George Lee "Sparky" Anderson (February 22, 1934 – November 4, 2010) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) player, coach, and manager. He managed the National League's Cincinnati Reds from 1970 to 1978 and the American League's Detroit Tigers from 1979 to 1995. Anderson led the Reds to two World Series championships in 1975 and 1976, then won another championship in 1984 with the Tigers. He was the first manager to win the World Series in both the National League and the American League. Anderson had 2,194 career wins as a manager, which is the sixth-highest total in Major League history. During his 26-year career as a manager, he had only five losing seasons. His 1,331 wins with the Detroit Tigers are the most by any manager in the team's history. Anderson was named American League Manager of the Year in 1984 and 1987. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2000.

Early life

Anderson was born in Bridgewater, South Dakota, on February 22, 1934. When he was eight years old, he moved to Los Angeles, California. He worked as a batboy for the USC Trojans. He attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School in Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers as an amateur player in 1953.

Anderson's American Legion team won the 1951 national championship. The championship game was held at Briggs Stadium (now known as Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.

Anderson married Carol Valle on October 3, 1953. They first met when they were both in the fifth grade.

Playing career

Anderson started his playing career with the Santa Barbara Dodgers of the Class-C California League, where he mainly played as a shortstop. In 1954, he was moved to the Class-A Pueblo Dodgers of the Western League and shifted to second base, where he played the rest of his career.

In 1955, Anderson advanced to the Double-A Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League. A radio announcer gave him the nickname "Sparky" that year because of his energetic play. Though his friends and family still called him George, Anderson was known as Sparky for the rest of his life.

In 1956, he moved to the Triple-A Montreal Royals of the International League. In 1957, he joined the Los Angeles Angels of the open-classification Pacific Coast League. The next season, after the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles, he returned to Montreal.

After five seasons in the minor leagues without playing in the major leagues, Anderson was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies on December 23, 1958, in exchange for three players, including outfielder Rip Repulski. The Phillies gave Anderson their starting second base position, and he played one full season in the major leagues in 1959. He batted .218 in 152 games, with no home runs and 34 runs batted in, and returned to the minor leagues for the rest of his career.

He played the next four seasons with the Triple-A Toronto Maple Leafs in the International League. After watching several practices, Leafs owner Jack Kent Cooke noted Anderson’s leadership and ability to teach younger players from different backgrounds. Cooke encouraged Anderson to pursue a career in managing and offered him the position with the Leafs.

Managerial career

In 1964, when he was 30 years old, Anderson agreed to manage the Leafs. Later, he managed minor league teams at the Class-A and Double-A levels, including a season in 1968 with the Reds' minor league team.

During this time, he led four teams to win their league titles in four straight seasons: 1965 with the Rock Hill Cardinals in the Western Carolinas League, 1966 with the St. Petersburg Cardinals in the Florida State League, 1967 with the Modesto Reds in the California League, and 1968 with the Asheville Tourists in the Double-A Southern League. In 1966, Anderson's team lost to Miami 4–3 in a game that lasted 29 innings, which is still the longest professional baseball game ever played without a break.

Anderson also briefly managed a team in Venezuela, the 1964–65 Navegantes del Magallanes. He was fired after a poor start (3 wins and 14 losses) and replaced by Chico Carrasquel.

He returned to the major leagues in 1969 as the third-base coach of the San Diego Padres during their first season in the National League.

Right after the 1969 season ended, Lefty Phillips, who had signed Anderson as a teenager, asked Anderson to join his 1970 coaching staff with the California Angels.

Soon after being hired, Anderson was offered the chance to manage the Cincinnati Reds, succeeding Dave Bristol. This reunited him with Reds' general manager Bob Howsam and player development director Sheldon "Chief" Bender, whom he had worked with earlier in the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati minor league systems. Anderson became the Reds' manager on October 8, 1969. At 35 years old, he was the youngest manager in baseball at the time. He became the third manager to lead a team to 100 wins in his first season, guiding the Reds to 102 wins and the National League pennant in 1970. The Reds lost the 1970 World Series to the Baltimore Orioles in five games. During this season, the team became known as the "Big Red Machine," a nickname they kept throughout Anderson's time with the team.

