stadium (site)
Demolished · 1912–1999
Scene of his two home runs in the 1984 World Series clincher; demolished in 2008–2009.
Studied here · 1971–1975
Waterford Kettering High School
His high school in Waterford Township, Oakland County; he graduated in 1975.