Sparky Anderson

George Lee Anderson played one season in the major leagues, batted .218 with zero home runs for the 1959 Philadelphia Phillies, went back to the minors, and never got another at bat. Then he managed for 26 years, won 2,194 games, ran the Big Red Machine, won three World Series championships, and became the first manager in baseball history to win it all in both leagues. His hair turned white before he was 36. The Cincinnati press greeted his hiring at 35 with the headline "Sparky Who?" He answered the question with five pennants and a career winning percentage of .545. "People say I am some kind of baseball genius," Anderson said. "I'm no genius. All I had to do was write those eight names down on a lineup card and then get out of their way." The Veterans Committee elected him to the Hall of Fame in 2000.

Bridgewater to Los Angeles

Anderson was born on February 22, 1934, in Bridgewater, South Dakota. His father LeRoy played semipro baseball and passed the game to his son. The family relocated to Los Angeles in 1942 when LeRoy sought wartime shipyard work. George attended Dorsey High School, choosing the school for its baseball program, and declined a partial scholarship to USC. He signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers and spent seven years in the minor leagues, picking up the nickname "Sparky" from a Fort Worth radio broadcaster in 1955 because Anderson was, in the broadcaster's assessment, something of a firecracker.

Anderson reached the Phillies in 1959 and played 152 games at second base. He hit .218 with 34 RBI and 12 extra base hits and never returned to the majors as a player. He managed in the minors for five years, winning four pennants in four different cities while stocking shelves at Sears and selling used cars in the offseason to make ends meet. He coached third base for the San Diego Padres in 1969 before Cincinnati GM Bob Howsam hired him to manage the Reds.

The Big Red Machine

Anderson took over a Cincinnati roster that already had Johnny Bench and Pete Rose. He named Rose team captain in his first season, won 102 games, swept the Pirates in the NLCS, and lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles in five games. He was 35 years old and his hair was already white. He won another pennant in 1972 and lost the World Series to Oakland in seven games. Before the 1972 season the Reds acquired Joe Morgan, and the full Big Red Machine lineup was in place, with Bench catching, Rose moving between the outfield and third base, Morgan at second, and Tony Perez at first.

Anderson earned the nickname "Captain Hook" for pulling starting pitchers at the first sign of weakness and relying on his bullpen. "Don't ever embarrass any other catcher by comparing him to Johnny Bench," he told reporters who asked. The remark applied to his entire roster. Anderson ran a hierarchy. The superstars received privileges. Everyone else fell in line.

The 1975 Reds went 108-54 and beat the Red Sox in seven games in the World Series. The 1976 Reds went 102-60 and swept the postseason, beating the Phillies in three games and the Yankees in four. Anderson managed the most dominant team of the 1970s. The Reds fired him after the 1978 season, and Morgan said, "Sparky's firing was wrong and to this day, I don't understand it."

Detroit

Anderson joined the Detroit Tigers in 1979 and predicted at his introductory press conference that Detroit would win a World Series within five years. The 1984 Tigers opened the season 35-5 through 40 games, the best start in baseball history. They led the American League East wire to wire, finished 104-58, swept the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS, and beat the San Diego Padres in five games in the World Series. Anderson became the first manager to win 100 games with two different franchises and the first to win the World Series in both leagues. He won AL Manager of the Year in 1984 and again in 1987, when a Tigers team he said had "no outstanding talent save for Alan Trammell" won the division.

Anderson managed through 1995, a tenure that included 103 losses in 1989 and a leave of absence he took for health and family reasons. When the 1994 strike produced replacement players for the 1995 spring, Anderson refused to manage them. "If this is what the game has become, it don't need me no more," he said.

2,194

Anderson finished with 2,194 wins and 1,834 losses across 4,030 games, seven division titles, five pennants, and three championships. He won four Manager of the Year awards across both leagues and managed four 100 win seasons. He won 863 games in nine years with the Reds and 1,331 in 17 years with Detroit. He chose a Reds cap for his Hall of Fame plaque, honoring Howsam for hiring him. "He hired a 35 year old nobody knew," Anderson said, "and he had the courage and fortitude to do that."

The Reds retired his number 10 in 2005. The Tigers retired his number 11 posthumously in 2011. Anderson founded CATCH (Caring Athletes Teamed for Children's and Henry Ford Hospitals) in 1987, providing medical care for seriously ill children whose families lacked insurance. He called it "the single best thing I ever did in Detroit."

Anderson developed dementia in later years. His family announced hospice care on November 3, 2010, one day after the conclusion of the World Series. He died the following morning, November 4, in Thousand Oaks, California, at 76. At his request, no funeral or memorial service was held. "I can't believe they pay us to play baseball," Anderson once said, "something we did for free as kids."