F. Scott Fitzgerald is infamously misquoted whenever people claim he once said “there are no second acts in American life.” They just didn’t understand what Fitzgerald meant. We’ll now see if Brian Anderson the baseball coach is superior to the Brian Anderson the Major League Baseball player.
Anderson, the 15th overall pick in the 2003 MLB Draft, and a five tool player if there ever was one, notoriously flopped with the Chicago White Sox.
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Hitting just .227 during his Chi Sox career, he only hit 22 home runs and drove in just 80 runs over the span of four seasons. But now he has a new chance, as the new Northwestern Head Baseball Coach.
The school announced yesterday that Jim Foster had been relieved of his duties, effective immediately.
Foster was sacked due to allegations of enabling and maintaining a toxic culture, in which he himself was alleged to have engaged in abusive and bullying behavior. Foster also allegedly “made an inappropriate comment regarding a female staff member, and spoke negatively about his staff to other staff members.”
Athletic Director Dr. Derrick Gragg, who has been a total deer in the headlights while Northwestern Athletics endures a PR dumpster fire right now, made the announcement Thursday.
“Nothing will ever be more important to Northwestern than providing its students a place that allows them to develop in the classroom, in the community, and in competition at the absolute highest level, and building a culture which allows our staff to thrive,” reads a statement attributed to Gragg.
“This has been an ongoing situation and many factors were considered before reaching this resolution. As the Director of Athletics, I take ownership of our head coaching hires and we will share our next steps as they unfold.”
Gragg has been noticeably silent and an absentee landlord amid these crises, with that statement being the first time he’s spoken in public since the disturbing and dark allegations against another Fitzgerald, former head football coach Pat Fitzgerald came to light. Gragg’s inaction while his athletics department is burning means that he’ll probably be the next to lose his job.
Or in Monty Python terms: “Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.”
Brian Anderson, previously an Assistant Coach on the Northwestern staff, will take leadership of the program in the interim. But who knows, maybe he takes this ship, which is currently taking on a ton of water, and steers it to safety. Maybe he’s the guy to get it done, as there is literally, nowhere to go but up in Evanston right now.
The team has been really bad lately, as they went 10-40 last season, 4-20 in the Big Ten.
Anderson did win a World Series title with the White Sox in 2005, and he’ll always be remembered for that game saving play he made in the 2008 game 163/postseason play-in. His diving catch in center field preserved the victory for the Sox. An All-American at the University of Arizona, Brian Anderson returned to Tucson in 2021 to serve as first base coach, and work with the outfield position group.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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