Sparky Anderson, the first manager to win World Series championships with teams from both the National and American leagues, died on Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76.
His death was announced by Dan Ewald, a family spokesman, The Associated Press reported. Anderson had been placed in hospice care in Thousand Oaks because of complications of dementia, his family said in a statement on Wednesday.
Anderson managed the Cincinnati Reds to four pennants and two World Series titles in the 1970s, a memorable seven-game victory over the Boston Red Sox in 1975 and a sweep of the Yankees in 1976. Called the Big Red Machine, they had one of the most talented lineups in baseball history.
After nine years in Cincinnati, he managed Detroit for 16 ½ seasons, capturing his third World Series championship in 1984, when the Tigers defeated the San Diego Padres in five games.
Drawing on his keen sense of baseball strategy, his ability to deal with his players as individuals and his obsession with winning, Anderson handled those clubs deftly. He was sometimes called Captain Hook for removing his starting pitchers at the first signs of trouble, but his maneuvering previewed the accepted wisdom in today’s game.
Anderson was only 35 when he was named manager of the Reds after the 1969 season, having spent nearly his entire baseball career in the minor leagues.
“Everybody knows the story about how the headline in the paper the day I was hired read, ‘Sparky Who?’” Anderson once told The Cincinnati Enquirer. But he soon began to look the part of a grizzled veteran manager, his hair turning prematurely white soon afterward and his craggy features suggesting a budding Casey Stengel.
When he retired after the 1995 season, Anderson had won the most games of any manager in both Reds and Tigers history, and his 2,194 victories over all placed him third on the career list, behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. He is now No. 6.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 2000.
George Lee Anderson was born in Bridgewater, S.D., where his father, LeRoy, painted farmhouses and silos. When he was 8 his family moved to Los Angeles, and he became a batboy for the University of Southern California teams coached by Rod Dedeaux, one of the best-known figures in college baseball.
Anderson played the infield for his high school team, then signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor league system in 1953. While with the Dodgers’ Fort Worth farm team, he became known as Sparky for his fiery style.
After being traded to the Phillies’ organization, he made it to the major leagues in 1959, a 5-foot-9-inch, 170-pound second baseman who hit .218 with no home runs for a last place Philadelphia team. Then it was back to the minors, where Anderson played the infield once more and managed.
Anderson was a coach for the expansion San Diego Padres in 1969. Then came the stunning decision by Bob Howsam, the Reds’ general manager, to give him the Cincinnati managing job. Anderson was virtually unknown to Reds fans, but Howsam, while previously serving as the St. Louis Cardinals’ general manager, had been impressed by his managing skills with their Rock Hill, S.C., farm team.
Anderson managed the Reds to pennants in 1970 and 1972, though they were beaten both times in the World Series.
”My rookie year was his first year,” Don Gullett, a Reds pitching ace of the 1970s, told The Cincinnati Post in 2000. “Here was a guy coming right out of the minor leagues, and when that happens there’s always a question whether he can handle major leaguers.
“But I knew from spring training on that he could do it, and he proved it when he won 102 games his first year. He knew his personnel, knew how to motivate, how to discipline, how to push all the right buttons.”
By the mid-1970s, when they won two consecutive World Series titles, the Reds had amassed a powerful lineup featuring Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Ken Griffey Sr., Tony Perez, George Foster, Dave Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo.
But the Reds finished second in the National League West to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and ’78. Dick Wagner, concluding his first year as general manager after taking over from Howsam, fired Anderson in November 1978.
Anderson became the Tigers’ manager in June 1979 and built on a foundation that included Alan Trammell at shortstop, Lou Whitaker at second base, Kirk Gibson in the outfield and Jack Morris on the pitching staff. His 1984 Tigers got off to a 35-5 start on their way to a World Series championship.
“I wanted to prove the Reds wrong for firing me,” Anderson said in his memoir, “They Call Me Sparky,” written with Ewald (Sleeping Bear Press, 1998). “When the Tigers won in ’84, I finally felt vindicated. It wasn’t until years after that, though, before I released all the bitterness I should never have allowed to creep into my mind in the first place.”
During spring training 1995, when the club owners brought in replacement players to take the spots of striking major leaguers, Anderson was the only manager who refused to take them on, citing the integrity of the game. He went on unpaid leave, then returned when the regular players came back before the delayed opening of the season. After the Tigers finished fourth in the A.L. East in 1995, Anderson resigned amid speculation he would be fired.
Anderson had a record of 2,194-1,834 for his 26 seasons as a manager. Tony La Russa, who won the World Series with the Oakland Athletics in 1989 and the Cardinals in 2006, is the only other manager to have captured World Series championships with teams from both leagues.
Anderson is survived by his wife, Carol; his sons Lee and Albert; and his daughter, Shirlee. When Anderson was voted into the Hall of Fame, he chose a Reds cap for his plaque to go with his Hall ring. That was a tribute to Howsam, the Cincinnati general manager who gave a career minor leaguer a chance at the big leagues.
“I never wore a World Series ring,” Anderson told The A.P. “I will wear this ring until I die.”
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