Faces on the Field: Tom Brookens

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. -- The physical similarities between the teacher and the pupil are accentuated on a ballfield. The energetic, almost bouncy steps across the diamond, the squinty-eyed glare from the corner of the dugout, the infectious smile and the tendency to drape his arm around one of his ballplayers to make a point.

There's more beneath the surface -- a competitive drive to win that belies their small stature. Like his mentor Sparky Anderson, Tom Brookens wants to win.

Last weekend in Cooperstown, Brookens received a visit from the Hall of Fame manager, for whom he played for 10 seasons (1979-1988). Anderson was back in Cooperstown for Hall of Fame Induction Weekend festivities, while Brookens managed his Oneonta Tigers during a New York/Penn League game at historic Doubleday Field on Saturday.

The white-haired Hall of Famer wouldn't have missed the opportunity to see one of his favorite ballplayers.

"There are people in your career as a manager that are different, and that you know are different," Anderson said. "There are some that can equal...let's face it there are a lot of good people in baseball, but nobody is better than Tommy Brookens. Nobody is better as a person."

When Anderson arrived in Detroit in the midst of the 1979 season to skipper the Tigers, he inherited a team with a wealth of young talent at both the Major and Minor League level. Brookens, a first-round pick in the 1975 amateur draft, was in the Minor Leagues when Anderson took over the Tigers, but he made his big-league debut less than three weeks later. Thus, their careers in Detroit paralleled each other, and in some ways the two have been linked ever since.

"Probably one thing more than anything sticks out in my mind," Brookens said, when asked to recall his first meeting with Anderson in 1979. "I remember him calling me into his office, and he said 'I'm only going to ask one thing of you: give me 100 percent every day, and we'll get along fine.' And that's what I tried to do as a player, and it's what I ask of my players now as a manager. Give me 100 percent every day, and we'll get along fine no matter how you do."

Anderson didn't recall that particular conversation, but he's sure of one thing: Brookens never needed extra motivation to play the game the right way.

"Guys like Tommy, those words weren't needed," Anderson said. "He could have put cotton in his ears and never heard that, because he would have done that anyway. That's how he played the game."

Not your prototypical slugging third baseman, Brookens had to fight to stay in the lineup during his decade in Detroit, proving his detractors wrong time and time again. The hard work paid off, as Brookens earned a World Series ring in 1984 with the Tigers. Looking back, Anderson admits he didn't always give Brookens a fair shake.

"If I ever did a player wrong, if you asked me to make one choice, it was Tommy Brookens. For this reason: he could play! Every spring I gave the job to somebody else, and a month and half later, he had to go back in and be the third baseman," Anderson said.

Perhaps because of the professional manner in which Brookens handled the annual challenge to his job, Anderson feels a special bond with the player he affectionately calls "Tommy."

"I don't know how to explain it, but I look back and he's very special," said Anderson.

In his second season managing Oneonta, the Tigers' Class A short-season team, Brookens finds himself relying on lessons he learned under the Hall-of-Fame manager. Last year, as a rookie manager, Brookens guided Oneonta to a first-place finish in the Stedler Division, before losing in the first round of the playoffs. This season, Brookens again has his ballclub near the top of the standings, battling for first place. Anderson has no doubts that his former player will succeed in the dugout.

"This young guy is going to do so well," Anderson said. "He's so keen, he can feel things. He can go into the room in the dark and feel where something is. He can feel the game, he always could. I never had anybody on my Detroit club that was ever smarter than him."

Before Anderson said goodbye to Brookens, he made sure to make a strong point.

"I told him 'Remember this and never forget it. If we never see each other again, friends never have to see each other again if they're real friends.' That's the way he is to me, he's special. He's a very special human being."

"I hope I live long enough to see him manage in the Major Leagues, because that would be very special for me," Anderson said.

With the similar styles, it just might remind people of Sparky, too.