Bosio, Anderson and Gardenhire

It was impossible to imagine Ron Gardenhire managing the Twins without Rick Anderson as his pitching coach. The duo, old buddies during their playing days with the mid-80s Mets, supposedly made a pact back then -- if and when Gardy got a big league managing job, Andy would be his pitching coach.

And so it was, for 13 seasons, many good and some not.

Which made it noteworthy that, when Gardenhire landed the dugout job in Detroit, it was with a different pitching coach. The Tigers has already hired Chris Bosio, discharged by the Chicago Cubs when Jim Hickey became available. Gardenhire did get to bring Anderson on as his bullpen coach, but Bosio was imposed on him by the higher ups.

And on Wednesday, the higher ups removed Bosio, reportedly without any input from Gardenhire, over something Bosio said to an unspecified team employee. From the Detroit Free Press:

The nature of Bosio’s comments — and who they were directed toward — were not disclosed by (general manager Al) Avila. It is not clear whether those comments were racial, sexual or otherwise bigoted in nature.

Gardy, in the above linked piece, speaks highly of Bosio as a pitching coach but added: “This organization has to act and they did."

And so Gardenhire has Anderson as his pitching coach once again.