County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2023 bio: Rick Anderson

The Snohomish County Sports Hall of Fame’s class of 2023 will be inducted at the organization’s annual banquet on Sept. 27 at the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett. Here’s the next in a series of bios of the 2023 class highlighted by The Herald:

Rick Anderson

Inducted as: Coach

High school: Mariner class of 1975

Sport: Baseball

While Anderson reached the major leagues as a pitcher, where he truly made his name was in his 16 seasons as a major-league pitching coach.

Anderson, a right-hander who played at both Everett Community College and the University of Washington, appeared in 28 major-league games over three seasons with the New York Mets and Kansas City Royals from 1986-88, winning the World Series with the Mets in 1986.

After retiring following the 1988 season, Anderson jumped into coaching as he was hired by the Minnesota Twins as a minor-league pitching coach. He spent 13 seasons in the minors with the Twins, the last seven at the Triple-A level, before being promoted to the majors in 2002 as Minnesota’s pitching coach under manager Ron Gardenhire. Anderson spent 13 seasons as the Twins’ pitching coach, advocating a pitch-to-contact approach that limited walks, and between 2002-10, Minnesota had the third-lowest ERA in the American League as the Twins reached the postseason six times.

After Anderson was let go by the Twins in conjunction with Gardenhire’s termination following the 2014 season, he returned to the majors in 2018 as the Detroit Tigers’ bullpen coach, again under Gardenhire as manager. Anderson was promoted to pitching coach later that season and remained Detroit’s pitching coach through the 2020 season when Gardenhire retired.