In 1971, the Reds had a difficult season due to injuries and finished fourth. In 1972, they won another pennant, beating the Pittsburgh Pirates in five games in the NLCS, but lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games in the World Series. They won the National League West division title in 1973 but lost to the New York Mets in the NLCS.

In 1974, the Reds finished second to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1975, they won 108 games, swept the NLCS, and beat the Boston Red Sox in a seven-game World Series. In 1976, they won 102 games, swept the Phillies in three games in the NLCS, and then beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. This was the first time a team swept both the NLCS and World Series since the start of division play. Over these two seasons, Anderson's Reds had an impressive 14–3 record in postseason games. They remain the only team to sweep all postseason games since the league championship series began in 1969.

During this time, Anderson was called "Captain Hook" because he often replaced starting pitchers early and relied on closers like Will McEnaney and Rawly Eastwick.

In 1978, Anderson was fired by general manager Dick Wagner after the Reds finished second to the Dodgers in two consecutive seasons. Wagner wanted to change the coaching staff, which led to Anderson's dismissal.

The Detroit Tigers hired Anderson as their manager on June 14, 1979. He believed his young team could win a pennant within five years. The Tigers became a winning team quickly, finishing above .500 in each of Anderson's first three full seasons. In 1983, they won 92 games and finished second to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East.

In 1984, the Tigers started the season with a 9–0 record, went 35–5 after 40 games (a major league record), and finished with 104 wins (a franchise record). Anderson became the first manager to win 100 games in a season with two different teams. The Tigers swept the Kansas City Royals in the ALCS and beat the San Diego Padres in five games in the World Series, giving Anderson his third World Series title. The 1984 Tigers were the first team since the 1927 New York Yankees to lead a league from the first game to the end of the World Series. Anderson won his first Manager of the Year Award with the Tigers that year.

After the Tigers won the AL East in 1984, Anderson wrote in his journal: "I have to be honest. I’ve waited for this day since they fired me in Cincinnati. I think they made a big mistake when they did that. Now no one will ever question me again."

Anderson's Tigers finished third in both 1985 and 1986. On July 29, 1986, Anderson became the first manager to reach 600 career wins in both the American and National Leagues after a 9–5 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.

In 1987, Anderson led the Tigers to the best record in the Major Leagues, but they lost to the Minnesota Twins in the ALCS. He won his second Manager of the Year Award that year. In 1988, the Tigers finished second to Boston in the AL East, but in 1989, they lost 103 games. Anderson took a month-long leave of absence due to the stress of losing, with first base coach Dick Tracewski managing the team temporarily.

In

Retirement

Anderson retired from managing on October 2, 1995, after feeling disappointed with the league’s problems caused by the 1994 strike, which also delayed the 1995 season. Many believe the Detroit Tigers encouraged him to retire because he refused to manage replacement players during spring training in 1995. After retiring, Anderson told Detroit’s WJR radio station that he had told his wife earlier that season, “If this is what the game has become, it doesn’t need me anymore.”

Anderson had a lifetime record of 2,194 wins and 1,834 losses, a .545 winning percentage. At the time of his retirement, he had the third-most wins among Major League managers, behind Connie Mack and John McGraw. Later, Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre surpassed his total, placing him sixth on the all-time list. Anderson managed the Tigers for most of his career, winning the World Series twice with Cincinnati and once with Detroit.

During his time with the Tigers and later, Anderson worked as a commentator and analyst on baseball broadcasts. From 1979 to 1986 (except 1984), he often worked with Vin Scully and Jack Buck on CBS Radio’s World Series coverage. From 1996 to 1998, he was a color commentator for the Anaheim Angels’ cable television broadcasts.

