Milt Wilcox brought his Ultimate Air Dogs Competition to Pet-A-Palooza at Heritage Park in Taylor last June.
Photo by Dave Gorgon
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LAKELAND, Fla.
Six years ago, Milt Wilcox went to a dog kennel fixated on finding a new pet — a chocolate Labrador.
"I've had dogs pretty much all my life,'' the former Tigers pitcher said while participating in Tigers Fantasy Camp last week. "I always wanted a Lab. It was just time to get one. The one I picked out was a chocolate Lab. You know how beautiful they are, with that color and all.
I was walking out of the kennel when this other Lab, a black one, kept tugging at my pant leg. He just absolutely wouldn't let me go. I set the chocolate Lab down, turned to my son, Brian, who was with me at the time, and said, 'This dog likes me. I'm taking him home. He's the Lab I've been looking for.' And that's how it all began.''
The moment changed Milt Wilcox's life.
Wilcox named the dog "Sparky,'' after former Tigers manager Sparky Anderson. After dabbling in broadcasting and working as a manufacturer's representative, Wilcox had turned 50 and was looking to slow down. What "Sparky'' provided him with, though, was another career.
Wilcox was at his vacation home on Torch Lake near Traverse City when he noticed that Sparky couldn't get enough of jumping off the end of the dock into the water.
While he was watching ESPN, he noticed a show in which dogs competed in, among other things, jumping off docks.
"I thought to myself, 'This dog can do that.' I noticed there was a show in Indianapolis,'' Wilcox said. "I took him there. He wouldn't jump at first because it was into a pool. But once he got going, he couldn't stop. He loves it.''
Sparky soon put Wilcox, who allowed only one run in 14 postseason innings for the 1984 world champion Tigers, back on ESPN — this time as a proud dog owner.
"He finished third in one of the ESPN competitions and I was one of the first so-called celebrities involved,'' Wilcox said. "It was exciting.''
It also provided the impetus for Wilcox to launch a business, Ultimate Air Dogs. He started putting on jumping events of his own.
Many of the shows are events inside an event. He will be at all three major races this season at the Michigan International Speedway, for example. Purina is a major sponsor. Wilcox will travel the country putting on 40 to 50 shows this year alone.
"I am gone for most of the year on the road,'' Wilcox said. "This is not something I could have ever seen myself doing before Sparky.''
If baseball taught the 56-year-old Wilcox anything, it's that uncertainty is the only certainty.
As a major league pitcher from 1970-86, Wilcox's career took more twists and turns than Barry Sanders in the open field.
At 20, he was a hard-throwing sensation called to the major leagues in September and placed on the playoff roster by Sparky Anderson's Cincinnati Reds. Wilcox promptly won the pennant-clinching game over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
But he didn't mesh with Anderson, who was a rookie manager with the Reds at the time.
"I think it was because I shook off (Hall of Fame catcher) Johnny Bench too much,'' Wilcox said.
By 1972, Wilcox was with Cleveland, started out the season 6-1 with an ERA under 1.00 and found himself on the cover of The Sporting News. Then he tore a rotator cuff, tried to pitch through it and never had a big-time fastball again.
But Wilcox was a survivor.
He had seven straight winning seasons for the Tigers during the late 1970s and early 1980s, surviving Anderson's attempt to replace him in the starting rotation with Steve Baker.
Wilcox complained about it to the media. Anderson called him into his office and lit into him. But Anderson was forced to start him in a game vs. the Chicago White Sox. And Wilcox pitched a 1-0 shutout.
"Sparky never said another word to me about it,'' Wilcox said. "I was in the rotation to stay. Guess I passed his test.''
Despite his heroics during the '84 postseason, which included throwing eight shutout innings in the American League Championship Series clincher vs. Kansas City, Wilcox is remembered mostly for what he almost did one fateful night at old Comiskey Park in Chicago the year before.
He got to within one out of pitching a perfect game when pinch hitter Jerry Hairston broke it up with a line single.
"I don't feel like it was tough luck or anything like that,'' Wilcox said. "I made a mistake. For one thing, I shook off (Tigers catcher) Lance Parrish. He wanted me to throw my split-finger pitch. I threw a fastball. For another, I got the ball over the heart of the plate. Hairston was a good hitter. He didn't miss it.''
At Tigers Fantasy Camp, Wilcox is seldom asked about 1984, when he went 17-8 before starring during the postseason.
"It's always about nearly throwing the perfect game,'' he said. "Always. It was just one of those things people just seem to remember. It was memorable night.''
Wilcox does plan to actually retire in the not-too-distant future. His son, Brian, a former starting offensive tackle at Eastern Michigan, works with his father in the company.
"I'll hand over the business to Brian one day and step aside,'' Wilcox said.
And wonder what will be tugging at his pant leg next.
Pat Caputo is a senior sports reporter and a columnist for The Oakland Press. E-mail him at pat.caputo@oakpress.com and read his sports blog exclusively at theoaklandpress.com
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