Ueberroth had been elected as Kuhn's successor prior to the 1984 season but did not assume the job until the postseason, as he was serving as the chairman of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which ran from July 28 through August 12.
The World Series was scheduled to start and, if it went beyond five games, end in the National League host park, being an even numbered year.
The two had previously faced off in the 1972 World Series, with Anderson managing the Cincinnati Reds and Williams helming the victorious Oakland Athletics.
In addition to Morris, the pitching staff was anchored by starters Dan Petry and Milt Wilcox, with eventual Cy Young Award and Most Valuable Player winner, Willie Hernández (9–3, 1.92 ERA, 32 saves), closing.
Clutch", right-fielder Kirk Gibson, who had a break-out year with 27 home runs, 29 stolen bases, 91 RBIs, and a .282 batting average.
With the Padres' NL pennant in 1984, Williams became the second manager to take three teams to the World Series (he had previously taken the 1967 Red Sox and the 1972 and 1973 Athletics to the Fall Classic).
Eric Show led the staff with 15 wins with Ed Whitson and lefty Mark Thurmond having identical 14–8 records.
But the sterling bullpen, headed by Gossage and Craig "Lefty" Lefferts, held the staff together enough to take this team to the "Big Show" although they would falter and get ripped by the Tiger bats losing the Series in five games.
To get to the Series, the Padres had to overcome a two-games-to-none deficit against the Chicago Cubs in the NLCS, rallying to win the final three games.
[11] AL Detroit Tigers (4) vs. NL San Diego Padres (1) The Tigers struck first in Game 1 when Lou Whitaker doubled to lead off the top of the first and scored on Alan Trammell's single but their starter Jack Morris (a 19-game winner during the season) struggled in the bottom half, as he surrendered two-out singles to Steve Garvey and Graig Nettles, followed by a two-run double to Terry Kennedy.
Padre starter Mark Thurmond took a 2–1 lead into the fifth, but then surrendered a crucial two-out, two-run homer to Larry Herndon.
Kurt Bevacqua started what looked to be a comeback with a leadoff double in the seventh, but was thrown out at third while attempting to stretch the hit into a triple.
In Game 2, Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell and Kirk Gibson hit consecutive singles to lead off the top of the first and put the Tigers up 1–0.
After Gibson stole second, Trammell scored on Lance Parrish's sacrifice fly, then Darrell Evans's RBI single made it 3–0 Tigers.
In the bottom of the inning, the Padres cut the lead to 3–1 on Graig Nettles's sacrifice fly, then in the fourth, Bobby Brown's RBI groundout made it 3–2 Tigers.
The Padres got on the board in the third when back-to-back leadoff singles off Milt Wilcox was followed by an RBI groundout by Steve Garvey, but in the bottom of the inning, Booker walked three to load the bases with two outs.
Alan Trammell drilled a pair of two-run homers in the first and third innings to account for all of Detroit's offense as the Tigers beat Eric Show to take a three games-to-one lead in the Series.
The Padres rallied to tie the score in the fourth when with runners on second and third Brown's sacrifice fly and Alan Wiggins's RBI single scored a run each to knock Petry out of the game, but the Tigers loaded the bases in the fifth off Andy Hawkins when Rusty Kuntz's sacrifice fly put them up 4–3.
Kirk Gibson had a stellar World Series as well, batting .333 with 6 hits and 7 RBIs, including two homeruns and scored 4 runs.
Anderson, who had led the Reds to Series victories in 1975 and 1976, became the first manager to win a World Championship in both the American and National Leagues.