In 1987, while still with the Tigers, Anderson started the charity CATCH, which helped provide medical care for seriously ill children whose families could not afford it. He supported the charity throughout his life. In 2008, he said CATCH was “the single best thing I ever did in Detroit.”

Anderson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame as a manager in 2000. Even though he managed 17 seasons with the Tigers and 9 with the Reds, his Hall of Fame plaque shows him wearing a Cincinnati Reds uniform. He chose the Reds cap to honor Bob Howsam, a former general manager who gave him his first managing job. Before his induction, Anderson avoided entering the Hall of Fame, saying he felt unworthy. In his speech, he thanked his players, saying, “One, it ain’t very smart. He gets bad players, loses games and gets fired. There was somebody like me that was a genius. I got good players, stayed out of the way, let ‘em win a lot, and then just hung around for 26 years.” He was proud of his induction, saying, “I never wore a World Series ring… I will wear this ring until I die.”

Anderson was also inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2000. On May 28, 2005, the Reds retired his jersey number, #10, during a pre-game ceremony in Cincinnati. A day in his honor was held at Detroit’s Comerica Park in 2000.

On June 17, 2006, the Fort Worth Cats retired his jersey number, #10, for the team he played for in 1955. In 2007, Anderson was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

During the 2011 season, the Tigers honored Anderson with a patch on their sleeves. They officially retired his number, 11, at Comerica Park on June 26, 2011.

Death and legacy

Sparky Anderson was the first manager to win a World Series for both a National League and an American League team. In the 1984 World Series, either manager could have been the first to win in both leagues, but this was not possible because Dick Williams, who managed the San Diego Padres (NL) in 1984, had already won the World Series with the Oakland Athletics (AL) in 1972 and 1973. Williams’ 1972 team had defeated Anderson’s Cincinnati Reds team in the World Series.

Anderson’s achievement was matched in the 2006 World Series when St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, who had previously won the World Series with the Oakland Athletics in 1989, led his team to victory over the Detroit Tigers. La Russa considered Anderson his mentor. At the same time, Tigers manager Jim Leyland, who had won a championship while managing the Florida Marlins in 1997, could have also achieved this feat if the Tigers had defeated La Russa’s Cardinals in the 2006 World Series. During that series, Anderson threw the ceremonial first pitch of Game 2 at Comerica Park, the Tigers’ home field.

In 2006, construction was completed on the “Sparky Anderson Baseball Field” at California Lutheran University’s new athletic complex. Anderson had helped attract talented players to the university’s baseball team and was honored with the Laundry Medal for inspiring young people.

On November 3, 2010, it was announced that Anderson was placed in hospice care at his home in Thousand Oaks due to worsening health caused by dementia. Anderson passed away the next day at the age of 76 in Thousand Oaks. He was survived by his wife, Carol, who had been married to him for 57 years, their sons Lee and Albert, their daughter Shirlee Engelbrecht, and eight grandchildren. Carol died at the age of 79 on May 7, 2013, at home in Thousand Oaks.

On June 26, 2011, the Detroit Tigers retired Anderson’s uniform number 11. Tiger players also wore special patches on their uniforms throughout the season to honor him.

Media appearances

• In 1979, Anderson appeared as himself on an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati titled "Sparky." In this episode, Anderson played a talk-show host at a fictional radio station. Later, he was asked to leave, which made him say, "I must be nuts. Every time I come into this town, I get fired!"
• In 1980, Anderson appeared as himself in season 3, episode "If Your Number's Up, Get it Down" of The White Shadow. A character named Falahey introduced Anderson to another character named Coolidge. Coolidge responded with, "Sorry you lost, but I voted for you." Coolidge thought Anderson was John Anderson, the 1980 independent presidential candidate.
• In 1983, Anderson appeared as himself in the Disney Channel movie Tiger Town.